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Round Beads

Round beads are the workhorse—and showpiece—of jewelry design. Our All Rounds collection spans more than 100 natural stone types, each offered in graduated sizes from 4 mm to 12 mm so you can build seamless strands, stackable bracelets, or accent rows without hunting for a match.
What sets Dakota rounds apart is the one-batch method: we cut every size you see from the same parcel of rough, then sort by diameter in a single production run. That “Dakota Way” means a 6 mm lapis bead and its 10 mm big brother share identical hue and pattern, giving finished pieces a professional, color-true flow.
Every sphere is diamond-ground to perfect symmetry, hand-polished for a glassy finish, and visually graded to Dakota Stones standards before it ships. Stock up on crowd-pleasers like Amazonite, Kyanite, Jasper, and Quartz—or branch into rarities such as Variscite or Shattuckite—confident that each round will string, drape, and wear with the consistency designers trust.

Silver Grey Mixed Moonstone 8mm Round - 15-16 Inch

Original price $20.00 - Original price $20.00
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Moonstone naturally occurs in a broad spectrum of colors, but is most commonly associated with white, gray and peach. It's soft chatoyancy is remin...

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Peruvian Chrysocolla 8mm Round A Grade - 15-16 Inch

Original price $88.00 - Original price $88.00
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Current price $88.00
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Chrysocolla, a hydrous copper silicate, is often mistaken for turquoise due to its rich blues and blue to greens. It often also occurs with colors ...

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Labradorite Natural 8mm Round A Grade - 15-16 Inch

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Labradorite is remarkable for the way its aggregate layers refract light, creating iridescent flashes of blue, gold, pale green or copper red. This...

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Azurite 8mm Round AA Grade - 15-16 Inch

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Azurite is a Copper carbonate mineral that forms in masses, stalactites, botryoidal, and short prismatic crystals. Azurite in crystal form is extre...

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DZI Turtle Agate 8mm Round Brown- 15-16 Inch

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“DZI” Agate is made to resemble beads first found in India between 1000 and 2000 BCE. These reproductions are designed in the traditional color, pa...

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DZI Line Agate 8mm Round Brown - 15-16 Inch

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“DZI” Agate is made to resemble beads first found in India between 1000 and 2000 BCE. These reproductions are designed in the traditional color, pa...

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Green Garnet 8mm Round - 15-16 inch

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Green Garnet can be among the most valuable of garnets, which come in a variety of colors. Occurring in sizes ranging from a grain of sand to the s...

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Orange Calcite 8mm Round AAA Grade - 15-16 Inch

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Calcite is a rock-forming mineral that is extremely common and found throughout the world in sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks. Calcite i...

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DZI Eye Agate 8mm Round Black Brown - 15-16 Inch

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“DZI” Agate is made to resemble beads first found in India between 1000 and 2000 BCE. These reproductions are designed in the traditional color, pa...

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Atlantisite Stichtite 8mm Round - 15-16 Inch

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Stichtite is a mineral, a carbonate of chromium and magnesium. Its color ranges from pink through lilac to a rich purple color. Discovered in 1910 ...

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Brazilian Amazonite 8mm Round Faceted - 15-16 Inch

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Brazilian Amazonite is an opaque blue to green to light green stone, often occurring with inclusions of white, yellow or gray and occasionally tran...

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Orange Garnet 8mm Round Faceted - Large Hole Beads

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Orange or Hessonite Garnet is sometimes called “Cinnamon Stone” for its orange to orange to brown color as well as for its origin in the land of sp...

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Botswana Agate 8mm Round Faceted - Large Hole Beads

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Botswana Agate displays highly defined parallel banding, usually in white on hues of brown, gray, pink, tan, apricot and purplish red. Botswana Aga...

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Pietersite 8mm Round - Large Hole Beads

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Pietersite has been called the Tempest Stone for its colors of deep blue and gray with metallic gold and flashes of brilliant chatoyancy as it catc...

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Selenite 8mm Round Pastel Rainbow (Dyed) - 15-16 Inch

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Selenite is a crystal formed from the mineral gypsum, which comes in many forms and color variations, but has been used historically to describe th...

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Indonesian Crazy Lace Agate 8mm Round - 15-16 Inch

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Crazy Lace Agate is a banded Chalcedony that naturally occurs as golden brown with layers of pink, red and gray in swirling circular patterns. It h...

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Peruvian Turquoise (Chrysocolla) 8mm Round A Grade - 15-16 Inch

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Peruvian Turquoise is also known as Turquoise Chrysocolla. It’s attractive blue-green provides a unique color to the mineral world. Peruvian Turquo...

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Selenite 8mm Round Lime Pink (Dyed) - 15-16 Inch

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Selenite is a crystal formed from the mineral gypsum, which comes in many forms and color variations, but has been used historically to describe th...

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Yellow Calcite 8mm Round A Grade - 15-16 Inch

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Calcite is a rock-forming mineral that is extremely common and found throughout the world in sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks. Calcite i...

