Research Question #2

In this blog post, we will answer our second research question:

How much effort is used in the manufacture of different beads (ranging from simple to elaborate in design and shape)?

Krista:

One of the definitions for the word effort is a "strenuous physical or mental exertion." Glass bead making definitely fits this definition, and takes a lot of effort. On the surface, it does not seem that making glass beads is either physically or mentally strenuous, but once you actually sit down to make a few beads, you discover that it takes hard work and patience. 

The repetitive movement involved in turning the mandrel really wears on your hand and arm. As has been said before, we all had to rest our arms on the table at some point while we were making beads. It takes a fair amount of time to form even the simplest, one colour, ring-shaped or round bead. I would estimate at least 10 minutes for this type of bead. One would think, in a day thousands of simple beads could be made (at 10 min each). But, you have to factor in the physical strain on the body. We only made beads for approx. 3 hours at a time, and by the end we were all tired. Granted, we are not professional bead makers, but still one could image that even a professional bead maker could only work on a certain amount of beads a day. And, there was always a chance the beads would not survive the cooling process. In our two 3 hour sessions, I made 10 beads the first time (with only 4 surviving the cooling process completely intact, and 2 partially surviving) and 15 beads the second time (with 9 surviving the cooling process completely intact, and the 3 spiral beads all partially intact). Of course, factoring in the more elaborate designs, a bead maker could probably spend hours on just one bead, and the physical and mental effort would increase enormously. Bead making is not a process that can be rushed, which leads to the mental effort needed for bead making.

Bead making was mentally strenuous due mainly to one thing - Patience. Patience was a key factor at our bead making sessions. You cannot rush bead making for one very simple reason: you cannot make the glass heat faster and it is very hard to fix a mistake once the glass has fused. You have to heat the glass rod at a slow and steady pace, if you try to heat it too quickly it can crack or shatter, and you have to start again. Forming the bead in the flame takes time as well, as the glass slowly comes together. In the videos from the second experiment (found in Take Two and Take Two Reflection), we sped up the videos so that the viewer could see the whole process in approx. 2 min. Originally, the times were closer to 10 or 15 minutes per attempt. When creating designs on the beads, you need to be patient enough to lay down the designs just right, because it is very hard to go back and fix something once the glass has fused together.

These are three examples from the second bead making sessions of both the hard work and patience needed to create beads, and the disappointment felt when they do not survive the cooling process. I put a lot of effort into each bead, both in the design and shape. In the two round beads, I tried complicated designs (at least, complicated for me). But, as you can see my designs were not perfectly placed. This is partly due to inexperience, but also due to unsteady hands because of physical strain and rushing the design. The rectangle bead was a hard shape to accomplish because it is hard to get straight lines/corners with glass (because it is constantly wanting to go round when heated). As you can see in this bead, I rushed the finishing and did not make sure one of the sides was flat (the top of the front bead-half is slightly rounded and not flat like the back bead-half). It was very disappointing when these beads broke because I had put so much effort into them:

purple and yellow 'flower' design

Rectangle shape

blue and white 'eye' design

Rose:
 

As Krista noted, effort can be explained in terms of physical and mental exertion. This research question can also be approached by elaborating on the idea that an artifact’s value is linked to the amount of effort it takes to manufacture that object. In other words, an object might look impressive in the archaeological record, but it might not be that valuable to an individual because it was so easily made. For instance, arrow heads look impressive, but an experienced flintknapper can make one in about 5 minutes. However, bone tools take hours to make. Therefore, the amount of time and effort put into an object’s manufacture can be linked with how valuable it is. If something is demanding to make, it is probably more valuable to an individual. Even though it seems like common sense that a more elaborate bead is more valuable, there is more to it than that. For instance, there could also be a shape of a bead that looks simple but is actually really hard to make.

It is important to connect the term 'effort' with the term 'valuable' with regards to this research question in order to understand the bead making process in a Viking context. By considering the beads as valuable, we can start to ask ourselves what values the Vikings would have placed on different beads. This is significant because it ties into Viking status display.

We grouped types of beads into categories from easiest to hardest to manufacture in our post: Take Two

In addition, here are some examples of beads that I made and reasons why they might be considered valuable to Vikings or not:

Melon Bead

  The melon bead was made by pressing a small pick horizontally into a ring bead four or five times. Initially we thought this bead would be very difficult to create, but it turns out to be a simple, quick shape. The above example shows that the shape can be off center if the bead is done too quickly. However, with patience the bead is done very easily. Since this type of bead would not take much time or practice,  it would probably not have been extremely valued as a bead shape due to the effort put into its manufacture. It is important to note that perhaps certain shapes had symbolic meanings as well, which would increase their value. This is unfortunately not something that we can research in this project, but it is interesting to think about. Keeping to our assessment of value in terms of effort in manufacturing the beads, we placed this shape in our easiest level.

