Hi there! In my spare time I have been creating several portrait miniatures. Painting in miniature is a huge passion of mine and was my job for many years. I used to work for the J.A. Dedouch company based out of Oak Park IL as a miniature portrait artist. I created miniature art on porcelain. … Continue reading My Miniature Portraiture.
Historical Bead Furnace Project 2019
Over the past several months, I have been working on a putting together a historical bead making furnace made out of clay. Being a historical bead maker, I felt that it was very important to recreate as close of a bead making experience for myself so I could further understand how beads were made before … Continue reading Historical Bead Furnace Project 2019
The Creation of the 21 day Historical Bead Bootcamp, The Fun and my Personal Challenges.
Hi there! Baroness Maricka here. I have not had a chance to blog in a bit and I am working on doing a bit of catch up. In December 2018 I created the 21 Day Historical Bead Boot Camp. It can be found on this website. This entire idea came out of being a member … Continue reading The Creation of the 21 day Historical Bead Bootcamp, The Fun and my Personal Challenges.
The Exquisite Art and History of 16th Century Miniature Portraiture.
I am just getting time to start some new blogs and decided to jump away from historical beads for a bit and introduce you to a huge passion of mine. Miniature portrait art. I used to make a living as an enamel miniature portrait artist until 2000 (the 100+ year old company shut its doors) so naturally this is a big passion and interest of mine. I am currently creating miniature portraits for lockets using the same techniques as some of my favorite miniature artists did! It is very exciting! My art will be posted on part two of my blog. I wanted to give a little insight and history of this amazing art before I jumped in and started posting my paintings and how they were made as well as the special vocabulary that they had for limning portraits.
Ancient Iron Age Britain~ Reproductions of a bead found at Swallowcliffe down, Wiltshire. Dated 501 B.C – 99 AD
I have always had a passion for the mystic cobalt blue eye beads. These beads have been found in multiple areas such as Queen's Barrow, Wetwang Slack, Meare Lake Village, and Swallowcliffe Down. All the beads from the burials listed are Iron age beads. (Dress and Identity in Iron Age Britain/ Elizabeth M. Foulds P. … Continue reading Ancient Iron Age Britain~ Reproductions of a bead found at Swallowcliffe down, Wiltshire. Dated 501 B.C – 99 AD
Progress in my historical bead making life…An amazing opportunity knocked on my door!
Two Weeks ago, I was participating at a living history demo with the Northwest Viking Alliance. The Northwest Viking Alliance is an Alliance of many Living history groups in WA State, Oregon, Idaho and Southern British Columbia. My husband and I founded the group 6 years ago to further authenticity, create better demos for the … Continue reading Progress in my historical bead making life…An amazing opportunity knocked on my door!
Early Medieval Irish Glass Beads~ Recreating 6th-7th Century Spiral bead found in Newtownbalregen.
This is a reproduction of a bead found in Newtownbalregan. During the M1 Dundalk Western bypass project. The bead was found in a Ring fort 2km northwest of Dundalk in advance of the construction of the Dundalk western bypass. The previously unknown site was discovered while doing a test trench by the IAC in March … Continue reading Early Medieval Irish Glass Beads~ Recreating 6th-7th Century Spiral bead found in Newtownbalregen.
Glass bead reproductions from Early Medieval Ireland ~The Mulberry bead
Recently I purchased a very amazing book called Glass Beads from Early Medieval Ireland by Mags Minion. If you make historical beads, I recommend this book. It was designed for historical bead makers for sure. I loved this book so much I am doing a category in my blog on these beads. As I reproduce … Continue reading Glass bead reproductions from Early Medieval Ireland ~The Mulberry bead
Reproducing 18th Dynasty Glass Egyptian Pomegranate Ear Pendants, Searching for how glass was made, and discovering possible cultural symbolism in the process.
When I first started out on this project, I was very excited. As a glass artist studying mainly later period Viking age beads, I realized very quickly that for me to be more knowledgeable about glass and beads in my preferred time period, it was necessary to leap further back in time and look deeper … Continue reading Reproducing 18th Dynasty Glass Egyptian Pomegranate Ear Pendants, Searching for how glass was made, and discovering possible cultural symbolism in the process.
Ancient Glass: A recent project. 18th Dynasty Glass Egyptian Ear Tunnels.
The link has my PDF on this glass reproduction project. These historical samples that I have used to reproduce my ear tunnels are from museum collections. In the late 18th century and early 19th century it was a common practice for people to find artifacts and keep them or sell them at markets. Never documenting … Continue reading Ancient Glass: A recent project. 18th Dynasty Glass Egyptian Ear Tunnels.
My Ancient Musings 