BEAD and SAVE offers a wide  and wonderful variety of glass beads. Glass beads have been around since 3000 B.C. and because of their versatility are still widely used today. Glass beads come in an infinite and diverse range of colors, shapes, textures and patterns and can be transparent, translucent or opaque. The glass can be “crackled”, pressed, molded, faceted, fire polish, painted, speckled - the applications are endless.

The quality of glass beads often depends on where and how they were made.  Most beads created from glass are now produced by machine, but there are some that are still hand-crafted.  Today, there are those that are crafted by a combination of mechanical and handmade methods, such as hand faceted beads which are cut to have many flat surfaces and can mimic the look of gemstone beads.

Some of the most popular glass beads used today come from the Czech Republic.  Czech glass beads can be pressed into fun shapes such as animals, flowers and fruit.  Other Czech beads are fire polished to give them an extra sparkle and shine.

China and India are now producing wonderful glass and lampwork beads, and are less expensive than beads crafted in Europe.

From the many kinds of materials available to create beads today, glass is still one of the most popular and enduring.