Seed beads are little beads commonly made of plastic, glass or metal, they can measure from one millimeter and are used in jewellery making, clothing patterns, household decoration to name a few of their uses.

Who makes these beads?

The Czech Republic are the largest manufacturer, they make glass beads, firepolish beads and also crystal beads. Other places that are renowned for making seed beads are Japan and France. The French usually make their beads from reprocessed metals. India and China are rapidly becoming as efficient in large scale bead making as other places but be aware, the quality is not as good.

What types of Seed Beads can you get?

Seed beads come in all sorts of textures and shapes. They can be transparent, translucent, opaque, coloured, lustered or matte finished as an example. Japanese beads are famous for their cylinder shape which makes the bead not as round in shape but it has more of an area for design work. Charlotte Cut beads have areas of the surface cut to make the bead more shiney, Charlotte Cut beads are also known as single faceted beads as well are 2 cut or 3 cut beads all depending on how many surface cuts there are.

What size do Seed Beads go up to?

Seed beads come in varied sizes, commonly a size 11 bead is an inch in size, these sizes go from 5 to 24. A bead is measured before it is cut so if you’ve got a bead that has been presumed as an inch in size possibilities are it is somewhat less than an inch due to wastage from it being cut. Alas seed bead sizes are not accurate.

How are the quantities measured?

Seed beads are not measured by the amount; the logistics of counting out hundreds of beads makes it nearly impossible to be exact. Instead the beads are measured by weight or a hank. A hank is a bundle of beads made up generally of 12 strands if it’s a size 11 beads for example. Purchasing beads in a hank does work out far better for price than purchasing them loose. Czech beads are usually sold as a hank were as Japanese beads are not.

Siffion Quaid has had an interest in bead jewellery for a long time and where to buy beads. On his site are great deal of articles making reference to beads and also about seed beads.