Collection: Glass Beads

Glass Beads Anyone?

The majority of the world’s beads are made with glass – purely and simply because the raw materials required are readily available all over the world.

Among some of the countries specialising in glass beadmaking include Ghana and Nigeria in West Africa, India, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Japan, China and Indonesia, while other nations producing beads utilise different ingredients such as wood, bone, metal, shell, plastic and resin.

The Czech Republic has long been one of the world’s leading producers of glass beads. Their production emphasis over the past 300-400 years has been on consistent perfection and excellence – and as a result their beads today, are highly sought after the world over.

Czech glass beads have become beautiful options in today’s jewellery designs - available in an endless variety of shapes, styles and colours. 

In modern times, some of the world’s most prolific state-of-the-art glass bead making assembly lines are in China.

Using cutting-edge technology and utilising low-cost labour, the Chinese are able to produce millions upon millions of beads – of all shapes and sizes to meet today’s phenomenal demand for the durable ornaments which have become the essential ingredients used in the production of jewellery the world over.

Today, the Chinese beadmaking industry has become a force to be reckoned with – going up against the superior leading beadmakers of Czechoslovakia, Italy and Japan - whose attention to detail and perfection is second to none – the dominant players in refining the mass production of beads for centuries.

Some of the finest beads on the planet are made in Japan; their attention to detail and perfection is second to none – and their Delica beads have defined them in a superior class all of their own.

Delica beads are a type of seed bead which are perfectly cylindrical, almost square in shape and come with an exceptionally large hole that can accommodate several strands of threading materials if required.

They are of the highest quality because they are made using precise, computer-controlled machinery.

Famous and highly regarded in their own right, are the spectacular glass beads produced in West Africa.

They are handmade and hand-painted glass sandcast beads made by the Yoruba people of Nigeria and the Krobo and Ashanti people of Ghana who, unlike their Czechoslovakian and Japanese counterparts, have been using the same traditional tools and adopting similar methods as their ancestors have done for centuries earlier.

They are made from old, recycled bottles and jars which are crushed into powder, heated, and then poured into specially designed molds.

India and Indonesia are also among the world’s largest glass bead producers – with both countries reporting their respective production is thriving, with huge quantities of glass beads being shipped to the four corners of the globe – along with resin, bone, wood, plastic, stone and silver beads.