How to Tell the Difference Between Glass Beads & Plastic Beads

Glass or plastic? A few tests will help you find out.

Beads have been a popular item in arts and crafts for centuries. Among many other possibilities, you can use them to make jewelry, adorn furniture and spice up clothing. Traditionally, colored glass has been the material used to make beads but, since the advent of advanced plastic manufacturing, more and more beads have been mass-produced from colored plastic. Some of the plastic beads are made so well you need to know a few tricks to tell the difference between them and their glass counterparts.

Things You'll Need

• Small scale
• Hammer
• Safety glasses

Instructions

1. Pick up the bead in your bare hand. Glass beads initially feel cool to the touch, because they are more dense than acrylic (the most commonly used substance for plastic beads that mimic the look of glass), but they also warm up fairly quickly in your hand, whereas acrylic beads take longer to change temperature.

2. Measure the weight of a bead you know to be glass against one that you're not sure about. Acrylic beads are much lighter than glass beads.

3. Test one of the beads by lightly tapping it with a hammer (if you have a large batch and can spare one). Put on your safety glasses, place the bead on a hard surface and tap it with the hammer. A glass bead will crack quite easily, while the hammer will bounce off of a plastic bead under a light blow.

References

• Jewelry Making: Vintage Lucite Beads
• Beads: Acrylic Beads
• World and I Magazine: The Glory of African Beadwork