Egyptian Paste Bead Making Class

This is a two day class.

Adapted from recipes used by the ancient Egyptians, these richly coloured self-glazing beads are lovely to use in modern jewellery.

This class includes recipes for you to take away and use.
Egyptian Paste (or Faience) has been around for many hundreds of years. You will learn a little about the history of this material and about the ingredients used in the recipe to make the Egyptian Paste.

Most Egyptian Paste is a lovely turquoise blue but it can also be produced in a purple colour. You can use either colour or combine both colours to good effect.

The Egyptian Paste beads can be strung together with many different types of other beads to produce finished necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

All the materials and equipment you need will be supplied during the weekend. You will be given details of kiln firing times and temperatures.

There will be samples of beads for you to look at so you can see what you’re working towards. Egyptian Paste can be tricky to work with at first and it may take a little practice to get used to the workability of the paste. You will be free to work at your own pace with guidance from your tutor.

We suggest you start with a simple design and work up to more complex patterns once you are familiar with the techniques used. You will be making lots of beads on the first day which will be put aside to dry. It is vital that the paste be allowed to dry out without being touched because the salts contained in the recipe need to come to the surface. Your tutor has special bead racks to enable this to happen.

At the end of the day your beads will be fired in the kiln so that the following day they are ready to use.

Once the beads have been fired, all the sharp edges need to be removed so you will spend some time sanding and finishing. Then all the finished beads can be made into items of jewellery using various methods. Necklaces and bracelets can be strung and clasps added. Earring beads can be added onto silver wire and hand made earring hooks. Brooches can be glued with the appropriate fittings.

You can bring findings for jewellery making with you or use those supplied by the tutor. So you will go home with lots of finished pieces of hand made jewellery!

Your tutor for this class will be Frances Osborne

Download a pdf file with the information on this page here

Things to consider before booking this course...

This course is suitable for total beginners or those who have some experience in bead making.

 

 

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