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Beader’s dictionary


G

GLASS

Born from the fusion of sand and mineral matters, glass is a fascinating material that plays with contrasts; familiar yet mysterious, it can be synonymous of fragility or strength, it keeps surprising and often gives us mind-blowing artistic creations. Mankind started using natural glass as obsidians, then later on learned to make it themselves. The techniques used to make glass evolved and mankind started making transparent glass, shaped using glass-blowing methods. Then with industrialization and progress in chemistry and physics, began the mass production of glass and its usages keep diversifying. Glass is one of the most used components in the making of beads. It can be found under various shapes; seed beads, cat-eye, fire polished, crackled glass, pressed glass, Murano glass and many more.

Cat-eye glass

Synthetic cat’s eye is made of optical fibers. The same as the ones used in telecommunications. The goal is to make with the glass the same chatoyant effect as the natural cat’s eye, a well known gemstone. The optical fibers (made of quartz fibers) are merged and coated with colorful glass.

Crackle glass

Crackled glass beads are basically simple colorful beads. They are then heated and submerged in water. The thermic shock produces fissures and cracks in the glass beads, giving it its crackled aspect. Although this method is calculated and controlled, the beads obtained are slightly weakened by the process.

Fire polished

Fire polished beads have been made in the Czech Republic since the 14th century. These beads are made of a high quality glass and hand cut. The fire polishing technique consists of exposing the cut beads to extreme heat. The heat smoothens the surfaces (facets) and the ridges and provide a shine and a luster that are closer to that of the crystal than the glass. Once cooled, the beads are polished and sparkle. Fire polished glass beads are often considered to come in 3rd rank in terms of crystal quality however, the glass that is used does not contain lead which makes it different from crystal. Nonetheless, the glass that is used remains a higher end quality product. Most of the colors and coatings available in crystals such as Swarovski crystals are also available in fire polished glass bead, which can increase confusion.

Foil lined glass

Murano beads or silver foil are glass beads in the center of which are inserted silver-like foils. This insertion gives them a metallic aspect, a shine and a luster that recalls the fabrication process derived from the Murano island in Italy. In Murano, real silver leaves are inserted in the beads which is why they are called silver foil.

Gold Stone

Gold stone as it is commonly called is often considered as a precious stone but it is not one. In truth, it is a type of glass in which are integrated copper crystals. Under a reduced flame, copper and silica are mixed to make a bluish green colored glass. Once the mixture cools, the copper, through a thermic isolation process, creates minuscule copper crystals. The most common gold stone is semi-transparent and brownish red in color. It derives its color from particles of copper. The other types of gold stones (blue goldstone, purple goldstone, green goldstone) are obtained by adding cobalt, manganese or chrome oxides to a highly colored matrix of the corresponding ionic color. The crystals from these variants are more likely to be silvery. In english it has many aliases: aventurine glass, stellaria, sun sitara, monk’s gold or monkstone.

Press bead

Press beads are obtained when glass in fusion is put under pressure in a mold. At times when the bead has a design or a relief, it is stamped at the same time as the glass in fusion in the mold. The Czech republic is the main producer of pressed glass beads. India and China are also important producers but in of a lesser quality.
O

OBSIDIAN (See products)

Obsidians are vitreous volcanic rocks that can be translucent to opaque. It can be found in black, grey, brown and green. Flower obsidians and snowflake obsidians are sprinkled with clear grey spots. Some varieties have gold or silver reflections caused by crystalline inclusions. They can be found in the Equator, the USA, in Indonesia, Iceland, Italy, Japan and Mexico. A little history: Obsidians were named after Obsius (a character from Ancient Rome). He would have indicated to the presence of the stone in Ethiopia.