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Made of Glass
Introduction: Making glass beads is an extremely ancient human art, dating from Egyptian and Roman times. Modern glass beads are made by a variety of methods: wound, drawn, and molded. There are also composites, such as millefiore and chevrons, in which cross-sections of drawn glass cane are applied to a wound glass core. The wound glass method involves heating glass and winding the thick liquid around a metal wire or “mandrel.” While molten, the bead can then be shaped or decorated.
These Aquarium Lampglass Earrings are made from wound glass beads. While on the mandrel and being turned, or “wound,” bits of silver foil and blue and aqua glass were added.
For drawn beads, a long strand is pulled out of a “gather” of molten glass in such a way as to incorporate a bubble in the center to serve as the hole in the bead. The drawn tube is then chopped, producing individual drawn beads from its slices.
The pearlized and colored seed beads in these Pearl Seed Bead Loop Earrings are made by the drawn glass process. The long pulled rods have been sliced into many tiny seed beads.
Molded beads are formed when thick rods of glass are heated and fed into a complex apparatus that stamps the glass, including a needle that pierces a hole.
The beads in these Olive Glass Earrings has been formed by pressing the molten olive glass into a rectangular mold with rounded edges.
Now let’s talk about (and look at) some different beautiful types of glass beads. Lampglass (or lampwork): Lampglass beads are handmade, one at a time, over an open flame. As the molten glass is turned on a wire mandrel, bits of colored glass and other materials are added, melting into the bead and becoming a permanent part of it when it is annealed (cooled and hardened).
Lampworking is both an old and a modern art, thanks to great new technology (propane torches instead of oil lamps, for example).
Lampwork beads are made in many different places: Italy, the Czech Republic, Japan, China, and, most recently, the United States—where many wonderful glass artisans are making unique and thrillingly intricate handmade glass beads.
A wide range of patterns, colors, and designs are possible. The finished bead may look as though there are flowers on it or inside it. 
The patterns might be more abstract, such as swirls of different colors or different shades of the same color.
The outer shell of the bead may be clear glass, with colored glass embedded in its center.
Foil Glass: One particular variety of lampglass bead that is especially lovely is the foil glass bead. Gold, silver, or copper foil is added while the bead is molten and thus is embedded inside the bead, either near the surface or around the core.
Sometimes the foil presents a crackled sort of pattern that’s very pretty. Sometimes the foil is smooth and even; it reflects light beautifully.
Nifty, huh? There can also be flecks of gold or silver, swirls of “gold dust” (aventurine glass powder), and other great effects.
Eye Beads: A common and ancient motif is the “eye bead.” Circular marks, like eyes, are added to the glass beads in an attempt to bring the wearer good luck and protection from the so-called evil eye.
Millefiore: Millefiore (also spelled millefiori) means “a thousand flowers” in Italian. The technique for making millefiore beads and other objects is ancient, but it became very popular in Renaissance Italy, where the glass furnaces were moved from Venice to the nearby island of Murano because of fear of fire. Venetian beadmakers, at one time, were sworn to secrecy and not allowed to leave Murano. Beads were powerful political and economic objects, as well as objects of beauty and ritual, in part because they were used as currency in the massive slave trade.
But the technical knowledge for creating millefiore was lost by the eighteenth century and only revived in the nineteenth century.
Within several years of its rediscovery, factories in Italy, France, and England were manufacturing canes. Today, China also produces millefiore beads in many patterns, colors, and shapes.
Millefiore beads are made from canes, rods of glass clustered together to form the floral designs. The canes or rods, known as “murrine,” have multicolored patterns that are viewable from the cut ends. The rods are heated in a furnace, pulled until thin (while still maintaining the cross-sectional design), and then cut into beads or discs when cooled.
The beads may be large pendants or donuts, small rounds, flat discs, rectangles, squares, ovals, or even stars.
Chevrons: Chevron beads are special glass beads that were first created in Venice and Murano, Italy, toward the end of the fifteenth century. The beads are drawn into long molten rods made from glass canes with layers of alternating colors. The canes are formed in star-shaped molds and, when cool, are cut into short segments that reveal a star pattern in cross-section.
Chevron beads are very popular collectors items, and they are still highly valued in present-day West Africa, where they continue to be worn for prestige and ceremonial purposes; they are occasionally buried with the dead. Chevron and rosetta or star beads are now also being manufactured in India and in China.
