Big Bead Little Bead Blog

STANDARD BRACELET SIZES Refer to the individual Bracelet Size Charts below for standard fashion industry bracelet sizes for children, bracelet sizes for women and bracelet sizes for men. The...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2012/09/jewellery-bracelet-size-guide.html

In my role as Fashion Editor for the Bead Society of Great Britain I wrote this article for the last edition of the quarterly BEAD SOCIETY JOURNAL. It describes the religious origins of Shambal...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2012/05/shamballa-bracelets.html

A GLOSSARY OF JEWELLERY CHAIN FROM A TO Z This GLOSSARY OF JEWELLERY CHAIN combines a simple black and white illustration alongside a description for each style of jewellery chain available f...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2012/05/jewellery-chain-to-z.html

WHAT IS LAMPWORK Lampwork is a type of glasswork used to create smaller glass objects using a fixed directional flame to melt the glass, whilst using lamp working tools and gravity to shape the...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2012/01/making-lampwork-glass-beads-what-is.html

HISTORY OF POLYMER CLAY In 1939, German doll-sculptor KATHE KRUSE made the first formulation of what would eventually become known as the polymer clay brand Fimo , and gave it to her young daug...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/10/making-polymer-clay-beads.html

The rare perfect sphere of a natural pearl, lustrous as silk and round as a full moon, has for many centuries been a prized possession and signifier of wealth. The soft creamy colouring flattere...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/07/history-man-made-faux-pearls.html

Miriam Haskell, seen below, was a celebrated American jewellery designer and business woman. She was noted for her original but affordable hand-made costume jewellery, which successfully ref...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/06/people-miriam-haskell.html

STEAMPUNK as a concept came to prominence in AMERICA in the mid to late 1980s as a sub genre of science fiction writing, focusing on an alternate reality where the world is still moving forward ...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/05/history-steampunk.html

HISTORY OF PAPER BEADS Making paper beads is a traditional craft that goes back, in England at least, as far as the Victorian age. Young ladies would gather socially in their dining rooms, whils...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/05/making-paper-beads.html

MURANO’S glassmakers held a virtual monopoly on quality glassmaking for centuries and as such it remains the longest lasting centre for glass making in history. During this time they develop...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/04/glossary-venetian-glass.html

20TH CENTURY Prior to the start of the 20th century, years of simply repeating traditional glass forms had caused the quality and popularity of Murano’s blown glass to decline dramatical...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/04/history-venetian-glass-part-3-of-3.html

15TH & 16TH CENTURY The Renaissance, from 1400 to 1640, had a profound affect on Italy, and Murano in particular. At the start of the 15th century it is recorded that the island of Murano now...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/04/history-venetian-glass-part-2-of-3.html

Venetian glass is form of fine glassware produced, developed and refined over many centuries in Venice, Italy, primarily on the islands of Murano. This one square kilometre group of island t...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/03/history-venetian-glass-part-1-of-3.html

Although dating back to biblical times (and in particular the Book of Exodus 28 and 39), the custom of wearing Birthstones in Europe probably first became popular in Poland in the 16th Century. ...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/03/guide-birthstones.html

Don’t let the scientific nature of the word ‘theory’ intimidate you! Colours are one of the basic tools of any artistic endeavour, and colour theory attempts to explain how the eye percei...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/03/theory-using-colour.html

The first post in what will be a series profiling the talented makers who are producing one-off hand-made beads  for Big Bead Little Bead . MAAP STUDIO are a husband and wife team based...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/03/profile-maap-studio.html

We had read that it is possible to oxidise the surface of sterling silver, silver plate and copper using just the magical sulfuric properties of a humble hard-boiled egg. This intrigued us, and ...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/03/science-oxidising-with-eggs-in-home.html

If you have a favourite piece of jewellery made from sterling silver, here is a clever, cheap and easy trick to restore shine. We tried it on some recently acquired vintage sterling silver charm...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/03/science-cleaning-sterling-silver-in.html

We love learning the history of the beads that we unearth for the site. Some beads are discreet about their origins, some simply refuse to give any information away despite the use of arm-twisti...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/03/vintage-oriental-beads-with-story-to.html

The modern history of Czech glass bead making is closely allied to the impact that the First and Second World Wars and the subsequent Cold War had on the region as a whole. The region where glas...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/03/history-czech-glass-beads.html

We recently took a few samples of these blown glass beads as we were curious to see the quality of them before we placed a larger order across the range.   They are Chinese glass in imita...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/03/blown-glass-beads.html

The earliest bead making civilisations produced beads using the wound method,  indeed it is one of the first ways in which glass beads were made. Ancient cultures, such as the EGYPTIANS, heate...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/03/wound-glass-beads.html

Sommerso is the Italian name for the glass-making technique whereby one layer of glass lies submerged beneath another (the literal translation is 'submerged' or 'sunken glasses'). The technique ...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/03/sommerso-beads.html

What we love most about vintage beads and components is the story that they have to tell, and whether that story is 'actual' and provided to us by the seller of the pieces, or is 'told' by the ...

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2011/03/richelieu-satinore-clasps.html