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Selenite 8mm Round AA Grade - 15-16 Inch

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Selenite is a crystal formed from the mineral gypsum, which comes in many forms and color variations, but has been used historically to describe th...

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Rose Quartz 8mm Round Step Cut - 15-16 Inch

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Rose Quartz is a silicon dioxide crystal and one of the most common varieties of the Quartz family. It is a translucent to transparent stone with a...

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Turritella Agate Natural 8mm Round - 15-16 Inch

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Turritella Agate’s rich brown and black colors are patterned with the fossilized remains of sea creatures millions of years old. The name “Turritel...

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Orthoceras Fossil (Natural) 8mm Round - 15-16 inch

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Orthoceras was an ancient mollusk that lived over 370 million years ago! Fossils are believed to reduce stress, balance emotions and promote confi...

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Labradorite 8mm Round Faceted - 15-16 Inch

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Labradorite is remarkable for the way its aggregate layers refract light, creating iridescent flashes of blue, gold, pale green or copper red. This...

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Outback Jasper 8mm Round - Large Hole Beads

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Outback Jasper is a milky white to light pink to golden brown stone, with striking patterns that may resemble birch bark or wood grain. Jaspers are...

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Magnesite (Dyed) Turquoise Blue 8mm Round - 15-16 Inch

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Magnesite is a soft mineral best known for being dyed to imitate other gemstones. Natural magnesite stones are usually white with a dark web-like p...

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Hematoid Quartz Copper 8mm Round - 15-16 Inch

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Hematoid Quartz is Quartz with inclusions of hematite. The hematite inclusions are responsible for the stone’s color, which can be yellow, orange, ...

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DZI Line Agate 8mm Round Red Brown- 15-16 Inch

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“DZI” Agate is made to resemble beads first found in India between 1000 and 2000 BCE. These reproductions are designed in the traditional color, pa...

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Eudialyte 8mm Round - 15-16 Inch

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Eudialyte is a complex silicate mineral that most commonly forms in granular patterns. It is usually found within coarse grained rocks and contains...

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Black Obsidian 8mm Round - 15-16 Inch

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Charoite 8mm Round - 15-16 Inch

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Charoite is a stone that naturally occurs in intense purple hues, as well as grays, browns, greenish yellows, white and black. These colors swirl t...

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Red Hematoid Quartz 8mm Round AA Grade - 15-16 Inch

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Hematoid Quartz is Quartz with inclusions of hematite. The hematite inclusions are responsible for the stone’s color, which can be yellow, orange, ...

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Blue Hackmanite 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch

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Discovered in Greenland in the late 1890's, hackmanite is named for Finnish geologist Victor Hackman. It is a rare occurrence to find gem-grade hac...

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Purple Dendritic Opal 8mm Round - 15-16 Inch

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This variety of opal is named "dendritic" for the small inclusions within it that resemble moss or ferns. These inclusions consist of iron, mangane...

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Porcelain Jasper 8mm Round - 15-16 Inch

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Porcelain Jasper is a brecciated (broken) Jasper originally found on a gold claim high in the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico, where it continues ...

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Amethyst 8mm Round Faceted Large Hole Beads - 8 Inch

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Amethyst is a beautiful purple stone, known as a “Gem of Fire” by ancient cultures. It has been greatly sought after throughout history and was at ...

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Mookaite 8mm Round Faceted - Large Hole Beads

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Mookaite is a variety of Jasper in colors of red, burgundy, pink, mauve, purple, yellow and white. It takes its name from Mooka Creek, near the Ken...

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Flower Obsidian 8mm Round - 15-16 Inch

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Essentially a volcanic glass, Obsidian ranges in color from opaque black, to green, brown, mahogany, black with rainbow colors, black with snowflak...

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Trolleite 8mm Round - 15-16 Inch

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Trolleite is an extremely rare aluminum phosphate mineral that crystallizes in the form of masses and small prismatic crystals. It is made up of qu...

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Black Spinel 8mm Faceted Round - 15-16 Inch

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Spinel is a hard vitreous magnesium aluminum oxide, and comes in a range of other colors, but those varieties are transparent. Black Spinel not onl...

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Australian Green Opal 8mm Round Faceted - 15-16 Inch - CLEARANCE

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Australian Green Opal is a variety of Common Opal which is a mixture of Opal and nontronite. Common Opal is generally opaque, without the play of c...

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Blue Lace Agate 8mm Round - Large Hole Beads

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Blue Lace Agate is a naturally occuring soft blue agate, laced with bands or swirls of brighter blue, periwinkle, white and occasionally gray or br...

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Magnesite (Dyed) Hot Pink 8mm Round - 15-16 Inch

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Magnesite is a soft mineral best known for being dyed to imitate other gemstones. Natural magnesite stones are usually white with a dark web-like p...

