ANCIENT DISTAFF REPLICas

Bronze, glass, and plastic replicas of ancient Roman and Middle Eastern yarn spinning tools.

Concept Realizations was hired to reproduce ancient distaffs by yarn-spinning expert Kim Caulfield for her research with textiles and archaeology expert Elizabeth Wayland Barber.

Referring to photos of ancient Roman, Egyptian, and Middle Eastern distaff artifacts, we produced digital designs that we 3D printed in plastic, silver, and bronze. One Roman artifact was a rare glass distaff; once our replica was 3D printed in plastic and could be used as a reference, we worked with lampwork glass artists to produce glass replicas.

These functional replicas are important tools for hands-on experimentation that would not be possible with the delicate original artifacts.