Having fun with rizo beads

No, I haven't disappeared from the online world, though for some reason I haven't blogged since new year's eve and I've forgotten a Meowy Monday. Partially it's been because I've had fun with a couple of "late christmas gifts" I got offered during boxing week.

During christmas, Karin from swedish bead shop Fru Pärla asked me if I wanted to have some new rizo beads to play with and blog about. Fru Pärla was the first swedish shop to get the new beads that were presented by Sabine Lippert in December. If you're into beadweaving, you've probably heard about these new rice-shaped top-drilled little beads. While they've been developed by and for bead weavers, they do work very well in all sorts of beading/jewellery making, from stringing to chain maille. As I hope to show here.

These are just my first designs: I still have beads left and hope to use them soon.

This isn't the first thing I made, but of the designs here it's the pièce de résistance. My own original design, but most of all a design where everything just fell into place. No frustration at all: no ripping up, no re-thinking the whole thing, no design issues at all (apart from choosing whether or not to add the big daggers). If only it was always like that!

sideview

I was really keeping my fingers crossed the colours would work as I picked them out at night in poor light... The preciosa rivoli is crystal honey, the rizo and seeds topaz, the 8 mm daggers crystal apricot and then I don't know the colour name of the 16 mm daggers.

This is actually the first thing I made, partially to show that the beads can be used for more than just bead weaving. It's a simple 2-in-1 chain maille bracelet with two rizos added to each jump ring. Maybe it'd look better with slightly smaller rings, but this is the only size I had. Still like it, though, and the topaz amber rizos have a ½ coat with a metallic finish that matches the rings and clasp beautifully.

Then I tried a few variations of the rizo chain, adding e. g. flower bead dangles, drops etc. However, the next design came about when I wanted to vary sizes rather than shapes. So why not add daggers? Well, it didn't turn out as planned at all as I forgot that even 11 mm daggers are too big to hang as freely and dangle as easily as e. g. rizos, drops or even long magatamas. Instead they form a much more stylized pattern. To keep that interesting new pattern still, the chain was turned into an earring rather than a bracelet.

I don't wear earrings so I'm not sure that the ideal length for this one would be. Any suggestions? Longer, shorter, as it is?

(I'm considering doing a new free tutorial for either the bracelet or the earring -- anyone want that? And if so, which of the two would you rather have instructions to? The earrings might need a little tweaking first, though...)

Last -- and least -- I made a tiny beaded bead. I'm thinking of making a handful and use them as space beads in a necklace or bracelet so it isn't a finished design, but I still wanted to show them now that I got photos of the other stuff I'm been making.

By the way: the colour used in the beaded bead and the earring is called emerald azuro and if you love jewel tones, you might want to check it out. Lovely emerald greens and metallic dark blues in that finish.


I'm going to play some more with my rizo beads today and hopefully I'll also get to work on few things with things I got in a blog partner programme (more on that later!). Then I hope to get some time to work on my first Bead Journal Project panel. So plenty of fun things to do. Don't feel like I'm on a creative roll at the moment, but I'm still being creative and that's a step in the right direction. The year seems to be beginning just fine. Not with a big, fabulous bang, but relaxed and filled with little progresses. And that's pretty decent, isn't it? Whether big or small, every step you take is a good thing. Even if it's slow, it propells you forward.

May bead soup palette

I made this palette isnpired by the special innovations recently released by Swarovski. It included a broader range of products in crystal astral pink (a finish originally released a few seasons ago) and neon pearls. I've also decided I want to play with strong, sweet and juicy colours this season. I love my earthtones, but I can love this kind of colours too.

For those of you who haven't seen it, crystal astral pink can be described as an topaz orange with metallic dark pink and purple tones and a few hints of yellow. The mandarine rose AB is a dyed/coated 2-tone bead in mandarine orange and rose over a clear bead and with an aurora borealis finish that shimmers in blue/violet and yellow. If you compare the two, crystal astral pink is by far the most colour intense bead. Mandarine rose AB is juicy and fun too, but pales next to the crystals.

