Information on Beads Beads have played an important role in every major civilization and have have often served a more spiritual purpose.

They have been used throughout the ages and in virtually every culture, not simply as adornment but to express social circumstances, political occurrences, and religious beliefs; as a form of currency; or as symbolic embodiments of curative powers.

And they're colorful, made of various interesting materials, and can be combined in endless configurations.

Beads, small perforated objects, usually spherical, that may be strung into necklaces and bracelets or attached to clothing or furnishings.

The word bead is derived from Middle English bede, meaning “prayer,” and was originally applied to prayer beads, or rosaries.

Beads are made of a variety of materials: seeds, wood, ivory, bone, horn, shell, coral, pearl, jet, amber, gemstones, metals, ceramics, and plastics.

They were worn in the Stone Age—and still are in traditional communities—as amulets or charms, probably because magical properties were attributed to the materials of which they were made.

Beads have also been worn since early times for decoration.

Easily portable, they have, in addition, been objects of exchange.

Archaeological finds reveal that a variety of gold bead necklaces were worn in ancient Mesopotamia and India.

Egyptian nobles favored wide collars of colored gemstone, ceramic, or glass beads.

Byzantine courtiers and Mughal Indian nobility wore ropes of pearls.

In Europe, pearls and also glass beads, manufactured since the 13th century, were popular both for jewelry and embroidery.

Women wore strings of pearls, first real, later artificial, a fashion that continued into the 20th century.

Hundreds of tiny glass beads or seed pearls were embroidered on dresses, church vestments, small pictures, boxes, and baskets or were strung and knitted into ladies' purses or used as fringe on dresses and lampshade.

Native North Americans and tribal Africans wore strings of small beads and embroidered beads on their clothes and bags as, for example, the skin tunics of the Inuit and the aprons of the Nubile.

Africans also trimmed headdresses with beads and covered vessels and stools with them.

In addition, beads were used for money as, for example, shell wampum on the east coast of North America.

Originally the beads were made from natural materials such as shell; subsequently they were replaced by glass beads obtained from European traders.

Today, the variety of Beads available to bead enthusiasts is almost as extensive as their history.

From simple shells or Wooden Beads carved from naturally occurring materials to more complex items such as Ceramic, Acrylic and Plastic Beads, the Bead industry is one of the oldest surviving trades on the planet!