Blown Glass: Hollow beads of blown glass are formed by a technique that involves inflating the molten glass into a bubble with the aid of the blowpipe, or blow tube. Glassblowing involves three furnaces: a crucible of molten glass; the “glory hole,” for reheating a piece in between steps of working with it; and an annealer, which is used to cool the glass slowly to keep it from cracking because of thermal stress.
Modern lampworkers use a flame of oxygen or propane or natural gas. The molten glass is attached to a stainless steel or iron rod, the mandrel, for shaping and transferring a hollow piece from the blowpipe.
Sand Glass: Ethnic beads, usually from West Africa, are made from crushed bottle glass shaped into cylindrical beads with stripes and heated until the glass bits fuse together. Furnace Glass: Furnace glass beads, also called cane glass beads, are made by hand, using a technique for fusing small canes of colored glass into a larger rod that is encased in clear glass, fired in a kiln or “furnace,” and cut into cylinders. The separate beads usually have a clear shell with color inside, often in stripes.
Pressed Glass: Pressed glass beads are mass-produced by preparing a molten batch of glass of the desired color, shape, and size and pouring it into molds. A very wide choice of possibilities exist, and the beads can receive various finishes afterward as well, to produce metallic, pearlized, matte or frosted, and AB (aurora borealis/rainbow) effects.
Some pressed beads are made to look like stone: picasso glass has a speckled, marbled look, and agate glass has a striped layered effect.
Swirl glass beads may have twists of white in colored glass bits of color in clear glass, or bands of aventurine gold dust inside the bead.
Luster glass beads have sparkly speckles inside the glass and a shiny surface.
Crackle glass beads have a pretty effect from cracks inside the bead.
Cathedral glass beads, sometimes called lantern beads, have flat octongonal or hexagonal sides that are polished.
Some pressed glass beads have patterns in the mold that show up with metallic finishes.
A subset of glass and lead crystal beads are cut into precise faceted shapes on an individual basis. This is sometimes done by hand, but it has largely been taken over by precision machinery. Swarovski, in Austria, is a famous inventor of this machinery and a manufacturer of crystal. Crystal beads made in China are sometimes called “Celestial Crystal.”
“Fire-polished” faceted beads derive their name from a process in which the glass batch is poured into molds with faceted shapes, allowed to cool, and then poured onto a tray and briefly reheated just long enough to melt the surface—polishing out minor surface irregularities from the mold.
I hope you enjoyed this discussion of the many beautiful kinds of glass beads. By the way, all of the earrings and necklaces shown in my article are available for purchase on my Etsy site, Beaded Jewelry by Susan at http://www.beadedjewelrybysusan.etsy.com.
Great post, it’s nice to see an article all about beads!
A couple of things though, regarding lampwork beads:
1. It’s “lampwork”, not “lampglass” – never seen the term “lampglass” used before, I don’t think it exists (I’ve been a full-time lampworker for over 4 years now).
2. More importantly – it is significant to note the difference between artisan lampwork beads, made by individual self-representing artists in their studios, and mass-produced lampwork beads, which are usually made in sweat shops in the far east (mainly China and India), under appalling working conditions. The mass-produced beads are cheaper, but they are not of good quality. This trade not only exploits the workers in the factories, but also affects artisan beadmakers trying to make a living.
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6378677
Can you tell me which of the beads pictured above are handmade artisan beads as opposed to mass produced?
Thank you for clarifying the different types of glass beads. Lampworked glass beads should, however, fall into 2 categories: those produced by artists, art beads, and those produced in factory conditions by child or convict labor, available at many sites as “lampworked” glass at ridiculously low prices. Yes they are cute, but at a human cost. If an ad promises a specific bead for a dollar, chances are these are the ones. Those not wishing to promote distasteful practices should look at the source of what they are buying.
Thanks for pointing out the importance of the distinction between U.S.-made artisan lampwork beads and foreign-made beads. Yes, there is a difference in both quality and price.
I have seen the term “lampglass” in a number of places, but “lampwork” may indeed be the more accurate word. Either way, the basic idea is that the beads are created one at a time over a flame rather than pressed into a mold.
The issue of poor treatment for people in developing countries who are creating handmade goods for export raises many complex questions that are beyond the scope of this modest article about glass beads. The answers are not as straightforward and easy as might appear at first glance. Certainly, as the number and range of everyday items (athletic shoes, handbags, dishware, toys, etc.) that Americans choose to import increase, questions of provenance and protections abound.
Offering beaded jewelry in a range of affordable prices for everyday wear sometimes means using a mix of beads — American and foreign, new and vintage, handmade and machine-made. To my knowledge, my customers haven’t had problems with quality or breakage.
