Teardrop & Briolette Beads – the jewelry designers’ friend!

Teardrop and briolette beads are among the most interesting shapes to make jewelry from.  The rounded outline is pleasing to the eye, giving a classical and natural harmony to the design - and almost all types of gemstones are available in these shapes.

Briolette comes from the Italian word “brio”, meaning lively energy, and the dictionary definition of the word is “a gem cut in the shape of a teardrop or oval”.  However, briolette beads come in many different forms.  Like elongated and skinny, short and fat, and flat and round - as well as smooth and faceted with many faces cut from the stone.

Briolette jewelry arrived in Europe from India in the early 17-century, but went out of fashion after a hundred-years, until its popularity revived during the Victorian period.  Since then, this elegant cut has always been associated with quality and luxury.  Briolette diamonds and gems dazzle in the crown jewels of the Austrian, Russia, British and France royal families, showing off their facets from all angles.

The drop of a briolette is ideal to dangle as a pendant on a necklace.  Not only does this make it easy to make jewelry, but because they can be mounted several ways, designs can be more varied.  Try using the same briolette gemstones to make earrings to match a necklace.  Not only does this look good to wear, but increases your profit by selling matching sets.

However you use this pleasing shape, it will have wide-appeal and create dressy jewelry that always sells well. If you buy your jewelry-making supplies online, many stores allow you to choose by shape, making finding briolette beads fast and easy.  Like MrBead - to see their teardrop & briolette beads click MrBead.com or MrBead.co.uk. 

Some of the most-popular briolette beads readily available are cut from:

To see or buy great teardrop & briolette beads click MrBead.com or MrBead.co.uk