Pictorial Guide to Popular Bead Shapes and Styles

The bead illustrations, bead pictures and descriptions provided in this glossary focus on glass bead and crystal bead shapes but generally speaking they are equally valid for lucite, metal or any other material that has been used to produce beads throughout their long history. This bead shapes chart should assist with identifying beads, confirming their hole orientation, as well as providing a little bit of history about their origins and manufacture. If there is anything else you want to know, just ask on our Contact Us page.

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Jump to section: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Almond

See Marquise

Animal

Atlas

Used to describe a tube bead with pentagon sided shaped ends and therefore similar in shape to a flat sided pencil.

Axe

A bead that resembles the head of an axe.

B

Ball

Balloon

Bamboo

Banana

Barbell

Baroque

An irregular rounded bead, glass, imitation pearl, or stone that has an uneven or craggy shape or surface.

Barrel

Bean

Bib

Bicone

Bike Chain

Bottle

Bow Tie

Branch

Brick

Briolette

Both a shape and a style of faceting. It is an elongated pear or teardrop shaped bead or stone usually covered in bands of triangular or rectangular facets although it can also be smooth. It usually has a pointed end and can be side or top drilled. Like many reflective beads, a briolette may be enhanced by an additional finish such as Aurora Borealis or fire polishing. Briolette refers to the faceted cut, not a color or size.

Bugle

Thin tabular shaped glass beads manufactured in lengths of 2mm to 35mm and with a width of 1 to 2mm.They can be threaded into jewellery or glued or sewn on to fabric as decoration.

Button

C

Cabochon or Cabachon

From the French word caboche is a semi precious or precious stone that has been cut, shaped and polished as opposed to faceted. It is usually elliptical in shape with a flat back and an oval top. This shape is commonly used with opaque to translucent stones such as opal, moonstone, jade and turquoise. Less expensive transparent stones such as amethyst and garnet, are also sometimes fashioned as cabochons. A garnet cabochon is also referred to as a carbuncle.

Capsule

Cathedral

Has facets around the middle of the bead. The top and the bottom of the bead are usually patterned glass, often with a gold or silver coating. They are called cathedral beads because they have a gothic quality to their shape.

Charlotte Cut

A type of seed bead where one side is faceted to make them sparkle. Originally they were only made in 13/10 sizes and therefore charlottes in other sizes are referred to as true cuts or one cuts.

Chaton

Is a cone shaped crystal bead or gemstone where the top circular edge is bevelled.

Chip

Cog

Coiled

Coin

Collar

Column

Concave

Cone

Convex

Coral

Cupolini

Corn

Cornflake

Cornerless Cube

Corrugated

Cosmic

Couch Cushion

Crescent

Cross

Crow

Are similar in shape to seed beads and pony Beads but are larger and squarer. As with seed beads they are cut from tubes of glass or plastic and polished to give a smooth rounded oval finish. They are usually 6mm in length with a 3mm hole or 9mm in length with a 5mm hole.

Cube

Is a bead with a cube shape that has a hole that runs through the middle of one side to the middle of the facing side. When the hole runs from corner to corner they are called Diagonal Cube beads. A common mistake is to call cube beads square but as detailed under this later entry a square bead must be flat in one dimension.

Cubist

Cupolini

Curve

Cylinder or Cylindrical

Beads are cylindrical in shape with the hole running through the longer length of the bead.

D

Dagger

Diamond

Dice

Disc or Disk

Dog Bone

Donut

Double Cone

Drop

Druk

Drum

E

E Bead

Is another name for size 6/0 seed or pony beads.

Egg

Emerald Cut

F

Faceted

Are smooth beads of any shape which have had facets cut in their surface. Facets can be cut by hand in which case the artisan uses a box like cutting device which cuts facets on many beads at once, or alternatively they can be cut by machine. Machine-cut beads have facets that are not as perfect as hand cut beads and so they are also fire-polished to cause the bead surface to become molten which makes them shiny.

Faceted Round

Fan

Fancy Drop

Figure 8

Filligree

Flat

Flat Diamond

Flat Oval

Flat Rectangle

Flat Sided Potato

Flat Sided Round

Flat Square

Flat Triangle

Flower

Fluted

Beads have grooves down their sides.

