| Original Message: a little more on: a ferrazza |
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THE BEADS OF ST. CATHERINES ISLAND ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Number 89, 312 pages, 35 figures, 12 plates, 7 tables Issued April 1, 2009 Copyright © American Museum of Natural History 2009 ISBN 0065-9452 Here is an exerpt: The products of the Margariteri and of the Paternostri guilds differ in several important respects, the first being the gross size of the beads. The Margariteri produced chiefly seed beads, and while there is some overlap in sizes, the Paternostri generally made larger beads. The chief difference between the two guilds was how the beads were finished. The Margariteri finished their beads “a ferrazza” (on an iron pan) by stirring them over heat, while the Paternostri finished beads “a speo” (by the spit) (Gasparetto, 1958: 186). Francis was the first to report this in English (Sprague, 1985: 91; Francis, 1979c: 8), but it was left to Karklins (1993) to uncover the details. In the a speo method, segments cut from the drawn tube are mounted on a unique tool. This device has a round metal base held by a wooden handle. Six or so tines arranged evenly around the edge of the base rise perpendicularly from the base in the direction opposite the handle. Several glass tube segments are placed on each tine. The metal part of the tool and the segments are held in the fire and rotated by hand. The segments began to soften and assume a round bead shape. All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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