Friday, December 10, 2010

What's Hot and What's Not

You wouldn't think that rosary makers would be affected by swings in fashion. But if we buy our beads from many different sources - most of them secular - it does make a difference. I've run into it three times now.

Earlier this year, when I wanted to make a "real stuff" November birthstone rosary, I wasn't able to find topaz-colored topaz. I could find tons of blue topaz, lots of pink topaz, and a fair amount of "imperial" (golden yellow) topaz. But topaz of that dark golden-brown color we call "topaz"? Not a stone. I found some reconstructed topaz-colored topaz on a site selling rosary parts, so ended up using that; reconstructed = reformed from the scraps left over after stone cutting.

I asked about this in the Etsy "materials and techniques" forum, where some knowledgeable stone/gem people hang out, and was told that, these days, most of the topaz that's mined is heated to become one of the more popular colors, so there's not much sold in the original color and what is sold is very expensive. That's probably one reason citrine has become a widely-accepted alternative to topaz as the November birthstone; I already had a couple of citrine rosaries for sale, but really wanted some topaz.

As the flip side to that, I also have a blue topaz rosary for sale as a December birthstone rosary. Although, actually, the traditional December birthstone is blue zircon, both blue topaz and turquoise have become accepted alternatives. With all that blue topaz out there, some of it is relatively inexpensive. I wasn't surprised that it was difficult to find nice, not over-the-moon expensive blue zircon, as it is rare - especially in stones large enough to make a rosary from. I was able to make a miniature rosary from the "real stuff". What surprised me was how difficult it was to find blue zircon glass beads. One Etsy seller had some for sale, but not enough for an entire rosary. I even asked at a couple of the big online Czech glass sellers. They didn't have blue zircon listed but tried to sell me some teal instead (one actually told me they had blue zircon but sent me teal). What's up with that? It's a birthstone, after all, and really quite a pretty color. I finally found some on Ebay - and it was my first and still only Ebay purchase. The people I bought it from are now going out of business and I plan to buy a lot of blue zircon glass beads from them before they shut their virtual doors. My requests - and possibly requests from others - do seem to have made a difference, as I can now find blue zircon Czech glass at a few places I wasn't able to find it eight months ago.



So much for birthstones. My latest obstacle, and the one prompting this post, is black obsidian. Somewhat like the search for topaz-colored topaz, this one seems counterintuitive, I mean, what color is obsidian? Black, right? But what's mostly for sale is snowflake obsidian and mahogany obsidian. Now, I like snowflake obsidian well enough and I love mahogany obsidian, but I have a customer who's requested two rosaries made specifically of black obsidian. I've ordered the stones for one of the rosaries: 6mm rounds, which weren't too difficult to find on Etsy. But the second rosary needs to be larger, and finding 8-10mm beads (preferably in oval or rice shape) has turned out to be a problem. I haven't given up yet. I still need to look in a couple of local bead shops that carry stones. I also have some sitting in my "shopping cart" at an online site - but it's a site where I haven't found the stones to be of very good quality. If I can't find something locally, I'll probably order from that site and keep my fingers crossed. (There are also some things out there called rainbow obsidian and gold-sheen obsidian. I don't know anything about these, but suspect they're not naturally-occurring. They're not what I'm looking for, anyway.)

I don't know what the point of all this has been, except to vent - and maybe find out if other people have had similarly frustrating experiences or discovered sources I've missed. But that's the way it is.

 

2 comments:

  1. Trudy I went through this when I was making a necklace out of Blue Lapis it was hard to find real Lapis at a good price with that I mean not breaking the bank.

    I went to one of the shops that I shop at it is over seas but I have always been happy with what I get from them here is the link for the search I did on Black Obsidian

    http://www.jnsbeads.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=Black+Obsidian&osCsid=347fc6901164f21089c8ff36c04f9b5b&x=5&y=11

    Here is another source that I use to buy beads at that I did a search for Black Obsidian

    http://www.firemountaingems.com/search.asp?skw=Black+Obsidian

    I hope this helps

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  2. Sorry it's taken me so long to respond, Jesse - I've been away from the blog lately. Fire Mountain Gems is the place where I had some stones in my shopping cart. I did end up ordering them, and they're pretty good. The sizing and the drilling aren't quite uniform, but they're a nice, even black. jnsbeads is new to me, so I'll have to check that out. Thanks.

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