Flying Saucer

Football

Four Facet Ball

Frangia

G

Galactic

Gear

Graphic

H

Hair Pendant

Half Moon

Hassock

Hawaiian Chip

Heart

Heishi

Pronounced Hee Shee is a term originally used by Pueblo Indians of New Mexico to describe shell discs that had been made of a consistent size and shape and strung together to form a necklace creating a rope like tube. Nowadays it is used to describe thin uniform disc shaped shell, gemstone, metal or wooden beads that are centre drilled and strung in a row.

Helix

Hexagon

Hogan

A bicone bead with a corrugated surface. They are frequently made of metal.

Hour Glass

I

J

K

Keishi

Knucklebone

L

Ladder

Leaf

Lentil

M

Macadam

Margarita or Marguerita

Marquise

Pronounced Mar Keys this is an elliptical or oval shaped bead or stone with points at both ends. It is said to be named after the smile of the Marquise de Pompadour. It is also known as a navette.

Melon

Moon

Moon Drop

N

Navette

See Marquise

Nibblet or Niblette

Noodle

Nugget

Is similar to a baroque bead but in addition to being more or less round but unevenly surfaced they tend to be shorter than they are wide.

O

Oblong

Octagon

Olive

One Cut

See Charlotte

Onion

Oval

Oval Go-Go

Oval Tube

Oxyhedron

P

Pagoda

Peanut

Pear

Pebble

Penny

Pentagon

Petal

Pillow

Or window beads are generally speaking smooth beads that have two or more facets cut across their surface. On the non window part of the bead there is usually a coating or some other effect to accentuate the difference between the two faces.

Pinch Bead

Pinched Oval

Are ovals that have a flat or angular depression on two or more sides.

Polygon

Pony

Are slightly larger than seed beads but smaller than crow beads. Typically 8/0 or 6/0 in size they are available in a wide variety of colours and finishes.

Post

Potato Chip

See Pagoda

Puffed

Puff Heart

Puff Oval

Puffy Pillow

Pyramid

Q

R

Rectangle

Rhombus

Rice

Rice Crispie or Crispy

Ring

Rocaille

See Seed Beads

Roller

Rondelle or Roundelle

Is a slightly flattened round bead.

Rope Edge

Rb

Rotund

Rounds

Round Tube

Rounded Square

Ru-yi or RuYi

S

Saucer

Seed

Shell

Simplicity

Slice

Sliding Diamond

Are best described by taking two diamond shaped beads (with a diamond being a square say up on one corner) separating them slightly and then filling in that space between them

Spacer

Spangle

Spear

Sphere

Spirals

Sputnik

Square

Square Ball

Square Tube

Star

Stick

T

Tabular

Tanfouk

Tapered

Teardrop

Tile

Tip

Tire

Trapezoid

Triangle

Trillion

Tri-Oval

True Cut

See Charlotte.

Tube

Twist

Any shaped bead that is partially wound around itself similar in fashion to the shape formed when you wring out wet clothes. Any shape tighter than this would be considered a coil or spiral.

U

V

Vertebrae

W

Wafer

See *Disc

Watch Band

Wavy

Any bead with an undulating shape or surface.

Wavy Rectangle

Any rectangular bead with an undulating shape or surface. A shape that’s somewhere between being flat and twisted or a bead with wavy surface decoration.

Wavy Square

Any square bead with an undulating shape or surface. A shape that’s somewhere between being flat and twisted or a bead with wavy surface decoration.

Wheel

A thin, circular centre drilled bead, usually with flat sides and with a flat outer edge. Similar to a disc, this shape is also known as a rondelle, tyre, spacer or a wafer.

Window

See Pillow

Wing

As you would expect these beads resemble a single or pair of wings from an angel, bird, insect or other flying creature.

X

Y

Yuanbao

Refers to a bead shape based on a Chinese silver or gold ingot which was used as currency up until the 20th Century. Also known as sycee or tael these beads are typically flat or puff shaped and resemble a simplified butterfly.

Z

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