Various Types of Wooden Beads

Beads made of wood were used in the first computing equipment called Abacus. These beds are extensively used as prayer beads by the Hindus. The Muslims and Christians also took up the use of wooden prayer beads when these religions came into contact with Hinduism.  The Wood Badge provided in the scout training has its origin from the two wooden beads used by the founder of Scouts Baden Powell himself to give a distinctive award to the first leadership trainees at Gilwell Park in 1919.

Wooden beads are as old as the wood available to humans. It has been in existence for millenniums on this planet. The making of wooden beads is a wonderful pastime. It requires high patience and slow working stamina. It is possible the making of a wooden bead at the place of a carpenter in the past would be one of the basics of passing the apprenticeship. Since the wood carvers use a variety of woods, the same are available in a host of shapes, colours and sizes.

The various types of trees provide different kinds of wood for carving. Sandalwood, rosewood, ebony, bamboo, and ironwood are some of the examples of the wood used for carving beads. The wood of these trees is used for the special grainy natural etching in the wood provided by nature itself.

There are some trees like sandal that are used for making beads for the fragrance of the wood. This is considered the best material for making a Christian rosary, a prayer Mala of Hindus and a Muslim Sibha. These beads are light in weight also that makes the sandalwood an ideal prayer bead.

Rosewood is a wonderful wood for beads due to its dark grains that appear heavily on polishing or sanding. These are also famous for their therapeutic qualities as they are said to get the wearer rid of negativity. This in turn improves the general psychological health of the wearer.

Olive tree gives the heart wood for making beautiful beads. It has a natural red grain that darkens with age and creates beautiful designs of its own.

The wooden beads are extensively used for making jewelry. These are light weight, can be easily painted and polished. The wooden beads can have larger holes than any other material without compromising its durability. This makes the wooden beads ideal for using a variety of stringing material. The wooden bead can be mixed with other types of beads to create pretty jewellery designs. There are several designers who try to find their own type of wood to create their signature beads famous all over the world.

The wooden beads for making jewelry are available in different shapes, colours and sizes. Painted ladybird, white round strings, silver wood beads in various shapes, flower beads, wooden buttons beads, wooden cross beads, black and white button designs, twine covered, cube shaped, round medium and small size wooden beads in various colours, wooden animal shaped beds, flat oval beads, satin covered unvarnished beads made of wood are all the rage among the jewelry designers.