Glass Beads 
 

Beads A Plenty offer you a range of glass beads for all over the country from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Czech Republic & America. We stock all the glass beads from Crystal Glass Beads, Crackle Glass Beads, Czech Glass Beads, Indian Glass Beads, Lampwork Glass Beads, Millefiori Glass Beads, Plain Glass Beads & Silver Foil Glass Beads
 

 Crystal Glass Beads
 

It became possible to program the machinery used for cutting crystals. Hundreds of perfectly calculated cuts are made into the glass, allowing the light to reflect with a brilliance recognized around the world for its clarity. Swarovski crystal beads are considered to be the finest, optically pure crystal available in the market today. The crystal itselfd is a form of glass that hasd had lead or lead oxide added to it for clarity. True "lead crystal" has upwards of 35% lead content, which thereby increases the amount of light that can be reflected in the glass itself. In addition, crystal beads with a lower lead content have been made in China, japan and Taiwan. These beads also come in many colours, sizes and shapes, however they do not carry the reflective qualities seen in the true lead crystal beads. Typically, these beads are lso much lower in prioce as they can be mass produced at a lower cost.


 

 Crackle Glass Beads
 

Crackle glass was first developed and produced in the 16th century Venice. Master Venitian glass blowers invented the process of briefly submerging molten hot balls of glass in very cold water, which resulted in the outer layer of the glass cracking. The process would then continue with the glass being reheated into the desired shape. As the glass was shaped and expanded, the crackes would become larger, resulting in a distinctive crackled effect ...



 
 

Czech Beads
 

The region where glass making production is centered was formely known as North Bohemia hence the descriptive term used namely Bohemian Glass Beads. Fire-polished beads are faceted beads that have been re-fired. This produces a bead with the fire and sparkle of crystal at a fraction of the cost. Jablonec nad Nisou is the centre of the Czech bead industry today . The towns Museum of glass and jewellery houses an important collection of Czech beads.


 

Indian Glass Beads
 

The indians started making the "Rudraksha" beads from a large evergreen broad-leaved tree whose seed is traditionally used for prayer beads in Hinduism. The seeds are covered by an outer shell of blue colour when fully ripe and for this reason are also known as the blueberry beads. India now makes by hand & machines frosted beads & lustre glass beads.
  

 

 Lampwork Glass Beads 
 

The lampwork bead is a type of glasswork where a torch or lamp is primarily used to melt the glass. Once in molten state the glass is formed by blowing and shaping with tools and hand movements. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking, as the modern practice no longer uses oil fueled lamps. Lampwork became widely practiced in Murano, Italy in the 14th century.


  

 Millefiori Glass Beads - The millefiori technique involves the production of glass canes or rods, known as murrine, with multi coloured patterns which are viewable fromn the cut ends of the cane. A murrine rod is heated in a furnace, pulled until thin while still maintaining the cross sectio's design, and then cut into beads or discs when cooled. Millefiori is an italian word meaning " a thousand flowers"        Millefiori Glass Beads
 

The millefiori technique involves the production of glass canes or rods, known as murrine, with multi coloured patterns which are viewable fromn the cut ends of the cane. A murrine rod is heated in a furnace, pulled until thin while still maintaining the cross sectio's design, and then cut into beads or discs when cooled. Millefiori is an italian word meaning " a thousand  flowers".
 

Plain Glass Beads
 

The making of glass beads goes back to at least roman times - Glass beads are usually categorized by the method used to manipulate the glass, wound beads, drawn beads & molded beads.There are several methods for making drawn beads, they all involve pulling a strand out of a gather of glass in such a way as to incorporate a bubble in the centre of the strand to serve as the hole in the bead. In Arekamedu this was accomplished by inserting a hollow metal tube into the ball of hot glass and pulling the glass strand out around it, to form a continous glass tube. In the Venitian bead industry, molten glass was gathered on the end of a tool called a "puntile", a bubble was incorporated into the centre of a gather of molten glass, and a second puntile was attached before stretching the gather with its internal bubble into a long cane. The pulling was a skilled process, and canes were reported pulledto lengths of 200ft. The drawn tube was then chopped, producing individual drawn beads from its slices. The resulting beads were cooked or rolled in hot sand to round the edges without melting the holes closed; these were sieved into sizes ands usually strung into hanks for sale.

 

 Millefiori Glass Beads - The millefiori technique involves the production of glass canes or rods, known as murrine, with multi coloured patterns which are viewable fromn the cut ends of the cane. A murrine rod is heated in a furnace, pulled until thin while still maintaining the cross sectio's design, and then cut into beads or discs when cooled. Millefiori is an italian word meaning " a thousand flowers"  MM 

Silver Foil Glass Beads

The beads were made in Venice and Murano in Italy, but now you can get cheaper versions from China, Taiwan. The bead is started on the mandrel and then quickly this small molten glass is rolled over the tissue thin foil. A final coat of clear molten translucent glass completes the bead. As the foil is inside the bead it will not peel off or chip away.



 

Silver Foil Glass Beads - The beads were made in Venice and Murano in Italy,but now you can get cheaper versions from China, Taiwsan. . The bead is started on the mandrel and then quickly this small molten of glass is rolled over the tissue thin foil. A final coat of clear molten translucent glass completes the bead. As the foil is inside the bead it will not peel off or chip aw

 Millefiori Beads - The millefiori technique involves the production of glass canes or rods, known as murrine, with multicoloured patterns which are viewable from the cut ends of the cane. A murrine rod is heated in a furnace, pulled until thin while still maintaining the cross section's design, and then cut in to beads or discs when cooled
 Millefiori Beads - The millefiori technique involves the production of glass canes or rods, known as murrine, with multicoloured patterns which are viewable from the cut ends of the cane. A murrine rod is heated in a furnace, pulled until thin while still maintaining the cross section's design, and then cut in to beads or di

A smaller and more expensive subset of glass and lead crystal beads are cut into precise faceted shapes on an individual basis. This was once done by hand, but has largely been taken over by precision machinery.

"Fire-polished" faceted beads are a less expensive alternative to hand-cut faceted glass or crystal. They derive their name from the second half of a two-part process: first, the glass batch is poured into round bead molds, then they are faceted with a grinding wheel. The faceted beads are then poured onto a tray and briefly reheated just long enough to melt the surface, "polishing" out any minor surface irregularities from the grinding wheel.