History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c16.s6.30

v1.c16.s6.30

On cooling the beads were taken off from the wire without any difficulty due to greater contraction in the thickness of the wire. Multiple cane beads were fabricated by pulling out bundle of glass canes together and giving them desired shape (Fig 9). Uniform surface was obtained by heat treatment. Beads were also made on spoke or were obtained by perforating semi-molten dropping of glass. Special beads like eye bead were made by highly skilled worker by spreading layers of different glasses on a matrix resembling the shape of eye. There is a design of eye surrounded by white matrix. Gold foil beads were made by sandwiching a gold foil in between two semi molten halves of the glass bead. Composite beads were made by adding an intermediate layer of white glass in between coloured glasses and then moulding them by twisting.