Seed Beads

Seed Beads Types

Seed beads are categorized on the basis of their country of origin and also on the basis of their shape.

Seed Beads Types- Country Origin

Beads industry was a thriving industry before World War II in European countries like Czechoslovakia, Germany, Italy and France. Although most of these were glass seed beads, some metals like aluminum or steel were also used for making these beads. Now most of the high-quality seed beads are made in Czech Republic and in the Asian country Japan. Japanese seed beads or the Miyuki seed beads have more uniform size, shape, and finish. They also have larger holes than Czech seed beads of the same size. However, Japanese seed beads are available in very few styles with the wholesale seed beads suppliers. Chinese seed beads and Indian seed beads are of lesser quality as compared to the Japanese and Czech seed beads. They have less uniform shape, hole size and finish.

Different types of seed beads made by seed beads manufacturers of these countries are available in different sizes. However, there are no sizing standards among seed beads manufacturers. For example, a Czech seed bead of 11/0 may not be of similar size as of a Japanese seed bead of size 11/0.

• Czech Seed Beads Sizes- 6/0, 8/0, 10/0, 11/0, 13/0, 16/ 0
• Japanese Seed Beads Sizes- 5/0, 6/0, 8/0, 11/0, 15/0
• French Seed Beads Sizes- 10/0, 11/0, 14/ 0
• Venetian Seed Beads Sizes- sizes vary from one seed bead manufacturer to other
• Chinese Seed Beads Sizes- 11/ 0 (some larger, smaller)
• Indian Seed Beads Sizes- 6/0, 11/ 0 (some larger, smaller)

Seed Beads Types- Shapes

Depending upon the beads shapes, seed beads are divided into following types.

Rocaille Seed Beads: Rocaille or "roh-kai" seed beads originally referred to round, silver-lined seed beads having square holes. However, nowadays all round seed beads having either a round or a square hole are called rocaille seed beads.

Delica Seed Beads: Delicas are the Japanese seed beads in shape of cylinders. These cylindrical seed beads have a relatively large hole for their size. Therefore, they are also light weight beads. This lets the buyers get more beads per gram when buying wholesale seed beads.

Bugle Seed Beads: Bugle beads are longer tube beads. These tube shaped seed beads come in many sizes. Bugle seed beads have different lengths and all bugle beads are longer than they are thick. This characteristic creates a tubular shape.

Faceted Seed Beads: Like most of the other types of beads, seed beads to come as faceted beads. These are basically cut beads. For example, in Charlotte seed beads one cut, or facet, is made to create sparkle. The 2 cut seed beads are cut or faceted in two places and in 3 cut seed beads, sides and ends are cut or faceted, for creating the most reflective surface.

Other types of seed beads on the basis of shapes include Hex cut seed beads which is a six sided bead. Drop or Magnatama seed beads are shaped like a teardrop, farfalle seed beads have a double teardrop shape. Seed beads also come as triangle and square beads. Maco seed beads are super thin, short bugle shaped beads. Other than delica seed beads, there are other types of cylindrical seed beads too such as Treasures and Aikos seed beads.