Nicole Carlson of Canada painstakingly applies dot upon dot to create her Warring State inspired beads.  One bead can have hundreds of dots.  Visit her website, Lovestruck Designs, to learn how the beads are made.

Another bead that is steeped in history is the 'evil eye' bead.  It has been used for thousands of years to ward off evil.  There were/are people who believe that wearing an eye bead will ward off evil.   The theory is that bead distracts the evil from the wearer's eyes to the bead's eyes.  

Eye beads can be as simple as a bead with a circle within a circle

 or as beautifully complex as the beads created by the American Jinx Garza.

Jinx sells her work exclusively on ebay.  You can view her current and recent offerings by clicking here. 

As can be seen in the picture of Jinx' bead, lampwork beads frequently imitate nature. Floral patterns are common in beads and animal shaped lampwork beads abound.  Fish, turtles, teddy bears, elephants, dogs, cats, frogs, etc are all represented today as they have been since the beginning of beading. 

Inspired by the Australian seaside in which she lives, Steph creates bear beads as well as tropical fish, frogs, mushrooms, florals  and 'fantasy' families.  Visit  her online at her website or her ebay store.

Lampwork artists are not always content to work with glass alone.  Some of them embed other objects, such as gold or silver foil into the bead. 

Focal bead created by American Kaye Husko of Koregon

This bead was created by using pure .999 silver inside.  The foil was then encased with shades of green and blue.  You can see the silver poking through.   Kaye and her husband Dan auction off their beads on ebay.

One of the things that strikes me when I view all the beads listed above is the amount of control and precision the lampwork artist must have.  Because of that I always smile when I see a bead that has been rolled in powdered glass (frit).   For me, the randomness of the frit adds a special element to the bead.  Frits can be flush with the surface or present a raised, granular effect like sugar sprinkled on a cookie.  You can see the frit scattered across the center of these beads created by Jon Hunt.

Americans, Jon and and his wife Renate sell from their ebay store BubbleBeader.

And on the playful note of the frit bead, I will end this column.  I have probably left out more styles than I have included.  My goal was to give you an idea of the diversity of the lampwork bead.  I hope I accomplished that.

References

Beads of The World by Peter Francis, Jr.
The History of Beads by Lois Sherr Dubin