I've also thought of adding a few topaz yellow beads or some purple. Avoided the later for two reasons: 1) I always use purple and 2) amongst all my purple beads I couldn't really find one that matched the purple in the crystals (or the rivoli, see below). If I find my light amethyst crystals I might try and add them. And if I had some of the new neon pink and neon orange swarovski pearls, I'd like to add them to my crystal astral pink too.

Above is a "bonus palette" using the original mix with an added topaz glacier blue rivoli. Wasn't sure about it as it looks good in some lights and not as good in others (= wasn't sure the colours would look nice together in a photo) and I only had this one rivoliso it doesn't really blend to make a mix. Therefore I made one version with it and one without it.

And, to end it: a close-up of the crystal astral pink bicones on their own.

My rivoli coating experiment

 

This is the first pics of my latest experiment that I've been meaning to do for months now, doing my own coatings on rivolis inspired by the many custom coatings available. It's not that easy to find unfoiled rivolis to work with, but eventually I found a couple.

For this first test I used a clear 18 mm rivoli that I painted with size -- an adhesive for leaf metal -- on one side and covered with a variegated leaf metal in gold with pink and orange heat patina. Like with my butterfly, this leaf didn't come as a sheet, but nor flakes either. Rather something in between: a sheet crammed into a small container that crumbled and shred it. So I couldn't make a really smooth coating.

One thing I worried about was whether or not the gilding would look good through the crystal as that's how it's supposed to be view, as a coating applied to the back of the crystal seen through it. As you can see the brush strokes in the size are unfortuneatly visible. Don't know if I can eliminate the problem in my next rivoli by pressing the leaf harder to the crystal or if I should use resin instead of traditional size. After all, size is usually applied to an opaque surface and not meant to be seen. On the other hand, the streaking is more apparent in the photos as they magnify all the details the eye would otherwise not see.

I also had to add some more leaf to areas that became scratched when brushing the metal. Especially the culet is tricky -- I know that from my professionally coated rivolis too: it wears down easily. After leaving it overnight, I applied a sealant both to keep the metal from tarnishing and to protect the delicate gilding. I will add more coats later.

This was my first test and it has flaws -- like the only partially covered girdle, the scratching, transferring size from my fingers to the front of the crystal etc. I have learnt from it and it has far from deterred me from using the rest of my unfoiled rivolis. One thing I'll make for next time is some sort of holder for the crystal so I can have both my hand free and hopefully that'll also help me avoid getting adhesive and foil to the wrong side of the crystal. Some sort of putty would probably be useful.

I also took the opportunity to foil one of my tumbled glass pebbles, as you can see above. The flat back makes it much easier to apply the leaf metal to this "cabochon" than to a faceted crystal stone. Here I used a leaf metal similar to the one above, but with blue and green patterns instead of the rose version above. The matte surface and golden foiling gives it a soft, warm glow. This was my best pic, but it doesn't really do it justice (I keep saying that about almost all my photos...).

Bronze rose -- a beaded rivoli pendant

And for those of you not interested in yarn, let me instead show you my latest beaded bezel pendant. As usual -- check out the bezel or rivoli tag for more examples -- the bezel is made using 2-needle raw that I then embellished on the front and sides.

The pendant is made using a 14 mm rose starlight rivoli (lovely metallic rose/dark gold hues), 15/0 bronze seeds and hex cuts in cinnamon gold luster. As always, it's not easy to capture all the colours in a rivoli with a surface effect, but trust me: if you like metallic and rose tones, you'll like rose starlight.

I made a similar pendant before this one where I added an onlay using just bronze beads in the front, but that version was just obscuring the rivoli too much. Adding the hex cuts, I got some more colour, making the rivoli appear larger instead of visually "shrinking" within a thich bronze bezel.

I keep using by bezelled rivolis as "simple" pendants, but I do feel like I want to make at least one more extravagant design, stitching together several bezels in an glamourous necklace. Not my usual down-to-earth style, but one has to make more exciting and complex projects sometimes in order to explore and challenge one's creativity. (As always, money is often the issue: buying a lot of rivolis and using them all at ones is just so expensive.)

