This week I'm sharing Czech glass finds; although my main love is artisan lampwork glass, my first love was Czech glass beads.
I was worried when I started making jewellery that the beads I was using weren't produced 'ethically' (as I've said before, that's a sticky word!), so I looked around for supplies that were at least acceptable and found Czech glass. My reasoning was that, being produced in a European country, the working conditions for the makers are hopefully regulated much more closely than for those of other mass-produced beads.
Plus, beads under the heading of 'Czech glass' are usually really pretty :D
Anyway, enough of the ramble, here are some of my finds:
CJBeaders have some lovely chunky nugget-esque beads, in a vaguely triangular shape. The prettiest for me are the Lumi-Amethyst beads:
They also have a largish range of small glass leaves which look great scattered in nature-themed seed beading pieces:
Beads for Beaders offer various pressed-glass shapes including hearts and 'duck bills', but I love their melon beads the best:
Robin's Beads have the oddly-named Angel Wing beads - I think of them more as jelly beans, but whatever they're called, they're interesting:
Glass Craft Beads specialize in Czech glass, stocking beads not often found in other stores. In particular, they have several different types of pressed glass flowers, often used in 'flower garden' type sead bead necklaces:
Bead Addict have a variation on fire-polished beads, with a greater number of facets that add extra sparkle:
JillyBeads get a special mention for their Fleeting Fire-polish section where they offer limited amounts of beads that they don't usually stock - there are often lovely bi-boloured beads in amongst the selection.
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