 We put the spiral bead into our 3rd level of difficulty (out of 4 levels with 4 being the most difficult). This bead takes the least amount of time to make, but it takes mental focus and lots of practice. Out of three attempts, this was the only spiral bead that I made which did not break. While I feel like I did become a bit better at applying the glass to the mandrel for this shape, I also feel like I was very lucky. It would be difficult for me to replicate this bead exactly. It is very easy to apply the glass unevenly, and to apply too much glass at the end of the mandrel (which closes off the one end of the bead). However, experienced Viking bead makers would have made so many of these beads that they would have known the exact timing for applying to glass. While this bead is very valuable to me in terms of effort, I have to acknowledge that it was probably less valuable to Viking bead makers. The effort put into making this bead would be in learning how to apply to glass and concentrating through the bead's construction. Once they had achieved that knowledge, these beads could be made in as little time as a minute.

Chevron Pattern Attempt

 The design of this bead is an attempt at the chevron pattern. Raised lines were added on a ring bead, and the whole bead was heated until the lines smoothed out. Then the small pick tool was used to drag a line down the center of the bead. I would consider this technique to be very valuable to the Vikings because it requires multiple glass colours, precision, time (maybe upwards of ten minutes depending on the number of colours), practice, and mental stamina. One wrong move on this bead will completely ruin the pattern. For these reasons we put this design in our most difficult category.

The two outside beads illustrate an ideal chevron pattern.
http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/vikbeads.shtml

In conclusion, while the value of individual beads varies, the overall bead making process requires a lot of effort to learn and complete on a consistent basis.

Angela:

Rose and Krista have both made excellent points. Beadmaking is both mentally and physically strenuous. Although different beads require different amounts of effort, the overall effort is still fairly high and it is likely that this made them the highly valued pieces of jewellery that they were in the Viking Age (Carlsson 1997). I wish to contribute one physical aspect and one mental aspect regarding the effort of beadmaking that I encountered in addition to those mentioned above.  

One aspect regarding effort that I would like to talk about is the slow process of actually learning how to make beads. As I pointed out in my “Reflections on Beadmaking: Take Two” post , beadmaking has a slow learning curve. We were all a little disappointed in our expectations of being much better at beadmaking the second time around. Learning how to make the beautiful and complexly decorated beads seen from the Viking Age would have taken an immense amount of time and effort. Although I cannot find a picture of it, one bead found has an image of a person wearing that same bead, among other designs on it. The amount of finite detail and skill this would take is absolutely astonishing (particularly to

My lack of patience resulted in this half ring, half
spherical bead. Note how it is rounded on top,
yet sits flat on the paper. I seriously did not even
notice this until it had cooled, revealing both
my inattention to detail and impatience
issues.  

me as I have yet to master a wave pattern). After six hours of practice between two sessions, I was only marginally better at creating a wave design and still had difficulty creating thin stringer applications. As Krista mentioned, patience is key, and with my second session I found I actually had less of it than in the first session. I think this may have to do with the fact that my expectations of skill were not meeting the reality and I was getting tired of producing sub-par beads. However, this lack of patience was also a cause of my production of sub-par beads (see above picture). A vicious mental struggle I must say. Thus, the mental effort expended in not only making the bead, but also getting over your lack of ability to create beads at the level you wish to, is far greater than I anticipated. This mental effort regarding the slow learning process was definitely something I struggled with, and the effort required in just learning how to make a bead well is very high.

One physical aspect of beadmaking that really surprised me was the physical strain caused from removing beads from the mandrel. I anticipated joint pain in the actual process of beadmaking, as Youtube videos illustrated well the constant rotating of the molten glass that is required. However, I did not anticipate the level of joint pain that removal caused. Below is the video of me removing a bead. As mentioned in the "Take Two" post, this particular removal was one of the easiest beads to remove. However, you can still see the constant twisting motion that is required to take the bead off the mandrel. Some beads took around 5-10 minutes of constant twisting to remove. While I am prone to joint pain and this certainly factored in, the other group members also mentioned that this particular task caused them pain. Overall, the degree of effort that just removing a bead from a mandrel required, was far more than anticipated.  

The entire process of beadmaking, from learning how to do it, to honing skills, to the actual beadmaking process, and finally to cooling and removal, is a very long one. In total we spent about 6 hours just making beads that did not always survive the cooling and removal process, which took even more time. What seemed simple at first (e.g. that ever elusive perfect wave design) was quickly shown to be not so simple, and other designs were shown to be simpler than they initially looked (i.e. the melon bead). Teaching oneself patience and the ability to discern and work with the properties of glass is a long and difficult process. Ultimately, our experiment illustrated quite well the extensive overall effort, both mental and physical, that goes into making beads.