A Wild Ride Through Ketang to Discover How Beads Are Made!

Today we take you inside a world few people ever get to see—the heart of a small bead-making workshop in Ketang, China. I ride through the busy streets with Yulon, who worked at this factory just a week ago. His motorbike is more than 20 years old, and let me tell you… riding through Ketang traffic on that thing is a CRAZY experience all on its own!

Our first stop was a factory that turned out to be closed, but we didn’t give up. We set off again and eventually arrived at a small working bead shop—when I say “factory,” it’s really just two hard-working men shaping gemstones by hand.

They were cutting Brazilian quartz crystals into perfect little cubes using a thin 1 mm diamond saw. Each crystal is inspected, chosen for its clear areas, and sliced down by hand. Some cubes come out large, others small, depending on the stone. From there, the beads normally go into the next stage where they are rounded—but that machine wasn’t running today. After rounding, the beads are polished until they shine and finally drilled into the beautiful gemstone beads we all know.

It's incredible to see how much time, skill, and precision goes into something as simple as a bead.

And don’t miss our next video, where we visit Yulon’s home to see how a factory worker lives with his wife and two children in a tiny apartment. Their story is real, humbling, and eye-opening.