How did ancient bead stringers align strands of beads? With spacer plates made of carved bone or pure gold. In this article, beadwork historian Valerie Hector shows an example of spacer plate stringing in a man’s beaded girdle dating to ca. 4000 BC in ancient Egypt - a girdle now housed in the British Museum.

What techniques were beaders using in 20,000 BC? Beadwork historian Valerie Hector investigates a man’s densely beaded hat, found in a cave along ancient Italy’s Ligurian coast. The hat was heavily encrusted with sea shell beads. What beading technique was used to connect them - bead netting, bead plaiting, or something else?