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.
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http://sarahhornik.etsy.com Sarah
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http://www.glassbeadkits.com/made-of-glass-handmade-spark/ Glass Bead Kits » Made of Glass | Handmade Spark
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Jessica
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http://fire-in-ice.blogspot.com/ Carol Tannahill
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http://www.beadedjewelrybysusan.etsy.com Susan Campanini
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http://sarahhornik.etsy.com Sarah
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http://www.beadedjewelrybysusan.etsy.com Susan Campanini
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http://sarahhornik.etsy.com Sarah
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Joy
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Patti
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Laura/PetScribbles
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