Lampwork & Beadmaking

Excavations at Fishergate have revealed a settlement where a number of crafts were practised.

Viking age bead furnace recreation (Ribe) Neil Peterson.

Dark Ages Re-Creation Company Viking furnace based on fragments at Ribe. Oval style version 5. Neil Peterson.

An annotated bibliography on glass and glass beads by Master Magnus Malleus, OL.

The militia of Amiens during the reign of Jean sans Peur (1404-1419 )

by Heather Smith

A company of 14th century archers, with their wives and children.

By Sean Ellwood,AK A: Lord Sven Carlsson, Barony of Fenix, Middle

Dark Ages Recreation Company Experimental Gas Jet Furnace based on fragments at the Ribe Viking Centre.

The Atlantian glassworkers' guild, focusing mostly on lampqorking techniques.

Alea Evangelii is an Anglo-Saxon variant of Hneftal and is believed by some to be the only board game played by the Anglo-Saxons.

An ongoing site with articles and links on Glasswork and Beads as they apply to the Middle Ages and the SCA.

Glass was used in a number of ways by the Saxons and Vikings; for drinking vessels, window glass, jewellery, enamelling and beads. Amber was a treasured material, particularly by the Vikings, and was used for beads, pendants, amulets, gaming pieces, spindle-whorls, and finger rings.

In a letter to Lord Burghley dated 29th November 1592, Sir John mentions "a shypp that was cast away about Alderney". Because of its location and period and because it was carrying military supplies (helmets, body armour, muskets, shot, hand grenades, etc.), it is believed that our wreck is the ship that was mentioned in the dispatches to the Queen's Chief Minister.

There is no way to accurately measure the age of lampworking because many of the techniques associated with working glass at a flame were actually in use for many thousands of years before the first lamp, or burner was invented. Depending on how one defines what lampworking is, much of early glassmaking could be thought of as a kind of lampworking, or perhaps as a precursor to lampworking. Rosemary Lierke states in her paper entitled "Early History of Lampworking", "if one would extend the definition of lampwork and permit a ‘small fire’ as heat source instead of single flame only, almost all ancient glass working could be defined as lampwork."