More beaded bezels

I have two loves when it comes to jewellery making: metal and seed beads. Usually I alternate between the two and right now it's all about bead weaving. I've already mentioned here why I'm on a roll right now, making beaded bezels. These are my three latest creations in that department.

Above is a crystal vitrail light rivoli (18 mm) that I bezelled using metallic purple 11/0 seeds. I wanted to use 3 mm fp for embellishment and settled for jet lumi amethyst. Rather dark compared to the colour of the rivoli so I decided to use something less dark for the 15/0. Transparent Grey Luster didn't seem like a perfect match when holding the tube next to the rivoli, but the rainbow finish did look like it could have something in common with it. So I went for it. And I liked it: the blueish grey beads brightened up the dark purple bezel so that the nuances were more in harmony. The dark purple thread helped bring it together, I think, as it "dulled" the grey a bit.

When peacock was a new custom coating on Swarovski rivolis, I bought this one as I just had to see it IRL. Was rather ambivalent about it and thought about selling it several times, but each time I saw something in it that made me keep it. (Keep in mind, I don't like dots and stripes in beads so it was not like me to even buy it!) So in a way I didn't feel bad about "sacrificing" it for a bezel experiment.

For this one, I used two different colours to make the bezel base: Permanent Finish galvanized gold from Toho and Duracoat Dark Berry from Miyuki. I also added 15/0 in jet AB as I thought they picked up the colours from the peacock spots. As you can see, I used a different way of embellishing the RAW base this time. Not adding bows of beads on the diagonal as with the fp for example, but stitching them "straight" between the spokes. Not sure about the colours, but I like the result of my altered thread path for the embellishment.


Then there's this one. Again, a piece where I'm not sure about the colour choices (you got to work with what you have), but where I'm pretty pleased with the over all design. Here, I used a glass cabochon instead of a rivoli. To avoid gaps in the ring of beads in the front, I added 15/0 in sparkling beige-lined crystal. A couple of the same bead where stitched to each "hole" in the RAW base along the side. I then netted a border using the same Dark Berry seeds I'd used for t he base. 3-bead netting for the first row, then 4-bead. Will use this design again, but this pendant is in the danger of being frogged.

Bezelled crystals

For weeks and months now, I just haven't had much inspiration or energy to bead. Then a few days before Christmas I just had to participate in Noora's colour challenge at Inspira. I got the combo midnight blue, wine and bronze to work with. Nothing I use very often, but still not too far out, which meant less of a chance that I'd give up and yet again feel like a failure. After rummaging through my stash, I also found beads in the right colours that would work together: custom coated Swarovski rivoli in rose sphinx, 4 mm fp in garnet topaz luster (that was the closest I had to wine, and much darker than in my photo) plus some medium bronze Delicas and a few 15/0 bronze seeds.

I've never tried to bead a bezel using beads as large and cylinder-shaped as the 10/0 Delicas, which explains why it's a bit uneven. It was my first try and in retrospect I can see several things I'd do different. But seeing how this piece was responsible to giving me back the yearning to bead, I don't want to redo it. Unfortunatley, both garnet topaz luster and rose sphinx are hopeless colours to photograph in this combination so I'm a bit disappointed at how crummy the pendant looks here...

Anyway, bezelling is addictive so when I'd finished this one I just had to make one more, trying different beads and bead counts as well as embellishments. And then one more and one more and...

'I don't use bugle beads that often because I'm afraid they'll cut my thread, but sometimes I just have to use them as the shape alters the look of a piece considerable compared to using multiple seeds to acheive the same lenght. This is Alchemy mk III and I'm afraid I never got any pics of the first two incarnations. At first I used just 3 mm bugles for the RAW strip, but it got too wide. For the second version I used two 11/0s as "spokes", but that was not much shorter than using bugles so for the final version I just used one 11/0 and suddenly it fit perfectly. I was soo pleased.

