Crafting Wires

2015年5月27日星期三

Characteristics of Seed Beads

The seed beads are shaped in uniform way and they are spheroidal beads that are found in many sizes from under millimeter while others are somehow large. However, the seed bead is the generic term which is used for any type of small beads. They normally have a round seed and they can be used for off-loom or loom bead weaving. They can be used on a simple string or on the spacers within the beads.  Large beads may be used as the embellishment or they may be crocheted by a flexible or soft wire.

There are two methods used to make the seed beads: the drawn method or the wound method. The wound method is a traditional method and it is time consuming.  It is rare to be found in the modern bead production. With the dawn method, air bubble is created into the gather and the iron bars are put aside. The tube is cooled and cut into small rings while the rings have been tumbled in order to remove the sharp edges so that the beads may be used.

The type of the seed beads may depend on where they came from. Before the Second World War, Eastern Europe had a thriving bead industry which is found mostly in Bohemia.   Other producers of the glass beads were France, Italy and Germany. The beads that were made in this period are known as vintage and they are expensive.  Most of the current beads are found in Czech Republic, India and Japan.  The Japanese seed beads are in the same finish, shape and size while they also have large holes compared to the Czech seed beads.
There are some beads that are found in France and they are in the historic old time. These colors are used to repair or to replicate the antiquities.  Low quality beads are made in India, China and Taiwan. The type of the seed beads may also depend on its color. They color lined is color coating which is applied in the beads and sometime this may not be for a long period since the color may change as the type passes.
 
Transparent beads are seeing through beads and the translucent beads are when the light pass through the beads before it is diffused.  Other colors are opaque which is a solid color which prevents the light to pass through the beads, matte is when the beads have been textured at a certain level and this leads to the matte finish.  The silver lined is when a silver line is coated on the beads to reflect the light.

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