Egyptian Jewelry

While looking at Egypt, we looked at the jewelry that was worn by ancient Egyptians and how the paintings in their tombs showed how they dressed. Jewelry was worn by both men and women, and usually by rich people. The jewelry was expensive because it was made from gold, turquoise, and other stones. The jewelry also usually showed images that had to do with their religion and showed spiritual icons like scarab beetles, the Wadjet eye, a circle for the sun, and snakes.

Students were shown pictures of ancient Egyptian jewelry and given drawings of traditional designs. They used Sculpey clay to made beads inspired by these traditional designs. Some students loved making all the patterns, and some just wanted to make circle-shaped beads, which is ok too. After they made the beads, I had them use a large needle to poke a hole through the side to allow the beads to be strung on a string. I brought out gold, blue, and red acrylic paint for students to use, and they painted the beads. After that, I re-poked the holes in each bead, baked them in my oven at home, and strung them on a string for students to have a necklace. Making the beads was fun, but the baking and stringing the beads took much longer than I planned. Seeing the students wear their necklaces in class after they got them back made it worth it!