Glass Beadmaking

Handmade glass beads are one-of-a-kind creations. They begin as colored glass rods, which are heated in the flame of a torch and carefully melted, blended and decorated into their final form. After a glass bead is made, it is placed into a hot kiln to anneal at approximately 968° F. The annealing process gives the beads strength and prevents brittleness.

The earliest known glass beads go back some 40,000 years, though it is likely they were made even earlier. Some of the most famous glass beads of history were made by ancient Egyptians and the Italians during the Renaissance.