Glass beads are the most popular and common beads, dating back to the Roman times. Egyptian faience was the earliest form of glass-like beads, a form of clay bead with a self-forming vitreous coating. In archaeology, glass beads are notable because of the presence of glass beads often indicate that there has been a trade. And that the bead making technology was been spread. Glass beads are versatile products that come in all forms of shapes, colors, sizes and go through a massive array of production techniques to produce an endless variety of bead styles.
Common types of glass beads include:
SEED BEADS
Seed beads production began back in 2400 BCE in Asia, the Mediterranean, and Egypt. Before the World War II, there was a thriving seed beads production in Eastern Europe, a part of the Austro- Hungarian Empire and the Czech Republic. Seed beads are uniformly and spherical shaped beads that differ in size from under a millimeter to several millimeters. A generic term for any small beads is Seed Bead. They are mostly round in shape and common for the use of loom and off-loom bead weaving. They are mostly made of glass and come in huge varieties of colors and finishes and are often bought by weight. Most contemporary high-quality seed beads are made in Japan, India and the Czech Republic.
MILLEFIORI BEADS
Mili is the Italian word for a thousand, and Fiori means flower, it literally means a thousand flowers, these beads look like they are covered with lots of tiny flowers. They were traditionally made in Italy and come in different shapes and colors. They are made from glass canes with flower patterns or using polymer clay by joining long strings of clay together around a central string, or usually made from glass by fusing glass rods around a central core.
BUGLE BEADS
These are long cylindrical beads with a small diameter that are cut to various lengths of numbers ranging from 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3 and 5, with 0.5 being the shortest. The bugle beads come in a variety of colors, finishes, and twists. They are often sometimes used together with seed or tube beads. Bugle beads come in very small sizes and are a very important tool for making delicate seed bead jewelry.
CRACKLE BEADS
The production of crackle beads was invented by the Venetian glassmakers in the 16th century. These beads look like they have cracks all over the inside but smooth and unbroken on the surface. While the glass is molten hot, the crackle beads are immersed in cold water which causes the glass to crack. It is then reheated, and either molded or hand-blown into any desired shape. The reheating process of the glass after it is cracked seals the glass and gives the surface its lovely smooth feel. Crackle beads are beautiful, vibrant beads, which adds life & beauty to jewelry creations.
These glass beads and a variety of others like the Drop, Wheel, Czech, and Bicone beads, etc. are made available by the Czech producer of Czech glass beads MATUBO. MATUBO beads have the most variegated color finishes and fabulous accessories for making jewelry.