The purpose of this article on Czech Glass Seed Beads is to provide a thumbnail sketch of the history of one of the most popular trade items used in Native American craftwork. The use of the “seed bead” by Native Americans beginning in the 1800s was the result of hundreds of years of European glass technology intersecting with the westward expansion of the United States across the continent.

What is a Seed Bead?

The term seed bead is confusing as it is can refer to two different types of beads: beads made of nature’s seeds and beads produced in a factory. Obviously, our discussion is of glass seed beads produced in a factory.
Most seed beads are made of glass, however, other materials have been used such as those made of metal in France at the turn of the 19th century. Many of those metal beads were facetted.

Seed beads are made of drawn glass by literally drawing or pulling a hollow mass of glass into a long tube. This pulling can be done by one person alone, by two people or mechanically. The process looks like a taffy pull. The drawn glass tube is then cut into small pieces and then goes through several more processing steps in order to produce seed beads.

Trade Beads Through the Ages: 1. Seven Layer Chevron Bead. Late 1400s   2. Seven Layer Chevron Bead. Late 1400s   3. A Speo Bead. Late 1600s   4. French Ambassador Bead 1850s   5. Baule Face Bead. Late 1800s   6. Black Decorated Bead. Late 1800s   7. Cornaline D’Aleppo Bead. Late 1700s   8. Tabular Bead. Late 1800s   9. Large Chevron Bead. Late 1800s   10. Square Edge Floral Bead Late 1800s   11. Yellow Black Swirl Bird. Late 1800s   12. Millefiori Bead. Late 1800s

Venetian Glass Industry: Emergence of Glass Beads as a Global “Trade Currency” During Age of Discovery

The foundations for glass bead production in Venice were laid before 1500 AD. All glass production factories where moved to the island of Murano to protect the secrets of the Venetian glass making trade that was sought worldwide.

Venetian beadmakers used revolutionary glass making techniques for the time that greatly improved industrial production. This allowed them to overcome the earlier dominance of India and Far East Asia as competitors.

European glass-makers mass-produced huge quantities of beads from the 16th century through the 19th century during a period of exploration that extended to the corners of the earth. Most explorers, traders and missionaries carried glass beads with them as gifts or objects of barter to the native populations. European traders learned to identify local tastes in items used in personal adornment, and responded with appropriate choices to enhance their chances of success in their trade and travels.

A lively bead trade existed initially in most regions of Africa and beads made in Europe were then transported to West Africa by the European traders in their sailing ships, to be used as currency to purchase gold, ivory, palm oil and even slaves. Thus, the term “Trade Beads” typically applies to beads made predominately in Venice and Bohemia and, to a lesser extent, in other European countries from the late 1400s through to the early 1900s and traded in Africa and later in the Americas. This “trade” period peaked from the mid 1800s through to the early 1900s when literally millions of these beads were produced and traded.

Venetians dominated this market and produced the majority of the beads during this time. By the 18th Century, 44,000 pounds of Venetian glass beads were being produced each week and exported around the world. This came to an end following the campaign of Napoleon and the fall of the Republic of Venice.

This industry was considered indispensable, and for centuries they did everything they could to keep production techniques a secret. Severe penalties were used to prevent glass makers from leaving and setting up shop elsewhere. But monopolies do not last forever and many other countries worked to develop their own glass bead industries. The most successful of these was a forested and mountainous region of northern Bohemia, nowadays part of the Czech Republic.

The most common shape for the Czech glass seed bead is like that of a donut, while the fire polished beads are generally round in shape. Fire polished beads are available in other shapes, too: bicone, rondelle, roller, roundlet, pear and parachute. Czech glass seed beads come in a variety of colors and this richness of color is one of the well known trademarks of Czech glass seed beads.

Crazy Crow Trading Post is one of the largest suppliers of Czech (and French) glass seed beads in the market today. They carry strung Czech glass seed beads rather than loose as they are better quality, more uniform in size and easier to use, with fewer culls. Crazy Crow Trading Post has a wide variety of opaque and transparent colored Czech glass seed beads to choose from which makes planning for your next beading project easier.

Important Bead Manufacturing Technology Advances of 1860

The original seed beads were made in Italy from round tubes producing round seed beads. For years the Italians held the monopoly on the process. The Czechs entered the marketplace in the late 18th century.

From earliest times there have been many ways of forming glass beads. The earliest was to wind molten glass around a form and allow it to set and cool, creating round beads. The glass can also be blown into a form or mold, creating hollow shapes in the beads which are lighter than wound ones. A third method is to create blown glass beads without a mold. Beads made in this way are the lightest and most delicate. All these methods have been known for thousands of years, but it was not until 1860 that the first pressed glass molds were developed in Bohemia, producing a product that is more durable and robust than earlier methods.

Typical Native American Tribal Bead Color Preferences

The use of colors by Indian beadworkers varies widely among the many different tribes throughout the U.S. & Canada. These are general guidelines for some of the better known beadworking tribes. Many exceptions to this can be found, but this provides a basis for staying within the traditions for these tribes. One should also be aware that many variations of hues existed within given shades of colors, and these varied from factory to factory as well as in different lots from the same factory.

See color chart by tribe and article on Native American Tribal Color Preference.