String is a flexible piece of material used to suspend beads. To string is to slide gemstones, pearls and other beads, that have been drilled with a hole all the way through, onto a strand so that they can be worn. During ancient times beads were strung on leather or braided materials from nature such as flax. As jewelry-making techniques have become more sophisticated so have the materials used to string beads. Today these strands can be of any material, silk, leather, steel, cotton, nylon, plastic and other “space age” materials. Sometimes the string itself is braided and woven into a decorative object without the benefit of beads.