Historical and handmade glass beads based on where they were found and glass designs

Welcome to the Hagedisenhain online shop. I offer hand-made glass beads based on finds from various excavation sites in Europe, as well as modern and creative glass jewelry and glass decorations. Each piece of glass is unique and therefore something very special.

In addition, I offer reversible-stitched shoes, handmade bags, belts and other reenactment needs.

Questions and special requests can be made using my contact form.

 

 

fibula chain
glass beads after gravefinds


glass beads and vikingbeads





Historical glass jewelry and glass beads

For several thousand years, mankind in all cultures has been fascinated by jewelry in different variations. And people made their jewelry from a wide variety of materials very early on: gold, silver, bronze, bone, stone - and glass. One of the oldest documented types of glass jewelry are the wrapped glass beads, named after their production method. Glass itself was probably first used around 3500 BC. Produced in Mesopotamia and Anatolia. It is widely believed that the manufacture of glass was discovered "by accident". The addition of metal oxides to the raw glass creates a wide variety of colors. If you look through the individual categories in the shop, you can discover the variety of colors. Don't be confused by the matt, often porous glass beads in some museum showcases. The glass jewelry of our ancestors was certainly just as colorful and radiant as the glass beads made today. The "languor" was caused by the acids in the layers of the earth, in which the pearls sometimes lay for millennia.

Glass beads

I make glass beads at historical markets and city festivals in a charcoal forge with a bellows. Visitors who want to try it themselves can do so under my guidance and make their own glass bead and take it with them as a souvenir. I make the glass beads for sale at my craft stand and here in the online shop on a modern two-gas burner in my workshop in Berkenbrück in Brandenburg. Through extensive research, numerous museum visits and many experiments, I am now able to produce a wide range of pearls from the Celts, Teutons, Vikings, Slavs and other cultures. Again and again I implement other ideas and fulfill requests for modern glass jewelry and very special unique items. I get the glasses used, for example, from the Lauscha paintworks in Thuringia (Germany), from the Effetre company near Murano in Venice (Italy) and from the Reichenbach glassworks in Saxony (Germany).






Our advice

necklace Birka grave 49
TOP
necklace Birka grave 49
7,50 EUR
7,50 EUR per piece
Necklace Straubing Germany 6./7. century
TOP
Necklace Straubing Germany 6./7. century
 
24,00 EUR
24,00 EUR per piece
Red and black bead set necklace, bracelet, earrings
TOP
Red and black bead set necklace, bracelet,...
99,00 EUR
99,00 EUR per piece
Birka grave 535 glassbeads with amber
TOP
Birka grave 535 glassbeads with amber
24,00 EUR
necklace Birka grave 126
TOP
necklace Birka grave 126
16,00 EUR
16,00 EUR per piece
cobaltblue melonbead necklace
TOP
cobaltblue melonbead necklace
50,00 EUR
Rostock-Dierkow 8th - 11th century
TOP
Rostock-Dierkow 8th - 11th century
2,50 EUR
2,50 EUR per piece
Karneol beads
TOP
Karneol beads
2,50 EUR
2,50 EUR per piece
Birka grave 642
TOP
Birka grave 642
24,00 EUR
Necklace Straubing Germany 6./7. century
TOP
Necklace Straubing Germany 6./7. century
44,00 EUR
44,00 EUR per piece





The story of the Hagedisenhain online shop

After I founded my company in 1999, I first started selling herbs and resins for smoking and semi-precious stone jewelry on the Internet. I programmed my first website myself, as well as the very first online shop. In the meantime, I prefer to trust the professionals in this field and dedicate myself entirely to my manual work.

When I was a guest for about a week in the museum village of Ribe (Denmark) for the first time around 2001, I made my first experiences at the glass bead forge. That was my first actual encounter with glass as a material. And that where I was born in the south of Thuringia and the glass was almost in the cradle. But only almost and so I probably had to take the detour via Denmark. My first self-made glass beads aroused the urge to learn more about this ancient craft. I researched and practiced on a simple hardware store gas burner. The color results were very unsatisfactory, which is why I soon switched to a two-gas burner. By supplying oxygen, the gas burns much cleaner and no impurities get into the glass, which could react with the metal oxides.

The cooling of the pearls and pieces of jewelry can build up tension in the glass, which leads to fine hairline cracks, which you may not see at first. But over time, the pearls could break. Based on this experience, I use a good, digitally controlled oven to temper the glass beads. With proper use of the pieces of glass (pearls, jewelry, figures) I can guarantee their longevity. For the processing of the glass beads into jewelry I mainly use 925 sterling silver or cotton ribbons.

The glass jewelry differs considerably from industrially produced mass-produced goods. Each glass bead has its own charm, its own colorful radiance.




Even if a lot has changed in my work and my life in the last two decades, the name “Hagedisenhain” has remained. Many times I thought about changing the name and finding something more "glass" related. But ultimately the Hagedisenhain belongs to me. Just like the old craft of glass bead making.