Bead Dictionary Letter F

Introduction

In the late 1990s, Penny Diamanti, Joyce Diamanti and Robert K. Liu started working on a Bead Dictionary. Around 2009, after much work by the Diamantis, the Bead Dictionary was posted on the Beadazzled website. Through the years, additions were made by Beadazzled. In the summer of 2018, when the Washington DC Beadazzled store and its website closed, the Bead Dictionary was offered to Ornament. This is a unique resource, especially rich for information on beads of ethnographic and ancient origins. As Ornament has only a staff of three, we are slowly reposting it on our website, updating or expanding some of the entries and are adding search features, links and references as time permits. The Bead Dictionary covers primarily beads and other perforated ornaments, but also tools and materials used by those who make jewelry utilizing beads. Photographs from the Ornament archives are being added, as well as new images taken expressly for the Bead Dictionary and others are being brought up to current standards, as many of these images are almost 30 years old. Original photography was by Robert K. Liu, while Cas Webber did additional photos for Beadazzled, noted in the captions as RKL or CW, after first captions.

This Dictionary of Beads is a labor of love and a work in progress. We welcome your comments and suggestions through the Contact link. To navigate, select from the visual index above to jump to the letter you want in the Dictionary, but give the page a little time to load first. To get back to the top and select another letter use the arrow button. We are continuously adding to the Dictionary, so check back often. 

To search for keywords in Dictionary headings, use your browser's search function; for example in Internet Explorer use Control+F and in Apple Command+F, then type in your keyword. We hope you enjoy this (not-so-tiny) treasure, and learn more about the vast world of Beads.

Face Beads

Face Beads—Roman

Faceted Glass

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See Also: Firepolished Beads Swarovski Crystal

Faience

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See Also: Donkey Beads—Iranian and Egyptian Faience Warring States Beads—Ancient Chinese

Faience Beads—Chinese Beads

While faience was invented toward the end of the fifth millennium B.C. in the Near East, this synthetic silicate was not used for beads in China until the late Zhou Dynasty. Cylindrical and short bicone beads of pale blue faience are shown here; the bicone beads having been found strung with jade elements in long necklaces. These are 0.6 to 1.5 cm in diameters. Rare shapes include tabular beads; there are also ring beads that may be made of other Chinese silicates, like Chinese Purple. The other image shows a cache of primarily Zhou beads and ornaments of bone, stone, glass and faience, including the ones described. Included among the glass beads are those from the Warring States Period, as well as barium-rich glass ones, both unique to Chinese glass of this time. The glass earspool could be of Zhou vintage, although these became more widely used in the later Han Dynasty.

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See Also: Faience Ear Spools—Ancient Chinese Erhtang

Fakes

An imitation that is meant to decive, usually for profit. For example, new beads that are antiqued and sold as ancient are fakes. However, other new beads that resemble old ones may be reproductions or replicas; simulations or copies; or artists’ interpretations.

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See Also: Replicas and Reproductions Simulations and Copies Interpretations of Beads Face Beads

Fancy Jasper

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Faux Amber

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See: Amber Imitations

Feathering

Feldspar

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Fetishes—Native American

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Figaro Chain

Chain is made up of series of links, in which a drawn-out, oval loop alternates with one or more round loops. These links usually articulate, similar to the way curb chains do, with their slightly twisted links that mesh smoothly together.

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Files

Files are useful for a variety of jewelry making applications: smoothing rough edges on metal beads and finding or shaping and detailing polymer clay or PMC both before and after firing. Their small size makes them ideal for resizing bead perforations and working in other areas that are hard to get at.

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See Also: Round Your Wire Tool

Filigree

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Fimo

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See Also: Polymer Clay Dustin, Kathleen City Zen Cane Voulkos, Pier

Findings

A term for the various connectors used in making earrings, necklaces, and other beaded jewelry. Findings include clasps, cones, caps, earwires, headpins, crimps, bead tips and much more.

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Fireline

A pre-waxed single-ply bead thread made from gel spun and then bonded polyethylene. This bead thread is thin but one of the strongest threads available, comparable in strength to cable wire. Fireline fits beading needle sizes #10, #12, and #13. It is stretch and fray resistant, and although it is a bit stiff, it knots fairly easily. Fireline thread should be used rather than Nymo® when increased strength is needed for certain bead-weaving projects.

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Firepolished Beads

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See Also: Pressed Glass Beads

Fish Shaped Beads

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Fish Vertebrae

Fishhook Clasp

Flex-Rite Beading Wire

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See: Cable Wire

Fluorite

Fluorite, also known as Fluorspar, gets its name from the Latin for “flow” or “flux”; fluorite is used as a flux in glassmaking and other processes. It in turn gives its name to fluorescence, or luminescence under ultraviolet irradiation, a phenomenon first observed in this mineral.

Chameleon of gemstones, fluorite covers the color spectrum, from clear to yellow and green, to blue and purple, to almost black, but occurs mainly in greens and purples with color zoning. It can be confused with many gemstones, and its color can be changed by radiation. Translucent to transparent, crystalline fluorite has perfect cleavage and takes a high polish.It is found mostly in Germany, England, and the US

Among fluorite’s purported healing properties is the power to cure insomnia. It is also thought to focus divergent energies, promote concentration, and develop the intellect.

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Foil Glass Beads

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See Also: Gold Glass

Folded Beads

Many of the ancient Islamic glass beads from the Middle East, which date from the 8th to 12th centuries, are of a type called folded beads, in which the right and left-hand sides appear to mirror each other. Made by a multi-step process, in which a ring of patterned glass is folded upon itself, such beads may date to the 8th-11th centuries. They are usually of barrel or tabular form, as shown in the photographs (barrel bead is 2.8 cm long). In recent times, glass artists like Tom Holland have replicated this process, as well as incorporating the technique into thoroughly modern interpretations. Jamey Allen explored the process in Fimo.

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Ford and Forlano

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See: Fimo City Zen Cane

Fossilized Bead Materials

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Fox Tail

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Frantz, Patricia

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French Bullion or French Wire

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See: Bullion

Freshwater Pearls

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See Also: Pearls

Frosted Glass

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Fulani Wedding Beads

Most of the beads made for the colonial trade were based on prototypes that had been used earlier and were usually valued in the countries that were consumers of these trade goods. In the second image below, some multicolored glass pendants, which are known in the trade as Fulani wedding beads and are also popularly called lightbulb beads, are compared to some blue glass pendants from Mali. The basic shapes are similar, although the colors are not. The ancient beads were made by lampworking, while the modern ones were molded.

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Fumed Glass

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Furnace Glass Beads

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