People have been weaving for centuries.  The earliest humans wove grass and strips of animal hides into seats, clothing ornaments and jewelry.  Today many people weave strands of beads together to make jewelry and belts.  But some people actually take cotton thread, bamboo, plastic, leather, metal and other materials and weave those materials into beads. 

Soft materials need a form to help them keep their shape.  These fabrics are typically woven over a bead.  In the picture above, the leather is woven around a wound base.  Clear acrylic also makes a nice base, particuarly for a summery plastic in an open weave.

Some materials, such as metal can hold their own shape once the bead is formed.  One trick is to weave metal around a sugar cube.  When you have your metal in place, put the bead in water and wash away the sugar.  You have a light airy open weave metal bead.

Another weaving method involves creating a frame much like an embroidery hoop and weaving around the frame.

The picture shown above is a hollow, open metal weave around a frame.  However, you could also embed beads between the woven layers or string beads on the metal as you weave.  Another option is to place small beads on the thread as you weave.  Our last picture shows small pearls on nylon thread woven into a bead. 

As you can see, there are many variations on weaving beads.  Woven beads are surprisingly affordable given the amount of work they entail.  Depending on the material used, they can be as cheap as 1.00 a bead.