Roma: Toggled to the Past
©2020 by Cynthia Rutledge
At its peak, the Roman empire stretched from north-western Europe to the Near East, as well as, encompassing all the Mediterranean lands. Roman villas and palaces were built all over the empire, but most are hidden from us today. One exceptional palace was uncovered in the 1960’s when a West Sussex farmer was digging a water main trench and uncovered fabulous mosaic floors and massive wall foundations. After many years of excavation, it is known today as the Fishbourne Roman Palace (circa 75AD). The palace had four long wings, forming a square, that looked inward to formal gardens enhanced with beautiful fountains. It was a place of power and prestige on the far western edge of the Roman empire.
This amazing palace at one time housed hundreds of people with over 100 rooms, of which most had ancient mosaic floors. Today, 20 floors survive. The early floors were constructed out of small cubes, called tesserae, of local stone. The cubes could be as small as ¼” squares up to about ¾” squares, depending on the details. These floors were mostly black and creamy white. The cubes were arranged in patterns, from very contemporary geometric shapes to figures, motifs and patterns. The later floors introduced shades of white, blue, red, and yellow, using tesserae made from marble, brick, tile and pottery.
Today, we marvel at the tremendous detail given to these works of art. They were created to impress! Add to it the fact that some areas of the palace had a heating system under the mosaic floors, along with interior bathes, makes this palace stand out among all others. Quite amazing for 75AD!
Roma: Toggled to the Past was inspired by the geometric shapes found in many of the mosaic floors found at Fishbourne Roman Palace. Using a mixture of techniques, the rounds, squares, rectangles and 6-sided polygon shapes link together to form the central area of the necklace. A three-dimensional toggle “pulls everything together” as the pendant. Flat peyote straps take the necklace to the finish line ending in a sliding bar clasp.
Workshop: This is a one-day workshop exclusively for Club Bead
Skill level: Intermediate to advanced
Necklace length: 20” long plus the toggle
Techniques:
Bezel work
Cubic-right-angle weave with 2 sizes of beads
Edge stitching
Flat, odd-count, step-up/step-down peyote stitch with decreasing
Netting
Tubular, even-count peyote stitch with increasing and decreasing