More stuff on Swarovski

Not sure I'm thinking too clearly this a.m. - 3 days of sun and lovely weather - can you believe the weather? How awesome was that weekend. Beats the heck out of Easter Weekend last year, which I spent in the Veterinary Emergency Clinic.

Anyhoo - more ramblings on new stuff from Swarovski.

This stuff on the left is called "Crystal Rocks." Kewel, eh?

It is faceted stones on a silicone (clear, flexible) backing, with a hot fix glue on the back. It is intended for fabric decoration, in things like shoes, purses, items that will not be washed on a regular basis. This is not because of the hot fix glue - which Swarovski warrants will permanently stick down the hot fix stones to any water permeable surface and keep them there through washing, dry-cleaning, earthquakes, tornadoes and other not-heat related disasters - but rather because in some limited cases in testing, there was some minor loss of the stones off the front. If it ain't 100%, Swarovski recommends against it - which doesn't mean you can't stick it on a jacket and live with the odd one coming loose over the years.

It bears a passing resemblance to druzy, does it not?

Here's another pic of it, so you can see the flexibility.

How about cutting shapes of it, sticking it to Lacy's stiff stuff or ultrasuede, and beading around it like a cabochon? Would that not be cool?

The folks at Swarovski spent a lot of time impressing on us just how incredibly durable the hot fix glue on the hot fix stones is, when correctly applied. They actually brought out a technical guy and let us talk to him - not just the sales reps. The only thing that will get them off is heat - as it softens the glue - but it leaves a residue on the item - they are intended to be permanent.

That's when someone else at the conference piped up that she had customers that used less permanent attachment methods on purpose - so they could take the stones off. Primarily customers making costumes - skating, dance, etc - for kids - that keep growing out of the costumes. They WANT to be able to remove the stones and re-use them after a season.

It occurs to me that you could apply the stones to something light and airy like a tulle and stitch that onto the costume too - but what the heck do I know?

The long and the short of it is - Swarovski has worked really, really hard to make the hot fix glue truly superiour. It has a lower bonding temperature than other rhinestones - so you can put them on more delicate fabrics. And we had some the beadFX logo made up some years ago and applied to t-shirts - and they are still all going strong!


The Black Diamond polygon is the new "Wing" shape, and the round one is the Chessboard cut. Again - think "apply to ultrasuede and bead around them." For a start. I'm sure you'll think of other great things to do with them too.

BTW - if you don't see some of this cool new stuff on our pages, but really want it - just email us and ask - we will probably be able to do a special order if we aren't planning on stocking it on a regular basis. In any case - we don't want you to miss out on having really cool sparkly stuff. Cuz we don't want to miss out on it either.

So much stuff, so little time!


Crystal banding - think bra straps. Victoria's Secret. What is Victoria's Secret? The secret is that none of the models are over 20 and don't really need support.




















Onward - this is the new crystal rondelle. 3 mm. Smaaaaall!























And the heart pendant is being re-cut to the Xilion style of faceting - like the bicones. The Xilion style (I have a hard time with that word - one L or two - it's one - but the spell checker hates it either way - the i's on either side make it hard to see.) - anyhow - the Xilion style alternates narrow and wide facets and makes the bead sparklier.

It is also patented, and Swarovski is fiercely defending the patent - so it is your guarantee that you are getting the genuine article, and not "Knockoffski."

We will be phasing them in as the old stock runs out.


Cheers! Happy Monday - and yes, the store is open today.