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Scarlett Begonia
About Roman Glass |
The breathtaking shards of glass Angie Olami uses in her jewelry date from 100 BCE to 300 CE. They were unearthed in Israel by archaeologists sifting through the fallen pillars and once magnificent cities of the Roman Empire.
Courtesy of Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, Modene
Although glassmakers in Egypt and Mesopotamia had been melting sand and various sodium-rich materials together for several hundred years before the word Caesar was ever once uttered, it was during the Roman Empire that glass making was revolutionized by the invention of glass blowing. |
Findings of glassworking debris from Jerusalem suggest that sometime during the decades before Pompey's conquest of that region (67 BC), there had been some experimentation with the sealing and inflation of one end of the kind of tubing that was normally used in beadmaking. Scholars speculate that at some point an ingenious little fellow added a long clay tube to such a nozzle and invented the type of blowpipe that was to become the essential tool for glassblowers from that day forward. Within two hundred years this technical innovation affected nothing less than an industrial revolution. Where bulky glass bowls were once the rare provenance of royalty, glass vessels spread throughout the empire, filling palaces and common cupboards from Britannia to Alexandria. |
Where bulky glass bowls were once the rare provenance of royalty, glass vessels spread throughout the empire, filling palaces and common cupboards from Britannia to Alexandria. |
We buy the glass by the kilo and it comes caked with mud, rock, and other sediment. First we have to clean the glass. This takes a long time: we start with little pick axes, work our way down to scrapers and knives of all kinds, and then finally get to the brushing stage. Often times we have to brush the most incredibly gorgeous layers of patina right off onto the floor because we want the pieces we work with to be solid and stable so they wont flake off on your nice clothes and look like 2000 year old technocolored dandruff. |
Finally we get down to a piece of glass that wont flake any more and the following possibilities occur: 1. After all that, it's ugly and we can't use it. 2. It's too curved, and we can't use it. 3. Aaah, it's lovely and thin and wide enough to cut a pair of earrings from. 4. It's thick and deeply colored and could make a great pin. |
5. WOW!! It's a stunning vase handle, almost whole, and we can't bare to cut it up so we make a one of a kind piece out of it. Then we cut the glass and set it in silver or gold. Often in these final stages the top layers of patina continue to flake due to the stress we put the glass under while working it. If this occurs we do restore the patina to it with an epoxy and this creates the multi-colored mosaic look that some of our pieces have. |
Angie Olami jewelry is made from the handblown fragments of ancient perfume pots, juglets, lamps, flasks, vases, cups, and bowls. Each fragment varies in thickness, age, and composition. Each piece underwent its own unique transformation as it became weathered with layers of patina. If a shard doesn't sit exactly straight in its bezel, remember it is someone's wine glass you are wanting to wear in your ear!
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We cut a pair of earrings from the same shard so they will match, but each time we make that same style it is something truly unique. |
PLEASE DO NOT GET IT WET. TREAT IT AS IF IT WERE 2000 YEARS OLD. PLEASE DON'T GO SWIMMING IN IT. DON'T SHOWER IN IT. DONT HAIRSPRAY NEAR IT. TRY NOT TO EVEN TOUCH IT TOO MUCH BECAUSE YOUR HANDS HAVE OILS ON THEM WHICH COULD AFFECT THE COLOR OF THE GLASS. THE GLASS IS ORGANIC AND IS STILL REACTING WITH THE ENVIRONMENT. Water can dissolve those beautiful layers of patina that were created ever so slowly and miraculously over two thousand years. As in the archaeological digs in England, your glass can lose its luster. Angie Olami's Roman Glass Jewelry is sealed with a protective lacquer to preserve it but it is really best not to get it wet. To clean the jewelry, polish the silver or gold with a cloth but try not to touch the glass. |
Once in a while, huge gorgeous pieces, vase tops, handles, and almost whole bowls are amongst the dirty shards we buy. We would never break them to make smaller jewelry out of the them, so instead, we create one of a kind pieces. |
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