This set of powderglass beads represents what I call Level 3. Here we have more complex patterns of both horizontal and vertical lines as well as spots.
Additionally bicone beads are made from two conical beads fused together at the wide ends. And finally commercial dyes are starting to be introduced to get brighter colors.
This is a glass industry that I've watched grow exponentially in my adult lifetime and it's pretty exciting. The creative Ghanaian glass beadmakers surely have more ideas, but I also think that it won't be long until "lampworking" techniques find their way to Ghana. It will be very interesting to see what changes that brings.
Master beadmaker Cedi, aka Nomoda Djaba has already learned the techniques and demonstrated that he can make beads fancy wound glass bead with a torch, but I haven't yet seen a combination of lampworking on a powderglass bead.
That is basically the how the ancient and mysterious Bodom beads were made, so in a way the process is coming full circle. However, the picture of who made them, exactly when, and from whom the technique was learned in antiquity is still unclear.
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