Roman Glass: Everything old is new again

 

I posted the other day that I had broken into my stash of "Ancient" Roman glass beads that I've been stockpiling for awhile. I have an Etsy shop somewhere that I've been ignoring for months while I closed out what was left of my career. My goal is to get all the new stuff listed in time for the holidays. 

Anyway, I finished one piece that I'm happy with (I think?) and will string up the rest of these over the weekend. This particular strand includes five large vintage Tibetan amber resin prayer beads that I think work well with the glass. 

I've actually been fairly successful in selling things online, and not just to my loyal friends and family! I'll admit, though, that taking a million pics and writing the blurbs and costing the beads and setting a price on the final piece, etc and etc and etc -- well, it gets to be a bit much. 

I buy beads from all over the world, and I'm particularly fascinated with antique and antiquity beads. The older the better. 

Roman glass is all the rage with the bead stringers thees days. "Ancient Roman Glass" is a bit misleading, however. The idea is that these beads are made of glass that was excavated from beneath the city of Rome, hence the title "ancient." Indeed, it could be ancient glass -- I mean, Rome has been standing there a long time, amiright? 

However, depending on where in Rome it was dug up likely places a role in determining just how "ancient" it is. Was this glass carefully excavated from beneath the coliseum? Possibly. Equally likely is that it came from beneath the Roman equivalent of a Coca Cola bottling plant. 

There *is* truly ancient (and documented) ancient roman glass that can be purchased at not-entirely-insane prices, but for the most part "ancient roman glass" is describing a type of bead and/or bead glass. 

It's pretty. Is it ancient? Who cares. That's its story, and it's sticking to it.