Types of beads to make artificial jewellery

Types of beads to make artificial jewellery

Coming into Jewellery making beads, they are signified into many types and sizes, and in lots of different materials. There have unique features and are available include glass, wooden, clay, plastic, Shamballa style, shell, metal, pearl, semi-precious stones,  Swarovski beads and pendants and these are blended into plenty of different shapes and styles to choose from. Let us have a glance at the few essential bead types below.
                                                          

Gemstones

Bugle Beads

Bugle beads are tubular in shape and are cut to various lengths. The Bugle Beads are part of the seed bead group as they are available in very small sizes and are really useful for creating delicate seed bead jewellery.

     

Bugle beads

                     

Chatons & Rivoli

Chatons are crystal beads that are faceted, with a pointed back and foiling to reflect their sparkle. Chatons & Rivoli make shining this type of beads mainly use to make earrings.  

Rivoli Crystals are circular and feature smooth facets that come to a point in the middle, on the front and back of the crystal. They do not have a threading hole so they are primarily used to glue into a setting or base, or they are beveled using seed beads. 

Crystal Beads (Swarovski)

Crystals are crystal beads made out of leaded glass and have a high shine. They are usually faceted for additional shine. The most commonly known crystals are Swarovski Elements but there are Czech crystals too which are of good quality at a cheaper price. Often used for wedding dresses and tiaras, crystal beads are most commonly used for special pieces of jewellery. Clear crystals are often known as rhinestones and can be purchased in a setting (chatons).

Delica Beads (Miyuki)

Delicas are small, perfectly cylindrical modern Japanese glass beads with thin walls and large holes. They are manufactured by Miyuki. They come in 2 sizes; a size 11 and a size 8 (often known as a double delica). Delicas are the best choice for a bead weaving (on or off-loom) and beadwork patterns such as peyote, brick stitch and square stitch as they lie beautifully flat.

Faceted Beads

These are beads that are cut to produce multiple flat faces that create a sparkling effect. Faceted beads are often made of glass, such as fire-polished beads, bicones and rondelles.

Flatbacks

Flatbacks are crystals set on one flat side so they can be glued on. You can also obtain iron-on flatbacks for garments, also known as a hotfix.

Gemstone Beads (Semi-Precious Beads)

Semi-precious gemstone beads can include natural gemstone, enhanced gemstone or manmade reconstructed materials. Available in various shapes and sizes.

There are different shapes to choose from including smooth round, chips and nuggets of semi-precious stones (e.g. amethyst, jade) that are irregular in shape. 

Pearls

Pearls can be saltwater or freshwater cultured pearls which are made into beads. Natural pearls are usually pink, peach or mauve in colour, whilst white pearls are usually an off white or creamy colour. Glass pearls are also available which imitate the appearance of pearls whilst maintaining consistency in size, colour, shape and finish.

Rondelles

These beads are more compressed than a round bead so are great as spacers. They come in all finishes and sizes. We even sell a rondelle set with crystals.

Seed Beads

These beads are very short pieces of a chopped glass cane that are heated until they form smooth shapes, usually round (rocailles, see above). The most commonly available are Chinese, Czech or Japanese. Japanese are top quality and very consistent, Czech middle quality and Chinese are cheap irregular beads. Also in the seed bead family are Delica beads, square beads, triangle beads, bugle beads and hex beads.

Rocaille/ Round Beads

Rocailles are round seed beads. They are commonly sold in size 15 (smallest) to size 3 (largest). These are often used for stitched beadwork but they also make great spacer beads to use in stringing projects. Toho and Miyuki manufacture the best quality rocailles which are very consistent in quality, size, shape and colour.

Shamballa Style Beads

These beads have a clay base with many Czech crystals set closely together over the surface to create a really sparkly, eye-catching bead. These beads are commonly used to create Shamballa style bracelets using the macrame technique of square knotting between each bead.