Beads

Beads are decorative accessories often used on fabrics, bags, shoes, jewellery and clothing. Beads are usually woven together with the help of threads and wires or are adhered to a surface. The art or craft of attaching beads to one another or to another surface is called beadwork. Beadwork techniques include loom and off-loom weaving, stringing, bead embroidery, bead knitting and bead crochet among others. European beadwork mainly involves work done with glass beads, seed beads and Murano beads. These are used in embroidery, crochet and various other beadwork techniques.

Some of the different decorative beads are Dichroic beads, ethnic beads, fused glass beads, fire-polished beads, lead crystal beads, shell beads, pressed glass beads, seed beads and Faux natural beads. Cylinder beads have become quite popular during the last decade. They are reasonably uniform in shape and size and have large holes. Beadwork with cylinder beads offer a flat and smooth texture due to their ends being flat instead of rounded like most beads.

Glass beads come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours. Different types of glass beads are Chevron beads, fire-polished beads, Table Cut Beads, Lampwork beads, Millefiori beads, pressed glass beads and Swarovski crystal beads. Bead shopping can be done on many online shopping sites and stores.