
Plastic
beads, as the name suggests, are made from plastic. Apart from
glass beads and
stone
beads, plastic beads are the most common types of beads used for
various beads crafts, jewelery making, and other bead work.
How Plastic Beads are Made?
Plastic is a very flexible material.Therefore, it is made in a variety of shapes by the beads manufacturers by
the method of molding. The 'caste' or the plastic substance is injected into molds to produce differently shaped beads. The molds are such that automatically make the holes in the beads so that
stringing material can be driven
into them for craft works. By giving different forms to the plastic, many
types of plastic beads such as
round beads,
square beads,
cube
beads etc. are produced. There are three basic types of beads
produced- opaque, transparent and translucent.
Opaque Beads are
solid colored beads that do not allow light to pass through them.
Transparent Beads allow light to pass through them. They may be
clear beads (without any color) or colored beads.
Translucent Beads also allow light to pass through them but only
partially. They are also either clear or colored beads.
These basic types of beads are then given various finishes to make them
more beautiful and useful for various crafts.
Plastic Bead Finishes
Bead finishing is very important process for
giving desired look to all types of beads including plastic beads in order
to make them suitable for different bead projects.
Lustre-
The beads in this type of finish is given colorless transparent coatings to
make them very glossy.
Matte- Matt finish denotes a very low-lustre, velvety, smooth
surface. Sometimes, the matt finish beads are referred to as " frosted
beads " too. The matted transparent beads can be called translucent
beads.
Metallic- The metallic finish is basically opaque in appearance. It
is coated with certain materials that give the impression of metal but the
underlying substance remains plastic only. The basic metallic coatings
include gunmetal (hematite), bronze, gold, silver, copper, antique gold, or
antique silver. There may be many other kinds of metallic finishes.
Satin Finish- To give a satiny surface to the plastic beads, a
low-lustre effect is given to them. This appearance can be placed between
glossy and matte finish.
Faceted Finish- For giving sparkle and flash to the beads, faceted
finish is given to them. Faceted, in fact, means that the surface of the
bead is cut into many different sides or faces. This produces
faceted beads through which light travels
and bounces off the bead creating glow and flair. The faceted plastic beads
are sometimes also called machine cut beads.
Measurement and Sizes of Plastic Beads

Beads are generally measured in millimeters. Plastic beads (or other beads too)
range in size from under a millimeter to over a centimeter in diameter. One
centimeter is equal to ten millimeters. However, more commonly people prefer
to work with size 4mm plastic beads to 10mm plastic beads depending upon
their project requirements. Some projects, especially beaded jewellery
making, might need larger plastic beads than 10mm size but it is not
difficult to find even 15-16mm plastic beads.