i' ve seen people talk about bead molds. what the heck are they and where do you get them. i always pipe my "bead " border and it's hard to get them uniform, plus if it's on an upper layer and i start to go crooked, well, it could look better. thanks
They might be referring to pearl molds. The come in different mm! I use an 8 mm for standard cakes and for smaller cakes I use a 6 mm. The cost of these molds are approx. $20.00!
http://www.kitchenkrafts.com/search.asp?t=c&sap=true&c=250000&bhcd2=1128464699
Check out this link and then scroll down half way and you'll see the mold to which I am referring.
Amy
Here is a link to instructions for making fondant beads, using the mold:
http://www.sugarcraft.com/catalog/gumpaste/bead-dir.jpg
The Pearl/bead molds are great! I have them and they really do turn out great. They run about $20 and up depending on the size of the pearl.
You just gotta be really gentle when you work with it. . .put plenty of corn starch in the mold before you put in your fondant. If you don't, the fondant or gumpast with stick to the mold and mess up when you're trying to get the pearls out. Afterwards I gently rub a big poofy paint brush on them to remove the excess corn starch . You can also use luster dust instead of cornstarch, but you'd need a lot of it. . . the good thing though, would be that it would already give your pearls a nice pearly sheen 
In my pictures, look at my Underwater Nemo cake, I used the pearl/bead maker to make the borders to my layers.
Goodluck 
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