This study aims to demonstrate the potential for understanding first millennium glass beads not as individual representatives of types, but as collections of objects brought together and curated by owners. It uses the author’s experience as a skilled bead maker to investigate processes of bead production and mechanics of bead collection current in Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England in the period of 6th to 9th century AD. In the study the bead collections of seven graves are examined from the perspective of their production techniques, materials, and damage from wear and cremation. The results point to beads being acquired in different numbers and often worn for long periods of time before being buried.