Friday, January 30, 2009

New Swarovski crystals (etc.)


Earlier in the week the new Swarovski crystals arrived, so I'm happy to announce that HiloBeads now added 4mm bicones in aquamarine, jonquil and tanzanite AB2X and garnet and lilac in AB, as well as 6mm cube beads (5601), all AB, in aquamarine, light colorado topaz and tanzanite (the cube beads are $1.30 each, $12.-/10), and I can still hold the same prices for the bicones (other than for the Hilo Farmer's market jewelry makers' prices for the 144 packets of the AB2X bicones - sorry, I can't sell them to you for less than what I'm paying, and I'm not publishing what I was or will be selling them at).
(I'm not saying I counted all those crystals into packages yet, but I have 144 packages of aquamarine 4mm AB2X ready to go and I can count the rest out for you (almost) any time if you're willing to wait)


When I got the new pearls I also got some more chip strands, adding leopard skin jasper, picture jasper and unakite to the blackstone, snowflake obsidian and white howlite that I already had. I don't have pictures of those yet, they're about 30" strands strung on monofilament (sturdy enough to be worn as necklaces until maybe at some point the monofilament breaks - I do not sell them as necklaces but I wear them as such), and $2.- each. There are also some new mixed 16" gemstone strands for $2.-/strand and some that I have identified (Chinese marble agate, aragonite, and yellow turquoise (probably dyed) for $3.- to $5.-.



Other than that, I have ordered an annealing kiln (with a digital controller), so that I can feel comfortable about selling my lampwork beads (I will batch anneal what I have), as well as start trying to make more complicated beads than what in the lampwork community qualifies as "spacers". I'm comfortable enough with my setup and abilities to make sets of spacers (watch this space if you're in the market for lampwork spacer sets), and it's time for me to move on to a bit more complex beads (and more spacer sets). I also hope to start making beads from bottle glass. I have some bottles saved up for that.

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