Thank you for your response, Susan.
I just want to point out that the distinction is not between US-made beads and foreign made beads, it’s between artisan made beads and mass-produced ones. For instance, I live in Israel so if you’re in the US my beads would be “foreign”, but they are definitely not mass-produced, I make them all myself in my home studio – yes, one at a time, over a flame. There are artisan lampworkers all over the world.
You are right, the issue of artisan made goods vs. mass-produced in China is a complex one. However, Handmade Spark (I recently discovered this site and I love it) is a website that aims to “educate sellers about promoting and buyers about finding great handmade goods all across the Internet” and “find the people making great handmade things”, so I would think that in an article about glass beads, it would be important to make the distinction between the people making handmade lampwork beads and the beads made in factories in China. You wouldn’t expect to find a post about mass-produced earrings here, would you?
There is a large community of lampworkers from all over the world on Etsy and on other handmade sites, and this has been a very sensitive issue for us for years.
If you search for “lampglass” on Google you’ll get lampshades, not beads. The term is “lampwork”.
Thanks for reading this.
Thanks for all the information, Sarah. I surely didn’t mean to get in the middle of anybody’s sensitve issues!
I’m just a lady who loves beads. My husband has joked that we need a bumper sticker saying, “We brake for beads.” We have stopped at antique and resale shops when traveling to see if they had some vintage goodies. Friends who travel to faraway places (sigh) occasionally bring back beads for me. I buy beads mail-order, online, at trade shows where the salesperson is sometimes the artisan and sometimes an employee, maybe even a tired, uninformed one or one who doesn’t speak English. In the midst of bead mania, I don’t always know the exact provenance of the beads I acquire. And I’ve been doing this for almost twenty years, so now my memory of the story behind each bead is getting fuzzy to boot
I can tell you that the first pair of earrings pictured in this article, the Aquarium Lampglass Earrings (as I have misnomered them, I guess) do have an interesting story that stuck in my mind. I’ll quote from my Etsy description:
Sometimes beads have special stories connected to them, and the handmade lampwork beads in these earrings tell a tale of their own.
Fifteen years ago or so, I met a man and his son from the Czech Republic who had come to live in California and had a bead import business. The father told me about a German woman who was 80 years old at the time. She still made beads, one at a time over an open flame, that held colored glass shapes and sterling foil inside them. He said that each bead looked very much like an aquarium. I was intrigued and asked him to send me a few of the beads, even though they were costly and he had only a few.
And so I used the aquarium beads to create these exquisite earrings, adding Swarovski crystal jet and aqua beads and sterling silver accents and earwires.
Beads are the best, aren’t they?
Thanks for sharing that story. Those earrings are beautiful.
I agree that this post is comprehensive and informative but as both a bead fanatic and primarily a glass artist definitley feel the need to have two distinct categories for lampwork beads. Not only for the discrimination for the makers of mass produced beads (which I abhor) but for the justification of the price of artisan made lampwork beads.
As an artist trying to make a living from my work, it is not possible for me to explain to every potential customer the difference between my beads and the ‘other’ beads. When possible I have written information available regarding what makes my beads better ranging from originality in design to glass quality and kiln annealing etc. But not all people take the time to read these things and will simply pick up a cheap imitation for a tenth of the price. Education is the answer and I do what I can to differentiate the two forms of lampwork to whoever will listen until one day it will be common knowledge.
Thank you for the post and thank you to the others for bringing up a subject that is so relevant and important to me.
Joy
ps ive not heard of lampglass either but each to their own. I prefer flameworker myself
I too make my own jewelry and lampwork beads. I have found that in selling it is a good idea to let the buyer know what they are buying. Since handmade beads usually cost more you would want to explain that to the consumer so they will understand why a particular item is more expensive. You may not know the story bethind every item but you know if a gem is real or not, so why wouldn’t you know if a bead is mass produced or handmade.
This article and the posts were very helpful to me. I have only been doing this for about 6 months and this gave me alot of information. Thanks to everyone. Now all we have to do is inform the people that buy our handmade pieces, then they will understand too. I have mentioned lampworked beads to people who had np idea, just thought glass beads.
This has been one of the best posts – to me – so far on Handmade Spark! I make cards, not remotely anything connected to beads, but I am an earring nut…or addict might be a better term! It was so interesting to read about all the different types of beads out there. And I enjoyed all of the comments so far, too, reminding me again what makes artisan-made beads so unique and special! Thanks so much for writing this!