Research Materials and Process
From Furnace to Flame: A Journey In Glass
I have an ever growing collection of research books on top of the articles that I have read. I still prefer something about a physical book. Most of these books were funded by the bead box subscriptions.
I often sketch out the items I am trying to reproduce and note the source material with drawings.
The Munsell Bead Color Book guided some of my early work. I feel that this process helped me develop an idea of how to interpret the color of beads. I have documented the source glass with the product bead for my recycled glass and my 104 glass.
I have tried several ways to document the size of the bead reproductions and have settled on a forensic ruler.
When I make a bead, I usually make them 3 to 9 at a time. If it is a first run of that type of bead, I take one of the top 3 and string it on a strand with other beads from the same source material. These strands represent my portfolio of beads and each bead is labeled with information on the source material including dates, locations, and culture. I also tag them with the date the strand was created.
I also keep a portion of my refuse to compare with extent examples of glass waste and broken beads.
