Miyuki + Swarovski + Zirconia = True?

Sometimes in our lives, we get offers we simply cannot refuse. One of this cases is when a company asks to use their products and write a review. That is exactly what I am going to do today - to give you my honest opinion about Artbead's Cubic Zirconia and some of seed beads that I've never tested before.

I draw a design, and than started beading. It did not go as smoothly as I wanted. It took me quite a while to figure out what was the best way to make those "wings", and finally I settled with an UltraSuede.


For quite a long time I was willing to test two sorts of Miyuki Delicas: satin egg-nog (DB 0674) and 22K gold with iris effect (DB 0501). Those gold ones are incredible - I love the shine, the color, the sparkle. The satin ones have lovely finish and are contributing to an outstanding visual effect. I liked them in the finished piece, however, I am a bit concerned about their sharp edges - especially compared to Miyuki buggles, which are quite smooth. Had to sew through them several times more, than I usually do with any other kind of seed beads.

And than I got a crazy idea "to marry" Swarovski and zirconia ;) I think, the experiment was a success - they look quite well together. Swarovski bicones have a bit of cold feel about them, whereas zirconia feel a bit warmer and more naturally looking (in a very strange, sub-conscious sort of way). Love those, would definitely use more of those in my jewelry.

Ok, if I have to criticize something - why on earth was this color called "orange" by the manufacturer? ;) They look more like raspberry liquor to me! Color is very close to Swarovski's padparadscha - for comparison look at the picture above: 1st and last beads are 4 mm round cubic zirconia orange, next to them are two 4 mm bicones of padparadscha. I've got the central 6 mm crystals as a gift from my brother, and thus not sure about the name of color.

Anyhow, if you have a minute, please check out the Artbeads homepage for more of these sparkling beauties! I'd also like to share a discount code with all my blog readers, it gives you 10% discount at checkout (SCF10P-ARTBEADS-0424).

I called this piece "Angela", it will shortly come up in my Etsy store.

Disclosure: cubic zirconia (CZ-ORG-TD36, CZ-ORG-TD9 and CZ-ORG4), as well as Miyuki Delica beads (DB0501 and DB0674) were kindly provided free-of-charge by Artbeads.com, within the frames of Artbeads.com blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author.