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Hemimorphite 8mm Round - 15-16 Inch

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Most hemimorphite is found in the rocks above and surrounding zinc deposits. Hemimorphite is a favorite collector gem because it occurs in a range...

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Carnelian 8mm Round - 15-16 Inch

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Carnelian is a glassy, translucent stone that can appear with such bright orange hues that the ancient Egyptians called it “the setting sun.” Most ...

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Canadian Jade 8mm Round AA Grade - 15-16 Inch

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Canadian Jade is the trade name for this stone that ranges in color from light to dark green, with small, dark specks or veins. This material is ac...

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Opalite Pink (Synthetic) 8mm Faceted Round - 15-16 inch - CLEARANCE

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Opalite is the trade name for man to made glass treated to exhibit the internal flashes of true Opals in translucent samples, and opalescence or lu...

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Thulite 8mm Round AA Grade - 15-16 Inch

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Thulite is the naturally occurring pink variety of the mineral Zoisite. It can range in color from pale pink to deep rose or even rusty red tones d...

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About this cut

Round bead shape diagram
Cut name
Round
Drill style
Center-drilled
Typical sizes
8mm6mm4mm10mm3mm2mm12mm5mm
Stones in this cut
AgateJasperQuartzTurquoiseGarnetTourmalineMoonstoneOpalDZI AgateTiger EyeAmazoniteSapphire
Common uses
stretch braceletsmala and prayer-style strandsclassic beaded necklacesmulti-strand layered designsknotted silk or cord necklacesuniform color-block sections in mixed-cut workmen's beaded bracelets in 8mm and 10mm
Related cuts
Faceted Round, Microfaceted Round, Oval
Design notes
Round is the most forgiving cut to design around — predictable diameter, predictable drill, predictable drape. Scale by wrist or neck: 6mm and 8mm cover most adult bracelet work, 4mm reads delicate on a necklace, 10mm+ carries as statement scale. Rounds pair cleanly with faceted rondelles, heishi, or metal spacers when you want textural contrast without breaking the silhouette. For stones with strong pattern, smooth round shows the material better than the faceted-round sibling cut; for uniform-color stones, faceted rounds add sparkle the smooth cut can't.

Frequently asked questions

  • What is a smooth round gemstone bead?
    A round bead is a sphere cut from gemstone rough and polished smooth — no facets, no flat edges. Standard rounds are center-drilled straight through the bead so the hole runs pole-to-pole. The geometry makes them the most predictable cut to design with: they sit cleanly on flex wire, stack uniformly on stretch cord, and read as a clean color block without the light play of a faceted surface. Rounds are typically calibrated to nominal sizes (4mm, 6mm, 8mm) within standard trade tolerances, though softer or more fractured stones can vary a half-millimeter strand to strand.
  • What sizes does Dakota stock in round?
    Round is Dakota's deepest cut by volume. Current stock concentrates in 8mm (554 strands), 6mm (477), 4mm (353), and 10mm (342) — the four sizes that cover most beaded jewelry work. Smaller 2mm and 3mm rounds (54 and 140 strands) work for accent spacers and fine-gauge stringing. 12mm (50) and 5mm (28) are stocked in narrower stone selections. Sizes are nominal; actual diameter can run ±0.3mm depending on the stone and lot, so for tight calibration work pull from a single strand where possible.
  • What stones come in round cut?
    Almost every stone Dakota carries is available as round somewhere in the range. The deepest selections are agate (195 strands across varieties), jasper (149), quartz (134 — clear, smoky, rose, rutilated, and more), and turquoise (107). Garnet (68), tourmaline (64), moonstone (58), opal (55), DZI agate (53), and tiger eye (48) all hold meaningful stock. Less common stones may only appear in one or two sizes — if you need a specific stone-size pairing, filter the collection or check the size tags on individual products before ordering.
  • What jewelry work are round beads best for?
    Rounds are the default cut for stretch bracelets, mala-style strands, classic beaded necklaces, and anywhere you want the stone's color and pattern to read without faceted sparkle. They sit predictably next to metal spacers, knot cleanly between cord, and don't catch on fabric the way faceted edges can. 6mm and 8mm are the workhorse sizes for adult bracelets; 4mm suits layered necklaces and children's pieces; 10mm and 12mm carry as statement strands or focal sections. For mixed-cut designs, smooth rounds pair well with faceted rondelles or heishi as a textural counterpoint.
  • Smooth round vs faceted round — how do I choose?
    Smooth rounds emphasize the stone itself — color, pattern, inclusions, chatoyancy. Faceted rounds (a separate cut in the catalog) cut small flat planes across the sphere to add light return, which reads as sparkle but slightly mutes the underlying pattern. For stones with strong figure — ocean jasper, dendritic agate, picture jasper, moss agate — smooth round shows the material better. For uniformly colored stones — garnet, amethyst, smoky quartz — faceted rounds add visible movement. Both drill the same way, so they swap cleanly in a design if you want to test the difference on a sample strand.