Pity I used my 16 mm Alchemy rivoli (by Preciosa) as the black bugles (the only 3 mm bugles I have) blend with the crystal. But you can see the structure of the bezel better on the flipside. I never planned on keeping this so I didn't bother too much about choosing colours. After being pleased about the result I actually got a bit annoyed at not choosing different colours as the bezel turned out so good I didn't want to rip it...

This bronze bezel capturing a 14 mm Preciosa rivoli in crystal Marea shows the structure of my basic RAW bezel very well. I don't do peyote bezels as many other do as I don't get along with that stitch, but I love RAW/cross-weaving and netting. I really like RAW bezels for two reasons: a) they are so easy to make and alter to fit the stone in question and b) they form a base that's perfect to embellish in different ways.

This one isn't embellished as I'm planning on using it stitched to a pendant and don't want it too "frilly". At least not before I've worked more on the details of the design. I've used 13/0 charlottes for this bezel.

For this little charm or pendant, I didn't use a rivoli but a pointed-back foiled crystal, I was given in a secret santa swap just before Christmas. I wanted to use drops, inspired by Beadsmania, and due to the size of the crystal (perhaps 14 mm across) I choose Miyuki's new 2,8 mm drops and 13/0 (blueish) hematite charlottes. Another pic I'm not pleased with: the shape of the bezel looks wonky, but it really isn't IRL...

Back to rivolis. Once again, I just wanted to test a design and had to make due with what I had so I ended up using a 16 mm crystal volcano rivoli and metallic purple 11/0 seeds (japanese). This is the same typ of embellishment I used in my first bezel, but this time only using seeds. I also added bows of seeds around the bezel.

For this one I did just as before, using 15/0 japanese seeds, but here it's a vintage Swarovski stone that's a bit different. It's oval and it has a totally flat, not pointy, front while still being pointedback. #2102 if you want to look them up. Here, I embellished the front just as bove, using three beads on each bow. A bit of a pesky shape, not because it's oval, but because the girth is thicker on the two sides than at the narrow ends. But not so much of a problem that it shows on the front.

The latest version of my RAW bezels is this one I made today. I used Toho 11/0 seeds in copper-lined topaz. A shiny warm, golden tones that looks strange in this photo and more transparent than IRL. I also added 10/0 Czech seeds in copper-lined light olivine to match the pretty olivine stone. This is the same type of pointedback crystal I used in the grey pendant before, from the same secret santa.

The strip is slightly too short so the beads cover much of the crown, but I choose not to redo it, fearing that it'd be too loose if I added another section of RAW. The gaps between the beads, which you can see in the pic, aren't really visible IRL. Once again, I embellished the front with row of three beads (1 topaz, 1 olivine, 1 topaz) and then, as in the purple pendant, I added two-coloured rows around the bezel. This time I wanted to use picots in some way. I like working with picots. So I combined picots and rows, alternating between the two, after figuring only picots wouldn't look as nice as when combined with bows of beads between them.

I've already shown my tila bezel here, but as it was part of my rivoli bezelling obsession, it has a place here as well. I've tried to arrange the bezels in the order they were made, but this one was probably made first or at least after finish my challenge piece. This isn't made in RAW as the once above. The method here is more like stringing. And I keep repeating myself: I just have one colour of tilas and had to make due with a shrinking stash of rivolis so there wasn't much room to choose colours that'd look fab together. Besides, I wasn't even sure it'd work and thought I'd just rip it and return the stone to the stash afterwards. But I think I'm keeping it...

Like with my tila beads, I'm soon running out of rivolis and crystals to bezel. It's just so addicitive! I even had to stop myself from making more basic bezels before I ran out of stone to try different embellishment designs on.

So there we have it: I'm beading again. That is, beading for real and thinking about designs. But I soon have to buy more beads and stones if I keep this up. Having flow can be oh so expensive (and not being able to buy much needed/wanted supplies can be frustrating and throw me back into the bead block). But right now I focus on the important part: I'm beading again!

