Bead Strands

Beads are one of the oldest decorations known to man and show no sign of slowing down in popularity.

We sell a wide range of semi precious and gemstone beads for jewellers. Our bead strands come temporarily strung, either on a plastic cord or a small piece of thread – just for storage and transportation.

Beads have been used for millenia, with the oldest historical specimens being found in the Blombos Cave site, between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago.

We have thousands, if not millions of examples of Roman glass and stone beads, in fact, they exist in every historical culture I can think of. Many cultures have a more modern historical tradition of beading too, with strong traditions in Eastern Europe, and amongst native Americans etc.

Beads have been made of just about every material that naturally exists, and plenty of modern artificial materials too.

I’ve seen historical beads made from snail shells, teeth, bone, glass, minerals, and ceramics.

In more modern times, the most common materials for bead making are probably semi precious stones, glass, ceramic, and plastic.

Glass beads are made around the world, with famous workshops or districts in Italy, the Czech Republic, China, and Japan.

Anyone with a strong interest in the subject could do much worse than to book a trip to Venice and visit the Museo del Vetro – the glassmaking and beadmaking museum of Venice which covers the venetian and millefiori beads made on the island of Murano.