Beads for Jewelry Making: A Comprehensive Guide

Are you interested in learning how to make beautiful beaded jewelry but are unsure of where to start? Jewelry making is a wonderfully creative, expressive, and artistic handicraft hobby that is growing in popularity day by day. After all, it’s one of the best feelings in the world when someone complements your jewelry and you can say “Thanks, I made it.” You can make jewelry with just about anything including metal, glass, fabric, and even paper! This guide will offer a comprehensive overview of one of the oldest types of jewelry components: beads! There are so many different types of beads for jewelry making and below we will break down all the types and what they are used for.

Beaded jewelry is extremely trendy right now and that’s because beads are extremely versatile and come in all manner of colors, finishes, sizes, shapes and materials. The most basic defining characteristic of what makes a bead a bead is any item, usually on the smaller side, that has a hole going through it allowing the bead to be hung or strung. Sometimes items that are a bit larger and have an off center hole near one edge are classified more as ‘pendants’ than beads. But there is so much more to beads than this dry classification would have you think! 

Below you will learn about Seed Beads, Czech Glass Beads, Crystal Beads and Semi-Precious Gemstone Beads and the best jewelry-making applications for each type of bead as well as common pitfalls for beginners to avoid when working with each type of bead.

Seed Beads for Jewelry Making

Seed beads are so called because they are typically extremely small glass beads and are most often the best beads to use for bead weaving, bead crochet, bead embroidery and any other applications where you need many very small beads to create the desired effect.  Seed beads are also excellent to use in simple bead stringing and are currently the trendiest for simple beaded necklaces and bracelets as well as waist beads. Seed beads are the preferred beads for fringed earrings as they are small and light enough to make big statement earrings that are not too heavy to wear. 

There are several top brands for seed beads that offer the best quality and the widest selection of colors, they include two major Japanese manufacturers,  Miyuki and Toho as well as the famous Czech brands Preciosa and Matubo. Each company offers its seed beads in various sizes, shapes and colors which can differ slightly from each other. For example, you may find that a round 11/0 from Miyuki is slightly different than a round 11/0 from Preciosa. 

For most projects, you can easily use any brand of bead as long as it is the right shape or size but if your pattern calls for a specific brand by name, you may find that using a different brand can make your work a little wonky. 

You can also certainly buy other brands of seed beads or unbranded seed beads out there on the internet but you should be mindful of three things: 1) you may find that the no brand beads are not actually glass but lucite or plastic which is fine to practice with but will make your finished jewelry feel light and cheap, 2) lower quality beads might not wear well so that the color can start to rub off or they may look tarnished or scratch easily and 3) unbranded seed beads tend to vary much more in size and shape as well as hole size than these known and trusted brands which means that you will spend a lot of time culling your beads and although they are cheaper, you may find up to half of the actually unusable. 

If you are spending hours making jewelry, save yourself the frustration and pick your beads from a trusted source. At Eureka, we only carry high quality name brand glass seed beads from Toho, Miyuki and Preciosa. If you want to learn more about the different types of seed beads and what each type is best used for, check out our blog post entitled Frequently Asked Questions about Seed Beads.

Czech Glass Beads for Jewelry Making

The term ‘Czech Glass Beads’ refers to a special category of glass beads that traditionally come from a region in the Czech Republic called Bohemia. They are sometimes also referred to as Bohemian Crystal or Bohemian Glass. These beads are still handmade in a traditional style in small batches which can vary slightly in color from production run to production run. Although Preciosa Ornela is a brand of seed beads also from the Czech Republic, those beads are not necessarily what is referred to as Czech Beads. 

Czech beads tend to be larger than seed beads with the most popular sizes being 4mm and 6mm and they also come in a huge variety of shapes and styles. Czech beads are also notable in that there is a very large variety of  multi hole beads now available which increases the creative possibilities immensely. These make them the most unique beads for jewelry making on the market today. 

The most popular single-hole Czech beads are  Fire polish beads and Druk beads. Firepolish beads are round beads that are made of pressed glass which are then roughly cut with facets. Then the beads are hung in large ovens to be heated once more which softens the rough facet edges and makes them extra shiny. Druk beads are made the same way but they do not have facets, they are just perfectly round pressed glass beads. 

The most popular multi hole Czech beads are Super Duos which are kind of shaped like little peanuts and have two holes. Czech beads are used most commonly when you need a unique bead shape to create an intricate design or when you want to add some larger beads into your strung jewelry. These specialty shapes give you many creative options when designing jewelry and are an excellent addition to your bead stash. To learn more about the different types of Czech Glass Beads we carry, check out our blog post entitled  An Easy Guide to Czech Beads.

Crystal Beads for Jewelry Making

Crystal beads are beads made from crystallized glass. That means that they are not made from natural quartz crystals but actually from a very special type of glass which includes additives to it that make the glass harder than normal glass as well as more refractive of light. This is the same meaning of the term ‘crystal’ as when it’s used to describe fine crystal stemware. The harder glass allows for more precise and sharper edged facets and the refractive qualities means that these crystals are extra sparkly. 

At Eureka we carry Crystal Beads from several European brands as well as Chinese Crystal. By far the most famous,  Swarovski Crystal, has taken their loose bead and stone offerings out of the DIY market (read more about what this means for you here) but we still have some old stock left which we will continue to offer until it sells out. 

Alternatively, we offer Elite Eureka Crystal Beads which are indistinguishable in quality from Swarovski as well as  Preciosa Crystal beads both of which will continue to be available for the foreseeable future. 

Crystal beads also come in a variety of shapes, the most popular of which is called the bicone because it has the shape of two faceted cones stuck together. The bicone is both practical as it has a minimum number of cuts (every facet on a bead increases the cost of manufacturing), for maximum sparkle effect. Crystal beads can be used in a small amount to add a subtle sparkle to your jewelry project or in large quantities to create jewelry that is eye-catching, elegant and for special occasions. 

One thing to always keep in mind when designing with crystals is to be mindful of the thread you are using because the sharp edges of these beautiful sparkly beads can cut through threads that are not strong enough. We recommend any fishing line type of beading thread for use with crystal beads such as Fireline or Wildfire (beading wire is good too). Learn more about Elite Eureka Crystal Beads  here.

Semi Precious Gemstone Beads for Jewelry Making

Semi Precious Gemstone Beads are any and all beads made from natural stone or natural pearl that most often have been cut, shaped, polished and sometimes dyed to create beautiful beads which retain the properties of their original mineral. 

Some of the most popular minerals to make beads from are crystal quartz, rose quartz, amethyst, lapis, agate, turquoise, tourmaline, spinel and moonstone. These beads are not as uniform in color, shape or size as glass or crystal beads that are manufactured. These natural beads contain variations due to them being a lightly processed natural material. 

We choose only the highest quality natural stone beads and minimally process them to highlight each bead’s unique natural beauty. 

Semi Precious Gemstone beads are not ideal for any type of beading that requires multiple passes of thread and needle as natural stone is not as strong as manufactured glass or crystal. They are however ideal for bead stringing and for creating beautiful statement bracelets and necklaces. Read more about the different metaphysical properties of mineral-derived beads here.

Where to Buy Beads for Jewelry Making

So now you’ve learned some basics about all the types of beads available for creating beautiful jewelry, your next stop is to shop for the right types of beads to fit your needs. 

At  Eureka, we carry all the above-listed bead types plus so much more like tools,  needles, and findings. If you are a beginner with a limited stash of beads, the best recommendation is to find a project you want to try and buy all the beads and supplies you will need for that project. You can browse our video tutorial library for inspiration and ideas, each video page will list all the materials needed so you can get exactly what you need to create the design.

If you’re a seasoned beader or small business owner and you need beads in wholesale quantities or bulk beading supplies, you can  contact us directly for more information at service@eurekacrystalbeads.com.