Primitive Wooden Beads

A few months ago I noticed someone trimmed a young walnut tree in a garden near to the place I live. I immediately start thinking if I could use the branches and wood for something. (It's a kind of curse... What most common people see as trash I can recognize as material.) I took some of the branches home for examination and so on.

I was surprised how well the wood can be carved. Also, the pith was fascinating: hollow with compartments (see the picture above). I started to think what I could make of it... I decided to try to make primitive wooden beads and make a bracelet.

Tools

• sharp knife
• fretsaw and
  fretwork table (aka "V-board") with a G-clamp
  (alternatively: any saw with fine tooths and a thin blade; or just a sharp knife)
• gimlet(s) (optional)
• jet lighter
• cloth
• transparent acrylic paint (optional)

Material

• walnut tree twigs
• bee wax (optional)
• elastic string (there is a special kind for making bracelets) or a twine, cord, ...

Select twigs of proper diameter. Remove bark and clean the bare wood using a knife.

This step can be quite relaxing. For example, I took some walnut twigs into a forest, where I listen to all the sounds and I fantasized about ancient people.

Intermezzo. Fantasize about ancient people [skip, if you are not into fantasizing, or if you have something better to do.]

I imagined a young Celtic man, about 16 summers old...

He is sitting alone on a riverbank and he is thinking of the girl, he met two days ago. When he saw her dancing and heard her singing, it was like... like all the gods themself put their hands on his shoulders.

Now he is making a gift for her. A necklace with a wooden owl and wooden beads. His grandfather recently showed him how to make these things. And gave him an old small bronze knife.

The gift for her will be a modest gift - sure - not like the bronze decorations from the master craftsman, but she could like it, he hoped.

The girl likes him too. But they don't know that about each other yet. That gift will help him to express "I like you, and I want to know you.", it will help to spark all the magic that has to come.

~

I know, it's not a fully-fledged story. It's only an image. And I know, the English is simple. Just do not take it too seriously, please :)

A short note about history. [skip, if you are not into this]

About 3000 years ago, the Celts lived here, where the Czech Republic is now. Later, they often merged with the Slavic people, who came from the east. Czech people have usually Slavic and often also Celtic and also German ancestors.

Many places here have names from the Celtic era. For example rivers. River "Sázava", the word literally means: "The water that flows through the groves".

Cut the twigs into pieces of the desired bead size. In the pictures above, you can see how I used a fretsaw and fretwork table.

Cut the edges of every piece using a knife.

Remove the pith with a gimlet or with a similar tool (barbecue stick for example).

Now it would be good to let the greenwood dry out at least a bit.

What was possible in coloring a few thousand years ago? I'm sure primitive/prehistoric coloring is a huge topic. But it is not the main focus of this instructable.

Techniques

• egg tempera
  • yolk + water
  • soluble in water
• whole eggs
  • soluble in water
• milk protein
  • milk protein + water
  • soluble in water
  • ugly to make (it smells terrible during the making process)
• milk paint
  • milk protein + lime (+ minor ingredients)
  • for wood
  • thick covering paint
  • stable in water
• animal glue
  • soluble in water
• blood of cattle
  • used for wood
  • quite stable in water
  • ugly for modern people
  • only one color (almost black)
• blackening using fire
  • only for wood
  • stable in water
  • only dark brown and black
• direct fabrics dyeing
  • hot water + pigment (typically plants)
  • not very stable in water
• fabrics dyeing with mordant
  • as mordant was used kitchen salt (NaCl) (a lot of salt!) or better metallic salts
  • relatively stable in water
• ...

Pigments ... main sources of pigments:

• plants
  • mostly used for fabric dyeing
  • (it is also possible to dye chalk (for example) to get powder)
• stones (earth pigments)
  • ground to the finest powder
  • for example: red ochre, umber, limestone, chalk, ...
• other
  • for example: charcoal, burnt bones, ash, insects, ...

I did some experiments. All egg paints are soluble in water; paint with milk protein too.

But paints soluble in water are not useable here (unless I would use some kind of waterproof finish).

I also tried modern alcohol-based wood mordant and it worked great. If you are not interested in primitive coloring, use modern paints.

At the end of the day, I decided to only make several beads black using fire.

The trick how to make it is to burn the bead quickly and intensively and try to burn it only to dark-brown color, not to the black. A "jet lighter" is good for that. See the pictures above. (In a primitive environment I would try to use hot coal.)

After the burning, take the bead and remove all the soft surface charcoal with a piece of clothing.

And finally, melt some bee wax and coat the surface of the bead with it. However, if you want to use modern paint, then use transparent acrylic paint.

Make up a pattern. Then string a bracelet. Or a necklace. I used the modern elastic string because wearing is more comfortable and I want to have the option to take off the bracelet easily.