The enduring appeal of beads

In 2021 a team of archaeologists reported that they’d discovered the world’s oldest jewellery. During a dig in a cave in western Morocco, they unearthed 33 sea snail shells, each one containing a hole where it had been intentionally drilled. Dated to 142,000-150,000 years ago (more than twice as old as the oldest known cave paintings), the beads would have been threaded on string, making them the earliest form of decorative adornment ever found.

It’s this simple construction that has made the bead the first and most enduring form of jewellery. With no melting of metal required, no setting or faceting, it meant the earliest civilisations could string and wear natural materials, such as animal teeth, bones, ivory and coral to display status, identity and wealth.

Later, between 400 and 800 AD, sapphire beads mined in Sri Lanka were drilled and strung and then traded west along the Silk Road. During medieval times, beads became decorative and devotional with the advent of the rosary. While from the 15th to the 19th centuries, glass beads would become an easily portable and divisible trading commodity; the Victorians using elaborate beadwork to display wealth and jet beads to signify mourning.

Today, beads continue to appear in fine and high-jewellery collections – from the biggest houses to smaller independents. Playful and informal, they’ve been an integral part of Carolina Bucci’s business since she launched her Forte Beads in 2018, after three years of development. ‘I had been making plastic beaded bracelets with my sons as a summer activity for years, and decided it was time to create something more precious,’ she says. Comprising carved hard stones, such as turquoise, tiger’s eye and lapis lazuli, customers can choose their configuration before stringing them on gold cord. ‘The reaction from the jewellery world and retailers was that they didn’t get it… clients, on the other hand, understood at once and it went on to become one of our biggest hits,’ she says. ‘There is a playful spirit to it and clients often find the process of choosing adjacent colours and playing with them like a form of meditation. It’s very therapeutic.’

Beads as talismanic amulets are the mainstay of Ananya’s proposition. The jeweller’s beaded Chakra bracelets, in a variety of stones, such as moonstone and amethyst, tap into the idea that crystals convey a healing and invigorating energy. Cartier has not been immune to the trend either – in 2024, the luxury jeweller brand created a special-order rosary for Wes Anderson’s 2025 film The Phoenician Scheme, made of rose-cut diamonds and emerald beads.

Redolent of childhood games (as noted by Bucci) beads as adult decoration offer a relaxed style. At Tiffany & Co., perfectly matched turquoise beads have been used in a lariat from the new Bird on a Rock by Tiffany collection, which sees the bird positioned in mid-flight on the necklace. Here, the turquoise beads signify the blue of the sky and also the house’s signature Tiffany Blue colour, which is thought to have taken its original inspiration from the gemstone in 1845. The beads add movement and a relaxed structure to the piece. ‘It’s high jewellery,’ says Victoria Reynolds, Tiffany & Co.’s chief gemmologist, ‘but it’s fun, whimsical and playful – and that’s a very hard thing to accomplish within this category.’

In a similar use of beads at this level, Jessica McCormack’s new Orbit collection offers the Planetary necklace as its hero piece. Here, beads of emerald, golden South Sea pearl, lilac jade, Melo pearl, sapphire and pink coral are strung between gold elements. The rare beads took McCormack two years to source and perfectly express her irreverent take on luxury that has become synonymous with her brand.

For independent jeweller Cora Sheibani, the appeal of beads started at a young age; after a business trip to Paris, her parents brought her back a bracelet from an art dealer. Constructed of African trading beads strung together with elastic and safety pins, they ignited an obsession with jewellery and beads specifically. ‘I thought it was so great and went off to a bead store in Zurich and made two more myself,’ she says. Now beads appear often in her work, particularly in Colour & Contradiction, a collection that sees Sheibani constructing beads from two halves of contrasting coloured gemstones joined in the middle by a band of faceted stone. It’s a complex and labour-intensive process. ‘You have to have seen a lot of jewellery to realise that, although the materials are simple, it’s an expensive way to construct a piece,’ she says.

For Munich-based family jewellers Hemmerle the sentiment is similar, often taking humble materials that they find beautiful and elevating them through craftsmanship and context. In what has become a signature for the house, husband-and-wife team Christian and Yasmin Hemmerle revived a historic Austrian technique that sees tiny hand-shaped and hand-drilled beads knitted in the round with silk to form a bangle. ‘It transforms a individual bead into a flexible, textile-like structure,’ they say. ‘We also enjoy searching around the world for remarkable historic materials, like coral beads recovered from shipwrecks, Tibetan dzi beads or ancient carved Chinese jade. What attracts us in these discoveries is not only rarity but also character: colour, texture and cultural history.’ In a recent piece, a fossilised mammoth tusk forms a statement necklace; confirming that the materials and beads that beguiled early man are just as treasured and sought-after today. A neat, full-circle moment.