Tila trials

Well, seeing how my bead block kind of faded away this last week or two (read more about that here), I finally got around actually finish a couple of tila projects. While I've made a few swatches just to test how I could stitch with them, it wasn't until now that I actually made a whole project.

First out was the rivoli above. It's by now means a perfect project, but I really enjoyed creating this slightly unusual beaded bezel. The flipside looks exactly the same as the front, but the tila beads are a bit crowded: next time I'll only use seed beads for the back. As for colours, I just had to work with what I had eventhough the colour combo isn't my best one. Matte black tilas and seeds and a 18 mm custom coated Swarovski rivoli in peridot glacier blue.

I was planning on making a bracelet as well, but not this one. What happened was that I stumbled over Jennifer VanBenschoten's article Diagonal Stitch for Tila Beads and her Elegant Tila Bead Bracelet project. The stitch looked fun and interesting so I put my original idea aside in order to give this a try.

I didn't mean to embellish it with these seed beads. I tried a few different ideas, but in the end it was my choice of clasp -- a black and gold glass button given to me -- that made me go with the Permanent Finish golden 11/0. Ideally I wanted to use 15/0 matte beads in the tips, but I couldn't find them so I had to settle with larger 11/0 Czech seeds.

For the loop, I stitched a row of herringbone. Again, nothing I originally planned (thought I'd do a simple three rows of peyote instead of just stringing the beads). But when I began fastening the first beads agains the tilas, it came natural to do it in herringbone stitch instead.

And now I have to get more tila beads! Love playing with them and the new possibilites as well as challenges these two-hole beads offer. I've got so many more ideas to try, but -- alas -- I just have barely a dozen beads left right now...

More rivoli eye candy

If you love rivoli you should definitely check out all my posts tagged rivoli. Not too long ago I wrote Why rivolis? where I wrote down a few of the things that has gotten me buying a whole bunch of rivolis by now -- and it also included a small collection of my rivoli photos so far.

I forgot one thing, though, in my list of what makes me buy these stones: when looked at or photographed straight on, the facets form a flower shape. So lovely! Just too bad bezeling the rivolis sometimes obscure the point of the petals so it no long looks anything like a flower...

Anyway, here are som pics of my latest additions to the stash:

Peridot glacier blue. Blue is not normally my colour, but I just wanted something with a summer feeling and this was it: like blue and green ocean water or a clear blue sky over a lush lawn or field.

Not really my colours either, though I prefer "duller" blues like montana to brighter ones. But I was just so curious about how rose sphinx would look. Would you believe this stone is actually rose coloured? Amazing now much a coating can change the appearance without being opaque. This is the one with the metallic blue-green back I've shown here. The front is blue with hints of green and if you tilt the bead you can see some rose and peach tones deep down in the crystal.

Ah, my tiny 12 mm crystal titan. Again, just a colour I wanted to see with my own eyes, not least as the shades have differed between the various pics of this effect I've seen online. Like a lighter version rose sphinx almost, but without the hint of rose tones.

And this stone that's a warmer version of crystal volcano (more or less) is rose cathedral. Not as much purple and blue as in crystal volcano, but more red, orange and rose tones. Lovely warm tones and I understand why many beaders like this effect.

So rose sphinx and rose cathedral are based on the same pink stone. So is this one, rose citrine. When looking at it my first thought was ametrine. If you love the colours in ametrine, you'll love rose citrine. A pretty colour blend with soft tones.


Soft are also the pastel tones of crystal vitrail light. Soft like water colour or thin flower petals with hints of lilac, pink, aqua and baby blue. The photo in the beginning of this post is a (slightly dark) sideview of this stone.

And yet another rose stone. This is rose starlight, which has a metallic coating on top of the stone that makes it hard to capture. Pinkish and purple on the surface with hints of yellow gold. And if looking "into the stone" it has a tone of old rose. Below is a second pic, which capture the golden shine better.


