My Favorite Swarovski & Toho picks from Artbeads.com

Bowl of Bronze Swarovski pearls & crystals and Toho seed beads

The beginning of my new design.

Thanks to Artbeads.com I was able to try some new colors and new shapes of crystals by Swarovski. Thank you Artbeads.com for this nice gift.

I like working with seed beads best but when I use bicone crystals in my designs I prefer using the 3 mm bicone crystals #5301 because I can work this size right along with the seed bead. I used 3mm Copper from Artbeads.com for the first time and really liked them. They have a beautiful pink cast along with the copper color. Shown above is the start for a design which I'll be showing the progress photos on my blog. I used Toho size 11/o hybrid gold-Lustered Opal Rose Gold along with Toho size 11/o Hybrid Matte Galvanized Copper seed beads and Copper 3mm bicones.

Another one of my favorite shapes for a flat crystal is the Chessboard square crystals # 2493. These come in a variety of sizes but I like to use the 12 mm size for my designs. I'm working on a design now that I'll post final results very shortly.

Last but not least are the Pearls. These pearls are a gorgeous Bronze size 8mm. I'm planning on using these pearls in one of the two mentioned designs above.

I encourage you to try out these selects of Swarovski products and Toho seed beads because I know you'll enjoy them as much as I have.