Preciosa Ornela supplies PRECIOSA seed beads and beads to the entire world! I'll bet some of you have been using Preciosa beads and didn't even know it...These two-hole beads and seed beads are called PRECIOSA Twin™. The native language of the PRECIOSA ORNELA Marketing Department is Czech. However, the language for the BEADS FOR BLOGPOST campaign is English! (or we try to do our best :) You should really give this a shot if you have a blog. After all, what do you have to lose but a few minutes of your time!
Preciosa Ornela has this to say on their website: "WE LOVE VIDEOS! ...but ...the best videos (at least according to us!) are those, which showcase our Traditional Czech Beads, mention PRECIOSA ORNELA or link to preciosa-ornela.com." "We want to hear from you -- about you! Share your creative ideas, funny/interesting stories or personal experience with Traditional Czech Beads. (Cutting and pasting our BFB photos is good...but we´ve seen those already!)"
But, before all of this, I was already in love with twins. I searched and I searched and I SEARCHED the internet for free patterns that use these beautiful two-holed beads in jewelry projects. I found a few:
The best ones of course are right on the Preciosa website!
http://www.preciosa-ornela.com/Project-Simple-bracelets-with-PRECIOSA-Twin
SWOON............
And of course, I had to get my hands on some of the gorgeous beads. See, you have to understand that I generally don't see hide nor hair of any new beads for at least a year after they come on the market :). There are two beading stores in my area. Both in Thunder Bay which is 100 kms away from me :(. And if I want to order them online, it takes at 2 weeks to get way up here from anywhere in the States. Another country? Looking at 6-8 weeks, lol, but if I'm chosen for these beads Preciosa Ornela, don't be alarmed, I would gladly wait!!
About a month or so ago, I go into one of these beading stores in Thunder Bay and ask the owner if she by any chance has any of these...she says, yes, and that she has 3 colours...lol...beggars cannot be choosers, so of course I bought two tubes of each colour she had. But, she says, I am putting in an order for more and they should be in next week. Yay!! I couldn't wait for my next trip up.
So, I drive over to the other beading store in the city, and ask if she has any. No, we don't have any of those yet. The lady says, but I finally got some Tilas! OK, cool, I picked out a few colours of Tilas, and hummed and hawed over her meager choice of Rivolis while I was there too.
My next trip up was last week. The second store, that didn't have any the last time I was there, had a new order in and a nice array of plain, matte, colours. Well, that just doesn't tickle my fancy. I picked out two colours and went on my merry way. While I was in there, I asked about other new styles of beads (you know, Rizzos, Spikes, and Gumdrops...) and she says....where do hear about all these new beads? You are usually the first one who asks for them, and then we wait to see if any one else is going to ask for them before we order them. I'm thinking, are you living in a hole in the ground?? Where else do you hear about such things, but on the internet! Pay attention!
The other beading store, is just boggling my mind. Ok, I know that life happens, BUT...anyway, you get the picture. I asked her about her new order of Twins and she says, oh I'm just making the order now. GASP! I was so looking forward to picking up a bagful of these beads! So, now I'm really disappointed.
I now have 6 colours of Twins in my stash, and have been using them all! LOL! I have made 10 pairs of earrings and two bracelets. And I'm still going! And I'm down to 5 colours now lol...Oh yes, a question for Preciosa Ornela (and maybe I missed the answer somewhere on their website...), am I allowed to sell the pieces I make from your free patterns if I give you credit for the designs?
Deborah Roberti has this beautiful free pattern for twin earrings. I liked the patterns so much I made six pairs! If I had had more colours of Twins, I would have made many more pairs...lol. And just about the quickest earrings to make up I have ever made!
This design by Mu is also a fantastic quick pair to make up, but at this point I only had the two colours of twins :).
And then there is this pattern that I tested for a beady friend in England. Sarouchka Lobbens is a Belgian living in England with some wonderful talent! This is her Radiance Earring pattern, and in the third photo, I made three earring components and attached them in a necklace. Beautiful pattern Sarouchka!
And then...there are the bracelets I made from the Preciosa Ornela website free booklet on Twin bracelet patterns:
Aren't they gorgeous! I plan to make a few more, when I get some new colours, of course! And after that, I will be designing some of my own patterns to use with them. I would love to see them integrated into a soutache design! Stay tuned for more ideas and pieces!
Gorgeous pieces, Leah! I was asked to join a design team, but then they bailed when I told them I was in Canada LOL...hope Preciosa doesn't do that to you!
ReplyDeletePS...try BeadFx and thatbeadlady...they're in Toronto and Newmarket, respectively. Thatbeadlady seems to have most everything; BeadFx is a bit slower but definitely more "there" than your local stores seem to be!
ReplyDeleteAwesome, thanks Lori!
ReplyDeleteLeah, sorry to post this here but I cannot find your email address anywhere. You are a winner on my blog. Please email me tealwaterdesigns{at}gmail{dot}com.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Cory