Most of the stones are 18 mm and I do prefer 16 or 18 mm as they show the colours better, but some stones I've only found in 14 mm. Better than nothing I suppose, but I'd love to have e.g. rose starlight or topaz glacier blue in larger stones.

Pretty rivoli backs

I just love coated glass and crystal beads. So recently, when I again could use my Visa online (stupid bank) I got some yummy rivolis. There will be more pics soon, but for today I just wanted to show two of them that have one thing in common: the coating looks just as pretty on the surface as through the crystal.

Many times the coating is not pretty on the surface -- exceptions being e.g. satin, aurora borealis, metallic blue, dorado and glacier blue -- and might even be coated with a different coloured protective finish and so it's applied on the back of a stone. The pretty changing colours are seen through the glass or crystal, not on it. But these two rivolis are bound to be used in a setting that will show both sides as they're equally pretty.

First up is the rose sphinx (yes, this rose coloured crystal does look mostly dark blue). The front of this rivoli can be seen in the beginning of this post. The back is shown above. The first thing my sis said when she saw me flip the stone over was "oh, I prefer that side!". Needless to say, my sis loves blue and not least these metallic blues.


Next is a stone I had no idea could be so pretty on the back. Because I do have crystal vitrail light facetted cabochons, but they are covered with a bronze coating on the back so I didn't see what I saw on my rivoli. The front has soft pastels, almost like a water-colour painting, but look at those gorgeous rose, peach, copper and purple tones on the back (pic below). Should add that the colours are not so intense IRL, the colours are correct but slightly lighter than they might appear in my photo. Very pretty, nontheless. I'm tempted to use this side as the front instead!


So, which side do you prefer? And which one would you use as the front? I still feel odd letting the "wrong side" be the one facing, but on the other hand the colours are too pretty to be hidden by a setting or other components/embroidery backings.

Why rivolis?

I'm not much for sparkle and bling, but still I've taken rivolis to my heart. So why is that?

I think the major reason for my recently (slowly) growing rivoli stash is my love of colours. Crystals can be found in a variety of colours and finishes. Up until now, getting my hands on all of these colours have meant buying bicone beads (the cheapest shape). But I don't always end up using them. Then I discovered rivolis -- or, rather, I discovered that they were great samplers. Rivolis are, compared with other cut crystal stones, cheap and buying a stone instead of a batch bicones felt like a good alternative. I still get to admire that gorgeous nuance or finish I fell for, but without having an ever-growing stash of unused beads that take up space.



Also, the size meant I got "more" of the colour/finish in one rivoli compared to a dozen beads. Add to that the fact that some finishes not look as good on beads as they do on pendants and stones with defined "fronts" and "backs" (just compare the beads and pendant in this pic of crystal heliotrope).



A second reason is probably the fact I find these stones so versatile, they can be set in many different ways, using beads, wire or pre-made settings. The pointed back is a bit of a challenge at first, if being used to working with cabochons, but on the other hand, it is an important part of the cut, adding depth and enhancing the sparkle.




As I said I'm not a big fan of really sparkly jewellery. Or, well, I can appreciate a sparkling piece of jewellery -- it's just not my style to make or wear. I prefer more sublte sparkles and shimmers. Like dewdrops. Not surprisingly I love charlottes -- and prefer fire-polished beads to crystals.

With rivolis I can "concentrate" that sparkle to one point, which is so much more my style. I think it enhances the sparkle and make the stone look so clear and fresh.



To conclude: with rivolis I can get a gorgeous sampler and a concentration of colour I don't really find in beads. They give me many design possibilities and suit my style. When I first saw rivolis I didn't really fall for them, didn't really get why so many magazine projects used them. Then I got my hands on one...

OK, do you want one last rivoli pic? What about a slightly odd one: 18 mm custom coated Swarovski stone in a finish called peacock.

Topaz glacier blue rivoli

I first read about Topaz Glacier Blue, a custom coating on a topaz Swarovski crystal, at E. H. Ashley some time ago. Knowing how hard it is to capture surface effects on crystals on photo, I was very curious to see it IRL. Was it as interesting as it looked online? Or was I just attracted by the name? I'm not a big fan of AB coatings so my biggest fear was that it would be something similar in appearance.

