How beaded curtains are made, from bead to finished curtain

1. How beaded curtains are made: the beads

Beads come from three sources, depending on look and budget:

Glass beads made in our glass furnaces. Specialty beads such as dotted or Venetian styles are small runs, and larger glass beads can be annealed for strength.

Acrylic beads, injection-moulded and dyed to your colour.

Faux capiz discs for the shell look without using shell, in 10 to 30 mm sizes. We make them three ways: resin cast to shape (no cutting waste), dyed acrylic cut to shape, and, in development, laminated pearl chips (not yet available).

Weight matters as much as look. Very thin discs tangle and do not hang straight. Heavier, larger discs make a portal, a beaded room divider or a valance fall correctly.

3. Stringing a beaded door curtain to a count sheet

A 90 x 200 cm graphic curtain can carry about 11,800 beads. Each strand is strung to a colour-count sheet so the pattern lines up edge to edge, then fixed to a wooden dowel. This is hand work: there is no automation for stringing a beaded curtain, which is why labour is a large part of the cost.

5. Faux capiz: three ways to get the shell look

Some buyers prefer to avoid real capiz shell, so they ask for faux capiz shell. Cast-to-shape resin saves the waste of cutting discs from a sheet, dyed acrylic gives a thinner, lighter disc, and laminated pearl chips are a route we are still developing. For a capiz room divider or wall hanging, weight and diameter decide whether it drapes properly.