What are beads made out of?

The best kinds of beads to use when making jewelry can be answered on several different points. Creatively, use whatever you like.

Jewelry is an art form, it has been with us since the beginning of the human race, people have decorated themselves with beautiful and unique objects that represent something special to them.

What is the message you want to convey with the jewelry you make? Use what you decide would get the message across most effectively. From a design aspect, using what is traditionally appropriate for that design, ie., glass seed beads for native American beadwork, is a good place to start, and then incorporating something a little different that you think would look good in the design will give it originality.

From a marketing perspective, semiprecious and precious stone beads are most popular, for example chalcedony briolettes, amethyst, ruby, tourmaline faceted beads, etc. While they cost more than using glass, they also demand a higher retail price for the finished piece. If you are going to spend the time to make jewelry to sell, make quality jewelry using fine materials and you will make more profit in the long run.