A bead is a small, decorative object that is pierced for threading or
stringing. Beads range in size from under a millimeter to over a centimeter or
sometimes several centimeters in diameter.
Glass, plastic, and stone are probably the most common materials, but beads
are also made from bone, horn, ivory, metal, shell, pearl, coral, gemstones,
polymer clay, metal clay, resin, synthetic minerals, wood, ceramic, fiber,
paper, and seeds.
A pair of beads made from Nassarius sea snail shells, approximately
100,000 years old, are thought to be the earliest known examples of
jewellery.
Beadwork is the craft of making things with beads. Beads can be woven
together with specialized thread, strung onto thread or wire, or adhered to a
surface (e.g. fabric, clay).
Types of beads
Types of decorative beads include:
- Bugle beads
- Chevron beads
- Cloisonné beads
- Dichroic beads
- Ethnic beads
- Faux natural beads
- Fire-polished beads
- Furnace glass beads
- Fused glass beads
- Fusible beads
- Lampwork beads
- Lead crystal beads
- Lucite beads
- Millefiori beads
- Pressed glass beads
- Seed beads
- Trade beads or Slave beads
- Vintage Beads
Chevron beads
Chevron Beads are special glass beads, originally made for trade in the New
World and the slave trade in Africa by glassmakers in Italy as far back as the
early 15th century. They are composed of many consecutive layers of colored
glass. The initial core is formed in a star-shaped mold, and can have anywhere
between five and fifteen points. The next layer of glass conforms to that star
shape. Several layers of glass can be applied (typically four to seven layers),
either star-shaped or smooth. After all layers have been applied, the glass is
drawn out to the desired thickness and when cooled, cut into short segments
showing the resulting star pattern at their ends. The ends can be ground to
display the chevron pattern. Chevron beads are traditionally composed of red,
blue, and white layers, but modern chevrons can be found in any color
combination. Original beads made for trade to the New World and Africa were
typically composed of green, white, blue and red layers.
Dichroic glass beads
Increasingly, dichroic glass is being used to produce high-end art beads.
Dichroic glass has a thin film of metal fused to the surface of the glass,
resulting in a surface that has a metallic sheen that changes between two colors
when viewed at different angles. Beads can be pressed, or made with traditional
lampworking techniques. The metal coating used was originally developed by NASA
for the space program.
Ethnic beads
Other beads considered trade beads are those made in
West Africa, by and for Africans, such as Mauritanian Kiffa beads, and Ghanaian
and Nigerian powder glass beads. Other ethnic beads include Tibetan Dzi beads
and African-made brass beads. Rudraksha beads are seeds that are customary in
India for making Buddhist and Hindu rosaries (malas). Magatama are traditional
Japanese beads, and cinnabar was often used for beads in China.
Faux natural beads
Often beads are made to look like a more expensive original material,
especially in the case of fake pearls and simulated rocks, minerals, and
gemstones. Precious metals and ivory are also imitated.
Tagua nuts from South American are used as an ivory substitute since the
natural ivory trade has been restricted worldwide.
Fire-polished beads
"Fire-polished" beads are faceted glass beads made in the Czech Republic.
They are faceted by machine and then drawn through ovens to make the surfaces
molten, and thus shiny when the beads cool. This method of "polishing" is faster
and cheaper than buffing and results in a reasonably attractive bead, though
generally less perfect than buffed beads. Czech fire-polish beads are made in an
area called Jablonec nad Nisou. Production of glass beads in the area dates back
to the 14th century, though production was depressed under communist rule. They
commonly come in sizes from 3 millimetres (0.12 in) to
22 millimetres (0.87 in).
Furnace glass beads
Furnace glass beads are a special type of art bead. They are made using
traditional glassworking techniques from Italy that are more often used to make
art glass objects. The manufacture of these beads requires a large glass furnace
and annealing kiln.
Furnace glass beads, also called cane glass beads, are sliced from long glass
rods, often decorated with stripes and other color, also known as canes.