Now I actually have a topaz glacier blue rivoli in my hand so what's the verdict? I like it, I really like it. The effect is mostly a pinkish lavendar -- not something I myself would've thought of mixing with topaz tones (which aren't really as dark as in my photo above). But it works. So now I just wonder why I had to be so cheap and just buy a small rivoli?


PS! If you have trouble finding a source for the rivolis I've shown, check out Creanon. You can find this rivoli, along with the peacock coated one I've written about here and my Preciosa Alchemy in that German webshop.

Vintage bronze rivoli pendants

Earlier this week I got a "goodiebag" of wire and beads (and buttons) from Swedish bead shop Fru Pärla [= Mrs Bead] as I had taken the opportunity to volunteer and make a few creations for the inspiration galleries. The first thing I made was these rivoli pendants using the 20 G Vintage Bronze wire I got.
One thing I hate about photos is that they enlarge details: the wrapped loops look so much more sloppy on pic than IRL. Ok, now I've said that.
To the left you see a 16 mm crystal volcano Preciosa rivoli attached to a variation of the classic prong setting. I don't really have the tools to set a stone like this so I use what I have. Ideally I would have wanted to press the prongs closer to the crystal, but I was afraid of scratching or chipping it. Still pleased with the result, especially considering I rarely, if ever, make prong settings.
To the right is a 18 mm crystal sahara Preciosa rivoli that I set in a different way. This time I made wavy "frame", using a wire jig to keep the points even, that was shaped and wrapped around the perimetre of the crystal. The back look exactly the same as the front.
I had no intention of making anything steampunk-related (though vintage bronze is the perfect colour for steamy jewellery), but I realised the bigger pendant has the same colours as this book cover. Not my usual palette, but I quite like it. Nice contrast between metal and water (the crystal reflects the colours of the coating in a way reminding of moving water).

This was also my first time using the "invisible thread suspension method" when photographing. I think it made a huge difference as the pendants don't have flat backs, making it hard to shoot them at the same time. As usual I sing praise to Neat Image, my knight in shining armour now that my camera -- having been dropped in the floor a couple of times -- give me such noisy pics. (Keeping on the name dropping I might add the photo is edited in Picasa, the programme I use now that I can't access my laptop with my favourite, Photoshop Elements.)

Lovely purples: Alchemy and montana burgundy luster

Ok, this isn't the fist time I talk about these beads, but I just love the colours. So bare with me just one more time.

The rivoli is from Preciosa and the lovely Alchemy is one of their H.Y.T. Colors. It has gorgeous brownish and heather purples. Rather difficult to describe, but oh so lovely. Preciosa themselves says about Alchemy:

The colour of ancient copper -- at first glance unremarkable yet at second glance enthralling. What is its true colour? Brown or purple? Red or pink. Simply captivating.

The quote comes from their website hytcolors.com -- don't miss all the other H.Y.T. Colors that are presented on the site: Lilac smoke, Graphite, Plum, Dark Orchid, Night Helio, Dream, Lava Flow, Brown Sugar, Light Gold, Caramel, Pinky Peach, Red Fuchsia, Beach Topaz, and Steel.

The fire-polished beads next to the rivoli are in a hue called montana burgundy luster. Stictly speaking it's not a purple colour, it just looks that way. The glass is montana blue and then coated with a burgundy luster. In fact, when holding the beads up against light you can see the blue shine through the coating. But most of the time you see the blues mixed with the dark reddish surface finish. And we all know that blue and red make purple. In this case a lovely dark purple, leaning towards burgundy.

These beads are probably my favourite buy this year, another thing I bought with the gift certificate I won on the R&T blog. And at R&T there's actually a small photo of the beads where you can see how the beads look,being held up in front of a light source. If you think it's hard to see the variation in my pic.

Two different purples, one a warm almost brownish nuance and the other a cooler more metallic look, but both equally gorgeous!