Margie’s Muse
by Margie Deeb
Ancient Egyptian Color
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Like many Egyptian artifacts, Tutankamen’s death mask is gold inlaid with gemstones of lapis, carnelian, and turquoise. An instantly recognizable Egyptian palette.
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Winged falcon at Karnak temple.
Use opaque beads colored in soft, dusty tones to comprise a palette based on the ancient painted bas-relief of the temple. Great for pictorial or exotic applications. A thickly textured multi-strand or patterned woven bracelet, perhaps? Suggested Delicas: DB-353, DB-798, DB-795, DB-651, DB-375
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In her Pharaonic inspired broad collar and earrings, Margie Deeb uses classic Egyptian colors: gold, a verdigris turquoise, lapis blue, and red glass.
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To learn more about color for bead artists,
visit the store at MargieDeeb.com
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For roughly 3,000 years tomb painting in Pharaonic Egypt employed a consistent palette: three- to four-color combinations hinged on red or yellow. These combinations, and the hues within them, varied. But overall, the palettes remained consistent.
Because much of their art was religious, the ancient Egyptians used color symbolically to convey messages rather than for realistic portrayal. Minerals and metals were used for their spiritual and therapeutic values: lapis lazuli corresponded with joy; turquoise with delight. Some were identified with specific deities: copper and malachite with Hathor; and gold with the deity of the sun.
Their limited painting palette represented the Nile valley landscape: yellow-red of the desert, blue of the river, green of papyrus, and pale blue of the sky.
Red is the most variable color because it came from local ochre sources. In Theban tombs it is a warm, earthy brown. In other areas the red leans heavily towards purple. Blues, blacks, and greens are predominantly accent colors.
The wealth of magnificent jewelry they left us employs a wide range of stones including quartz crystal, carnelian, amethyst, jasper, onyx, lapis, and silver and gold.
The ancient Egyptians developed the art of glass used for its own sake, and for imitation gemstone. Their glass beads, which held spiritual and magical properties, were the  finest of the ancient world.
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