BYZANTINE CHAIN COLLAR: History: Many stranded necklaces have been constructed and worn since ancient times. Evidence can be seen as far back as the times of the Sumarian and Egyptian empires. Below is a picture of one such necklace is the broad collar of Senebtisica during the Egyption Middle Kingdom period circa 1850 B.C. (Metropolitian Museum of Art online Gallery).

Collars often had pendants hanging from the length of the necklace as seen in these 2 examples from the 6th century A.D. in Florence. (Francois Boucher, 20,000 years of Fashion)

This 6th century mosaic of Emperoress Theodora shows further evidence of the use of many stranded collar necklaces with pendants. (Francois Boucher, 20,000 years of Fashion)

Many early period necklaces were constructed of chain links of gold or silver. Each link contained a bead. Below is a 3rd century Gallo-Roman multi-strand necklace of gold, pearls and emeralds cubes. (Louvre collection BJ586; picture credit to Kristin Solias)

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Another style of collar is this 5th century necklace made of gold wire, pearls, amethyst cabochons, and green glass beads constructed into a network of chains. Glass pendants were placed at most of the junctures. (Field Museum of National History, Chicago, Il.)

The inspiration for this necklace is this 6th-7th century necklace of gold beads, emeralds and pearls. It is from the Altes Museum, Berlin: Gemma antiqua, #Byzantine Jewelry Tumblr.

I chose this collar necklace because I am constantly trying to challenge myself by making more complex and creative pieces. I had already made a necklace similar to the collar from the Field Museum.

I decided to use turquoise and purple beads because they are my favorite colors. The first row uses faceted amethyst glass beads. Faceted beads of this type were seen as early as the 23rd century BCE. The Lapis necklace below is from the Akkadian Empire and is on display at the Metropolitian Museum of Art in NYC. This necklace displays several different types of faceted beads

These two 2nd century necklace from the Christie’s Collection are made of faceted carnelian. The first type of facet resembles a table cut. The majority of the beads in the first row are this type of facet. The middle bead has more facets. Some of the facet cuts are similar to the mellon beads in the second necklace.

The necklace used for inspiration had flat gold beads in between the emerald beads. My necklace has silver oval open work beads. Open work beads of various sizes and shapes was frequently seen in Roman/Byzantine necklaces from the 2nd century on.

The necklaces below show some examples of open work disk. The first necklace is from the exhibition “Antiquity to the Ancient World. This 5th-6th century Roman necklace of gold open work disks engraved with a floral pattern and emerald hexagonal beads was displayed at the Lot-Art.com Auction House. The second necklace is late Roman/early Byzantine gold leaf-shaped pendents with flower decoration and applied decoration loop, 5th-6th century, Pax Romana Auctions and Live Auctioneers exhibit.

As noted, I used turquoise and amethyst glass beads. Both turquoise and amethyst are period beads. The name amethyst comes from the Greek myth of a young girl by that name who one day was on her way to worship at the temple of the goddess Artemis. The god Dionysus in a drunken stupor had released his tigers. The tigers began to pursue Amethyst. Seeing her situation, Artemis turned her into a clear crystal. When Dionysus gazed upon her beauty he became remorseful and poured wine upon her, turning the crystal a deep purple. Many years ago when I lived in the East Kingdom, I did research on the lore of gemstones. I was very intrigued by the different properties attributed to them by various cultures. I compiled some of that research into 2 articles that were published in the East Kingdom newsletter and the local newsletters of the Barony of Thescorre in the Kingdom of Aethelmarc and the Barony of Elfsea in the Kingdom of Ansteorra. According to the Greeks the amethyst had the power to protect a person from intoxication, helped provide a person with a sense of clarity and was called the “Balance stone.” Some of its healing properties included curing indigestion, improving

circulation and skin complexion and protected one from blindness. The ancient Egyptians carved amethysts into amulets because they believed it bestowed spiritual insight. (Alderman, Clifford Lindsy; Symbols of Magic). The Celtic race named this stone the "Change" stone because they believed it had the power to change events of the past, present, and future. (Kunz, George Frederick; The Curious Lore of Precious Stones). Turquoise was another stone that I researched. I discovered that both the Arabs and Turks considered this stone to be a symbol of good luck. Budhist people called the turquoise the Sky Stone because it had the power to build bridges between worlds. It also supposedly had the power to warn of impending death or poison by changing its brightness. Like the collar necklace that inspired my mine the rows were connected with pearls. The pearl is known as the Moon Gem. According to the Chinese it protects against fire. The Christians believe the pearl to be the symbol of spiritual perfection. The Jews believe that Abraham wore a pearl on his forehead because he knew of its life giving powers and the Hindus believed it was a life prolonging amulet. There is a tale of the God of the Mines who proclaimed the pearl the queen of gems and the symbol of love eternal after giving the stone to the lady he loved. Technique: 1) Cut a 2 inch length of 22 or 24 gauge wire. (The length of wire may need to be longer to accommodate size

of bead). With a round-nosed jewelers pliers make a loop at one end as shown below. Or a form a loop and twist it twice.

2) String a bead. 3) Cut a second piece of wire and make a loop at one end. Place this loop on the end of the first wire next to

the bead.

4) Form the other end into a loop as before to form a link and twist the loop twice to secure. Continue adding

links until desired length is reached.

To avoid cutting lengths of wire, one can purchase varied lengths of already cut wire loop pins. These pins have a loop at one end giving them the name of "Loop Pins."

Building this collar in pictures: