When making a necklace or bracelet, using different bead sizes and shapes, proves valuable to attain a detailed piece of jewelry. Beads can be in almost any shape possible today, such as animal, fancy, flower, carved, faceted, nugget, heart, star, cube, round, triangle, square, tube, briolette , alphabet, cross….
Some natural beads have their own shapes such as glass pearls beads are generally round beads. However, other natural beads like those made from stones are given different shapes by cutting and polishing. In fact, gemstone cutting is considered an art that gives birth to faceted beads of oval, square, triangular and many other different shapes. Those made from other materials like stone, plastic, acrylic or glass beads are given shapes according to their targeted usage.
The term faceted is given to a bead that has many edges (faces) upon its surface, thus creating more dimensions; Cabochons is the name given to a bead that has a flat back, i.e. a gem or stone to be mounted onto a flat surface such as a ring base or an earring stud base; Crimpbeads are tiny metal beads that are designed to be squeezed together to secure other beads onto a wire. These beads can also be referred to as jewelry findings; Jewelry charms and pendants are beads that are intended to hang from a piece of jewelry; it can come in every shape imaginable and is usually made from a metalized bead.
Beads colors vary from black to blue, from brown to clear, from gray to green, from orange to pink, from purple to red, from white to yellow, Assorted.
The choice of bead, size and color is dependent on the maker, the type of piece being made and the impact it’s intended to create. For delicate pieces, chips, seed beads and bugle beads can be threaded with small spacer beads.
As for chunkier looks, large
wholesale beads made from any material will work well. The thread used must match the size of the holes in the beads too or you may end up with thread that is too thick for the holes or jewelry beads that are too heavy for thread.
Also, although it is good to mix and match beads but be sure to check they are well suited before threading them and when threading, space all beads evenly throughout the piece to ensure symmetry, a beading board can be a useful tool here.
