Handmade Glass Jewelry

At Girlie Girls Jewelry Studio, we consider jewelry to be an intensely personal choice. What we wear expresses our personality, our outlook, our feelings, our dreams. We are mother and daughter and we design handmade glass jewelry. We believe our collection of handmade glass beaded jewelry elevates handmade accessories to a higher level of imagination and creativity. As you explore the site, you will see for yourself the many styles of custom glass jewelry that we have created for our Girlie Girl friends.

We have an extensive selection of art glass jewelry for you to choose from; in fact our collection of contemporary handmade glass jewelry is so complete that you can’t help but find several pieces for every occasion, including casual and formal wear and everything in between.

Did you know that the technology for glass bead making is among the oldest human arts, dating back 30,000 years? Glass beads have been dated back to at least Egyptian times. The Egyptians had their version of art glass jewelry and oftentimes they preferred colored glass over gemstones. The colors of the glass had special significance for how they represented their deities. However, for centuries, glassmaking techniques were a very carefully guarded secret particularly in Venice, Italy, the origin of Venetian – Murano glass.

Most handmade glass beads fall into three main categories: wound beads, drawn beads, and molded beads. We incorporate several types of these beads into our custom glass jewelry.

Wound glass beads
Probably the earliest beads of true glass were made by the winding method. Glass at a temperature high enough to make it workable, or "ductile", is laid down or wound around a steel wire or mandrel coated in a clay slip called "bead release." The space occupied by the mandrel becomes a hole through the bead when the bed is slipped away. Turning the mandrel and holding it in different positions allows gravity to help the bead take form, but tools are also used to push and pull glass beads into shape. These are a type of lampwork beads. The Island of Murano in Italy had a monopoly on glass making starting in 1291. Handmade glass jewelry was for the wealthy patrons of the glass masters or maestri. Drawn beads
There are several methods for making drawn beads, but they all involve pulling a strand out of a gather of glass in such a way as to incorporate a bubble in the center of the strand to serve as the hole in the bead.

Molded beads
Thick rods are heated to molten and fed into a complex apparatus that stamps the glass, including a needle that pierces a hole. By making canes (the glass rods fed into the machine) striped or otherwise patterned, the resulting beads can be more elaborately colored. One `feed' of a hot rod might result in 10-20 beads, and a single operator can make thousands in a day. Lampwork beads
After the “wound”, the delicate multicolored decoration is added by hand, a labor intensive process. Modern lampwork beads are made by using a gas torch to heat a rod of glass and spinning the resulting thread around a metal rod covered in bead release. When the base bead has been formed, other colors of glass can be added to the surface to create many designs. After this initial stage of the bead making process, the bead can be further fired in a kiln to make it more durable.

Girlie Girls has found unique sources for all of our handmade glass beads and we incorporate them into the handmade glass beaded jewelry that’s designed to be uniquely you! We’ve designed all of our custom handcrafted jewelry with a bit more imagination and pizzazz and we have poured pure personality into each custom glass jewelry piece. Are they fashionable, distinctive, and stylish? Of course! Do we have classic, timeless bracelet designs for Girlie Girls seeking a sophisticated or glamour’s look? Absolutely! Our art glass jewelry collection continues to grow...you will find attractive handmade glass jewelry for your every mood and fashion taste.

We have designed beautiful, distinctive one of a kind glass bead bracelets and glass beaded necklaces. They are distinctive in that we incorporate charms, freshwater pearls, gemstones, Swarovski crystals, precious metals and unique findings; sometimes they even “dangle” into an endless combination of designs.

The best way to discover the many amazing designs available on our site for handmade glass beaded jewelry is to explore the site…visit the Handmade Bracelets Directory page and get an eye-full of the many styles of glass beaded bracelets we have to offer.
Visit the Handmade Necklace Directory page to see out of the ordinary glass beaded necklaces. We even have a section dedicated to the various lengths of necklaces, so you know which length is right for you.
There are also the Jewelry Sets pages; there are exclusive handmade jewelry sets – bracelet, necklaces and earrings in exciting and innovative styles in handmade glass jewelry.

Each handmade glass beaded jewelry piece comes beautifully gift-wrapped at no extra charge, and if your order is over $150, it ships free. Read the testimonials from our customers and join an exclusive group of delighted owners of fine handmade glass jewelry.