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Just a peek at some new vintage glass jewels, beads, and rhinestones that are available in my Etsy jewelry supplies shop. I’ve just been able to resupply some of my favorites… and a few new ones 🙂 And… just for the record: if there’s ever a stone, or setting, or jewel, that you’re trying to find – and can’t? Come over there and send me a note – I’ll try my hardest to help you find one! The fashion biz – or maybe the entire retail biz – can be funny. Here’s another example of how color names are a little tricky. All these jewels are called “aqua”:  And there are even more color variations in the “aqua” jewels in my Etsy shop – I just picked a few examples that I’d photographed on a white background. From aqua green – to deep turquoise – to light blue – in the jewelry biz, they can all be called “aqua”. Confusing? Sometimes! P.S. And you’ll notice my title says “Vintage glass beads or jewels”. It’s funny how we get used to certain phrases…. jewels or stones have no holes, so they’re not “beads”. But we’re used to using “beads” in our jewelry – it’s funny how many people just prefer that term. So sometimes I’m just going to go with the flow – vintage glass beads. Or jewels 🙂 There’s the question 🙂 Some people call these lovely old rhinestones “jewels”. Or “stones”. Or “beads”. The terms are almost but not quite interchangeable. Technically – if I’m informed correctly! – beads have holes in them, or rather through them, so that a wire or pin may be inserted in order to attach the bead to your jewelry piece. You can see the holes easily in these clear glass heart beads:  However, vintage glass “jewels” or “stones” have no holes. They’re placed in a metal setting which has a loop or ring so the jewel may be attached to your jewelry item:  See, there’s a loop or ring on the metal setting – not a hole through the “bead”. That shows you the technical differences. But in reality? They’re all treated as “beads” – the general term that applies to pretty charms, dangles or beads, that you use to create jewelry. People ask for beads all the time when they might mean cabochons, jewels, stones, or, well, beads. It’s all good 🙂 And of course, I’ve usually got some lovely heart beads – or jewels – in my Etsy jewelry supplies shop. Go peek – and if you don’t see what you need, just ask! I’ve got a few new colors of these pretty rhinestone connectors in my Etsy shop. If you make jewelry, they’re super useful. Use them as links for bracelets or leading to the focal on a necklace. And when you use them for earring dangles, you can combine them with other jewels to make smashing color combos.  Add a peridot teardrop jewel to the rose pink rhinestone connector. Or a shimmering Swarovski pearl to the crystal connectors. Or – well, you see what I mean. These are fun to work with! I’m sneaking this in when I meant to get back to my sapphire pear earrings – but I just got these sapphire heart jewels in, and it’s been so long since I had any sapphire hearts. I’m not sure why, but it’s really hard to find vintage heart jewels lately. Maybe because they really are in demand? And so pretty!  Yes, they’re available in my Etsy jewelry supplies shop 🙂 I was looking for a vintage ruby rhinestone necklace recently – a customer request made me curious. She was looking for a Miriam Haskell (or knockoff). Anyway it got me to looking, and I found to my surprise that there were very few to be found! I’m not sure why red, or ruby, is a hard color to find. I had just made a classic style, ruby rhinestone necklace for another customer – obviously this one isn’t vintage (though the ovals are true vintage, made in West Germany about 50 years ago). I thought it turned out well:  It’ll be a wonderful Valentine’s present – and yes, it’ll be available through Weekend Jewelry. It’s not even onsite yet – but will be pronto! Sometimes we have to remind ourselves – people do have birthdays in December! There’s so much activity centered around Christmas, let’s remember our birthday girls too 🙂 The birthstones – or birthstone colors – for December can vary according to the source, how traditional or modern, etc. But in general, these are considered to be the birthday colors for December: Blue zircon, turquoise, and blue topaz (yes, the colors are often gemstone-oriented!) And I just happen to have some lovely turquoise, aqua, and blue zircon vintage glass jewels in my Etsy jewelry supplies shop. Like these:  Aqua is actually one of my most popular colors – I think because it’s universallly flattering. I usually have more shapes available – and in December it’s also birthstone-appropriate! I wanted to show off this outrageous color – these are new rhinestone jewels I just listed in my Etsy shop:  I actually took pics of the pear jewels with the foil backing (this is the way they arrived) – see the top half of this pic. I removed the foil, just to see how they looked – I think I might like the sheer jewels even better. But it’s a close call! They make wonderful party jewelry for you or as a gift – and like good DIY, they cost a lot less than buying ready-made. If you’re looking for hot pink or fuschia jewels, I bet you’ll love these 🙂 Just a peek at some of the clear vintage glass and vintage rhinestone jewels I have available in my Etsy jewelry supplies shop right now.  I love clear jewels – and I didn’t expect to. I mean, they’re colorless, they must be boring, right? Wrong! They have a lot more sparkle than I ever would have expected – glass cutters know what they’re doing, it turns out 🙂 And since the jewels are clear, they really do go with everything. This is a win-win. Your jewelry looks good – and you don’t have to agonize over choosing. Just grab it and go. You save time. You look great. You’ve got a little added sparkle 🙂 Yay! PS By the way – and I’m sure this has already occurred to you, if you’re looking for bridal jewelry….. Clear jewels are fabulous for a bride. They add sparkle and light, and they don’t compete with your gown. Like I said, win/win! And this I thought was very interesting. I posted a couple days ago to show off my pretty vitrail (volcano) pear jewels. And I do love them. But some of them had bad foil, so I did my usual removal thing (soak in vinegar and salt). So this is how they look once the foil backing has been removed: 
Pretty cool, huh? And yes they’re available in my Etsy jewelry supplies shop. |
Jewelry and Accessories
Vintage, Recycled, Upcycled!
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