I'd like to buy a vowel ...

"Yes, Alex - I'd like to buy a vowel. A couple of vowels, actually, and some consonants ...."

Now you can buy a vowel, or the whole word even. This is because we found a stash of out-of-production Swarovski crystal letters. Not rhinestone appliques, but actual rhinestone letters - gleaming faceted letter shapes - sparkling like diamonds. OOOOh boy!

What is really fascinating to me about these is not just the possibilities of spelling out words, making signet rings with initials on them, personalizing stuff - which is all fabulous, and I've been doing some of that - but the shapes of the letters - just as shapes. We've had good, old, reliable shapes of stones in the past - the oval and round and square and rectangle stones - solid, dependable, trustworthy. But now, here we have a bunch of exciting, dazzling new shapes that evoke all sorts of new ideas. I don't see E's - I see castle turrets, I don't see U's - I see horseshoes. V's are arrowheads, and Y's seem to walk on two stumpy legs while L's are made for walkin'. Check out today's project to see what happens when you start using letters as a pattern!

It's a bead. It has a dragon on it. What more do you need, really? Beads and dragons go together like chocolate and ice cream, Ben and Jerry, campfires and marshmallows. Next year is the year of the Dragon - just in case you needed an actual excuse.

Seeing Red?

Does the absence of garnets in your jewelry box have you seeing red? Well - it's time to fix that! New garnet beads in round, faceted round, and chips.

Other new stuff too (Charlottes, anyone?) - so click on a link or a picture above, or start with the Main Page, if you feeling intrepid, (there is a LOT of stuff there), or chunk it down into bite-size portions by checking out the categories: Click on a link and go crazy! Firepolish, Pressed Glass, Swarovski Crystal, Seedbeads, Stone and Pearls, Preciosa Crystal, Metal Beads, Other Cool Beads, Findings, Metal Clay & Supplies or Books, Kits, Tools. Look for the "new" tags!