Lampwork beads
Lampwork beads are made by using
a torch to heat a rod of glass and spinning the resulting thread around a metal
rod covered in bead release. When the base bead has been formed, other colors of
glass can be added to the surface to create many designs.
Lead crystal beads
Lead crystal beads (also known as machine cut
crystal) are cut crystal beads made with hi-tech precise machinery. Thanks
to this state of the art machine cut processing the crystal items achieve
outstanding geometry and excellent optical parameters. Many lead crystal beads
are enhanced with surface coatings. Aurora Borealis, or AB, is a very
common surface coating that diffuses light into a rainbow. Other common surface
coatings are vitrail, moonlight, dorado, satin, star shine, heliotrope.
Swarovski along with Preciosa branded crystal beads are prized by jewelers
and hobbyists. They are a high-lead content crystal although today production of
lead-free crystal is common. Lead crystals have an incredible sparkle and
clarity, and are often multi-faceted to resemble gemstones. Styles and colors go
in and out of production, so vintage cuts and colors are often prized with a
similarly associated price tag. Swarovski along with Preciosa bicones are the
most popular crystal beads in sizes 4
mm and 6 mm. Other Czech
companies such as PAS Jablonec make similar styles of crystal beads.
Lucite beads
Lucite is a term that commonly refers to many plastic beads. However, Lucite
is one of the many name brands used to describe Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)
or poly(methyl 2-methylpropenoate) the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate.
Lucite methyl methacrylate polymer was among the first plastics derived from
petrochemicals. DuPont chemists discovered Lucite® in 1931 while exploring the
high-pressure technology developed for ammonia production. The polymer’s
crystal-clear appearance and its strength were far superior to
nitrocellulose-based plastics. Lucite was in heavy demand during World War II
for use in windshields, nose cones, and gunner turrets for bombers and fighter
planes. After the war, DuPont marketed it for use in a variety of decorative and
functional uses, such as lamps, hairbrushes and jewelry.
Millefiori beads
The millefiori technique involves the production of glass canes or rods,
known as murrine, with multicolored patterns which are viewable only from the
cut ends of the cane. Millefiori beads are made of plain wound glass bead cores
and thin slices of cut cane (murrine) which are being pressed into the bead
surface, forming mosaic-like patterns, while the glass is still hot. Another
name for Millefiori bead is mosaic bead.
Pressed glass beads
Pressed glass beads are formed by pressing the hot
glass into mold to give the bead its shape. Often pressed beads are made using
machines that stamp the shape from the molten glass. The shapes can have holes
punched in virtually any direction. The Czech Republic is the primary producer
of pressed beads, although India and China also produce significant
amounts.
Seed beads
Seed beads are uniformly shaped spheroidal or tube shaped beads ranging in
size from under a millimetre to several millimetres. "Seed Bead" is a generic
term for any small bead. Usually rounded in shape, seed beads are most commonly
used for loom and off-loom bead weaving.
Trade beads or Slave beads
Trade beads are various types of beads made in Europe specifically to be
used in the slave trade and other trading in Africa. Chevron beads are a
specific, historically important type of trade bead. Africa was not the only
outlet for these beads. As far back as Christopher Columbus' expeditions, these
beads were traded to Native Americans for goods and slaves.
Vintage Beads
"Vintage", in the collectibles & antique market, is a term used to refer
to an item that is 25 or more years old. This term and its meaning has been
widely adopted in the bead industry as well. Vintage beads are available in a
variety of materials including lucite, plastic, crystal, metal and glass.
Fusible beads
Sometimes called "melty beads" by young children, these small, plastic and colorful beads are placed on a peg array with a solid plastic backing to form pictures and designs and then melted together with a clothes iron. Fusible beads come in many different opaque colors, transparent colors and with sparkles (flakes inside the plastic) and peg boards come in various shapes (e.g. figures) and squares and rectangles
