Millefori, Spring Beads, & Diamonds - April's Stone
This month’s theme is Easter & Spring Beads, Millefioro, and April's birthstone diamond.
Scroll down, or click a link below on the html version.
To go to the HTML version with color photos click http://www.mrbead.com/march09.htm
Easter Beads
Millefiori - Spring Beads
Diamonds - April's Gemstone
Man-made Diamonds
Cubic Zirconia
How to get MrBead Orders Cheaper - choose the correct discount voucher
Special Offer
Easter Beads
Flower beads are great for the spring - so millefiori is ideal.
Choose pastel colors and mix them to make a bright, light, design.
Pearls are also very suitable this time of year, along with all types of crystal and jade.
These all produce a bright, high-key look.
White, yellows, greens and pinks look good, giving a spring-like feel.
Colorful seed beads can be used to cover eggs and other objects to give an Easter look.
Why not give a loved one a pearl necklace for an Easter present - she will look so good wearing it on Easter Day! Plus, flower bead bracelets and earrings are so easy to make too. Happy Easter!
Millefiori - Spring Beads
Millefiori, translates from Italian to "thousand flowers". Traditionally, each bead was handmade under the flame, using glass rods to produce a colorful mosaic effect. They were first crafted in Venice as far back as the 15th century, but it was not until the 1920s that they were produced in quantity.
First glass rods are made like candy rock with multiple colors throughout. The colors at this stage are only viewable from the cut ends. The bead maker then cuts thin slices off while the glass is still hot and press them down to form mosaic patterns.
This labor intensive process attracted a high price for the beads. However today, the millefiori technique has been applied to polymer clays which are pliable and do not need to be heated and reheated in order to fuse.
This makes it much easier to produce millefiori patterns than with glass. There are hundreds of thousands of different designs of Millefiori beads, making them great to collect.
Diamond - April's Gemstone
April's birthstone is the diamond. Diamonds are a wonder of nature. Their cold sparkling fire has held us spell-bound for centuries with myths of romance, power, greed, and magic. Ancient Hindus, finding diamonds washed out of the ground after thunderstorms, believed they were created by lightning bolts. Today, the diamond is a symbol of enduring love.
Diamonds are the rich cousins of graphite, both crystalline forms of pure carbon. The enormous difference in their properties is a result of the way that carbon atoms are bonded together. In graphite, carbon atoms are arranged in sheets that easily slide past each other, making them ideal as lubricants. Diamond crystals, are a tight-fisted network of carbon atoms securely held in four directions, making it the hardest naturally-occurring substance.
Man-made Diamonds
Up until a few years ago De Beers controlled all the worlds’ diamonds - by stockpiling tons at a time, they greatly increased the value of a relatively-common crystallized rock. However, it is now possible to artificially grow diamonds, the same way they are formed over millions of years. Using high-pressure and high-temperature in crystal growth chambers, the size of a washing machine. Within each chamber, a tiny sliver of natural diamond is bathed in a molten solution of graphite and a metal-based catalyst at approximately 1,500 °C. Slowly, carbon precipitates onto the diamond seed crystal. A gem-quality, 2.8-carat rough yellow diamond grows in just under three-and-a-half days. This can then be cut and polished to give a gem larger than 1.5 carats. (One-half carat is equal to 100 mg of diamond – about the size of a kernel of corn.).
To say these “cultured” stones are not real diamond is false. Chemically they are identical to mined diamonds, but they do have different growth patterns and a lack of inclusions that would draw suspicions to a qualified a jeweler. However, those bits of minerals that are enclosed in a natural diamond as its forms are regarded as flaws; a lack of inclusions is actually a good thing. For a jeweler to tell for sure, De Beers has designed a machine for around $10,000.
Cubic Zirconia
A much cheaper way of making a stone that “looks” like diamond was created by Russian scientists. Cubic Zirconia is a dense clear material through which laser light can be reflected. When melted at high-temperature and an incredibly-high electrical current sent through it, the compound crystallizes, forming chunks similar to rough diamonds, which are then be cut and polished to exact specifications. Using the naked eye, even a trained jeweler can’t detect the difference between good cubic zirconia, genuine or cultured diamonds. And even diamond experts have been fooled between cubic zirconia and a five-million-dollar diamond - concluding that both were fakes! All are fully faceted, cut and polished the same.
How to get MrBead Orders Cheaper - choose the correct discount voucher
At MrBead we like to give you the best deal possible, because we believe a pleased customer is more likely to return to buy more.
But we notice some customers paying more than they should because of the wrong discount voucher used.
The MrBead store automatically deducts discounts at the checkout after the voucher code is keyed in the box.
It is up to you to select the best voucher for the type of order placed.
Sometimes our wholesale discounts will be more than other vouchers offered, but this depends on the size of order.
Other times free shipping may, or may not, make your total less than another discount voucher.
It's up to you to work out the best deal.
However, once your order is placed, it's too late to change your mine and ask to use another voucher, so please choose carefully.
If in doubt e-mail nigel@mrbead.com or click a link for the help you need - there is a link on our front page to wholesale codes.
Only one voucher can be used at a time/per order.
Special $10 or £6 Offer!
Sample our beads with $10 or £6 off any order from our MrBead bead store, just key in "easter" at the checkout (without the inverted commas) and click "Redeem Coupon".
Offer valid until Friday 3rd April 09 only - so act now! Only for use in our store at the checkout and not valid with any other offers.
To see more What's New click MrBead.com or MrBead.co.uk
To go to our MrBead store click MrBead.com
To go to our UK MrBead shop click MrBead.co.uk
