Never one to be decisive or minimal, when I was restocking a few Flower Chatons recently I also grabbed some packs from a couple of new ranges to try out (both for myself and for my Etsy Shop).
The first are already almost sold out, I think probably because they are very unusual – they’re a matted, unfoiled glass, in soft blue and green colours and they literally look like sea glass. I have them in a 14mm rivoli and 27mm chaton (like a crown stone) which are two really useful, standard beading sizes, so they’ll be great for lots of projects. I’m thinking something soft, subtle and summery – sometimes even beaders need day wear without the bling after all!
The second set are on first glance more conventional – in all the standard brightest crystal finishes (like Astral Pink or my favourite Vitrail Rose), and reasonably sensible shapes. Foiled backs, and I’ve gone for the larger sizes rather than any teeny ones as those tend to work better for beadweavers. But they have these really odd little reverse faceted dents in the back, almost like darts in dressmaking, and these seem to really up the sparkle, and importantly for me, they also introduce new surface directions so more colours show at once in the crystal, which plays really well to these extravagant coatings.
Shapes are (click on the links to go to my Etsy shop):
Round chaton in 18mm or 12mm (sorry, no 14mm in the range as yet which is a shame).
18mm square , and 18mm octagon/square thingy.
18x13mm pear, oval and octagon/rectangle type thing.
Both ranges are just a trial – if they sell I’ll try to get some more, but they’re all on the slightly pricier side so I may need to keep an eye out for sales at my supplier so I can keep them at a sensible price for you (and me).
In addition I’ve also introduced some more crystals in settings – these have always been popular with bead embroiderers, and we’re now seeing them more and more in beadweaving too, thanks to beaders like Pikapolina and Erika Sandor. This particular size (18x13mm) and shape (pear) was requested by a customer, and as usual I couldn’t pick a range so there are two – both pastels, both summery. Both have a pastel coloured backing rather than being foiled, one with an opaque backing and a shimmer coating, and the other with an opaque but slightly shimmery, glittery backing and no coating. That makes the latter more subtle, and the former more blingy, so once again I have both camps covered!
The Indecisive Beader 