Handmade beads are totally unique

Welcome to February’s blog, last month I promised to talk a little about beads.

I make ceramic beads, which maybe not many of you have used. Handmade beads generally are much more expensive than the beautiful beads you can buy in the Bead Shop, because whatever they are made from, clay, polymer, metal or glass, it is a very time consuming process and ceramic beads can take a week to produce.

Jewellery designers will often use just a few handmade beads in a piece, mixing them with less expensive beads. This keeps the cost down, obviously, but also means each piece is totally unique as handmade beads are never exactly the same. I am asked to reproduce beads quite often, but they are never exactly the same in colour or size, so my customers all have totally unique beads.

The clay first has to be rolled or formed, then left to dry for a day or two before it can be fired in a kiln. Some large kilns have to be left to cool down for another day or two before they can be opened, if they are opened too soon the pieces inside can crack or shatter with a sudden temperature change. Then they have to be glazed with up to 3 or more coats of glaze then fired again.

The finished bead or pendant can have different types of glazes, mat or glossy in every colour under the sun. This is one of the reasons I love ceramic beads – there is no end to the range of colours one can make and glazes don’t always react the way you expect them to, so every kiln opening is a delight and a surprise!

When finished they are quite tough but should be treated like lamp work beads, if dropped on a stone floor for example, they may chip or break.

I am always thinking about and trying to make new designs to keep my shop fresh, at the moment I am making stock for a bead show – I’ll tell you a little bit about that next month!