Faceted Glass Crystal

While the composition of glass and crystal beads is relatively similar, the finished result is quite different. Glass beads tend to be lightweight and inexpensive, while crystal beads tend to be heavier and more expensive. Both are perfectly suited to jewelry making but the question is what is glass?, what is crystal? and what is glass crystal?

Glass in its most basic form is molten sand. Silica sand, a white or colorless crystalline compound that occurs in quartz, flint and agate is combined with additives and cooled very rapidly so that crystal structures do not have time to form. While in a solid state the silica sand is mixed with an alkaline substance like soda ash to lower the melting point of the sand therefore making it easier to work with. Soda ash unfortunately causes the mixture to become water-soluble, so to reverse this effect, lime, from limestone is added. This mixture of sand, soda ash and lime is then melted down at temperatures of 2700 degrees F (1500 degrees C) or highter. In the resulting liquid state, this mixture is worked in one of several ways to produce decorative and functional objects including beads. Glassblowing, lampworking or pressing and molding are three common methods for making glass beads.

Crystal is essentially a basic glass mixtures with additional additives. When lead or lead oxide is added to the basic glass mixture, the refractive index of the finished product increases. The resulting beads or decorative objects are heavier that standard glass and are much shinier. The process for making crystal us an ancient one, having been discovered as early as 1400 B.C. The earliest surviving piece of crystal is a fragment of blue crystal found in Nippur, Sumeria from this period. The process for making crystal was not refined until 1673 when George Ravenscroft, a British artisan, was awarded a patent on the process. Once the process was perfected, it began to be used in the manufacture of fine crystal items, including crystal beads. Crystal beads, like their glass compartments, come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors. in 1895, an Austrian glasscutter named Daniel Swarovski invented a grinding machine that could produce large numbers of high-quality decorative stone from crystal. Thus began the history of the world's finest crystal. Swarovski® Crystal.

While there are no international standards governing the amount of lead added to glass to make crystal, most of the world, with the exception of the United States, follows the official British standard. These standards state that "fine crystal" is composed of 6 to 10 % lead oxide, "lead crystal" is composed of 10 to 20 % lead oxide and "full lead crystal" is composed of 24 % or more lead oxide. Besides the addition of lead or lead oxide, special cutting and polishing processes are used to give all types of crystal significant sparkle. Swarovski Crystal is considered to be “full leaded crystal” as it has a 32 % lead content. Several states in the United States, including California have recently instituted very strict product lead laws and consumers have become concerned about the lead content in Swarovski Crystal. There are numerous articles devoted to this subject online.

In response to the concern over lead content in crystal beads, a few manufacturers have developed newprecision cut glass crystal beads that have less than 6% lead content. These new glass crystal beads come in a whole range of beautiful colors, shapes and sizes. They are also very sparkly! Glass crystal is a beautiful and affordable alternative to leaded crystal beads.