Color-lined beads are clear or translucent beads with a solid color center, known as the core.

African trade beads got their name because they were used to trade with the African people for other goods and services.

Chevrons are the most well-known of African trade beads.

Iridescent or AB (Aurora Borealis) refers to the coating applied to the bead. A rainbow finish is applied to the bead, making the bead shimmer.

Matte beads have a duller, frosted looking finish, as opposed to a shiny surface.

Glass beads are special and unique for a variety of reasons. They come in virtually any shape, size, style, color and finish that you can imagine.

Lampwork beads are handmade beads created by melting glass rods in a flame.

A marea finish is applied to glass beads and varies with the base color of the bead.

The most commonly used seed bead size is 11/0, or 2.1mm. You would need about 21 beads to string an inch of 11/0 bead size.

Beads with a silver coating in the center of the hole are known as silver-lined beads.

Seed beads are often sold on hanks, or temporary strings. It can be time consuming to restring the beads one at a time for your project, so we explain two ways of stringing beads that come on hanks.

"Black Diamond" is a lovely name that is used in the glass bead industry. It refers to a transparent grey color that is usually light in tone.

"Montana" refers to a transparent bluish grey color. Montana beads can vary from quite light in tone to so dark that you have to hold them up to a strong light source to tell that they are not black.

Many people get confused about how different beads and wire are sized and how that compares to inches. These tables should help....

This means that there are 144 of an item.

In the beading industry, "std" is an abbreviation for strand.