Swarovski Beads: Rare and Vintage

We just featured some of the finest and most rare Swarovski crystals from our vintage collection. Some of these styles we have in stock pile. Others, we have very limited availability. So shop early and shop smart.

Choose from vintage Swarovski opaque rose emerald-cut drops (article 5105), vintage Swarovski opaque green emerald-cut drops (article 5105), vintage Swarovski turquoise flowers (article 5110), vintage Swarovski opaque green flowers (article 5110), and more. Opaque jewelry components are an up-and-coming trend, and lucky for us that these lovelies were were left behind by collectors for us to find.

    

Metal Jewelry in the Fashion Forefront

Mixed metals are in the fashion forefront these days. Sometimes natural patinas and aged pieces are just as celebrated as a beautiful plating or a precious metal.

We have been digging up loads of vintage brass, copper and raw metal blanks and components, perfect for manipulating with hammers, piercing tools, stamps or whatever you fancy.

    

Tip of the Week: Looking for something a bit shinier? Our vintage metals clean up real nice. Use a heavy-duty kitchen scrub sponge, dish soap and water. Once your metal is clean, bring it up to a high shine with our polishing pads. The results will amaze you!

Vintage Beads in Beehive Lucite

We found these really darling vintage lucite, swirled oval beads, and they just begged for the name 'beehive' beads.

They were originally produced in NYC in the 1960s. Custom dyed in house, they showcase an on-trend and up-to-season color palette.

How To Make Rings from our Ring Blanks

We have unearthed some new (well, vintage) and fabulous ring blanks.

These rings are perfect for adorning with cabochons. Use adhesive, rivet metal, or attach lucite flowers. Speed up the riveting process and use the new Crafted Findings Riveting Tool or wire wrap beads onto the rings to enhance their cool factor.


Rings are hot. Big and noticeable rings are even hotter!

   

Beading kits for DIY ingenuity.

We have packaged some of our most popular how-to pages into ready-to-make DIY Kits!


All you will need comes with some funky packaging which includes the step-by-step instructions.


Instead of wading through a materials list, we've made it an easy 1-click shopping experience. Check out our latest additions to our exclusive line of Beadin' Path beading kits.

Deco drops, we custom dye them.

We found some more! We ferociously dug until we found amazing amounts of reinforcement stock to the ever popular 'Geometric Deco Drops' line.

These drops are vintage Lucite beads, manufactured right in NYC in the early 1960s. We have them custom dyed in popular colors... including the new Dark Honeysuckle. In case you missed the buzz, honeysuckle is the color of 2011!

You can custom dye your Lucite or plastic beads too. Our staff designer, Ashley Bunting, wrote the Art of Dyeing Lucite article explaining how she dyes our beads, and transforms them into gorgeous hues!

These components are fabulous when used as elements in building flowers. They also make great simple earrings. Cascade them together in a flowing necklace and you have a musical statement piece. So many options!

Vintage metal beads, components, and blanks.

Vintage metals are versatile components to your jewelry designing bag of tricks.

Steampunk? Classic vintage brass or copper? Highly polished plating?

It's all there. Let's stamp some pieces, pierce and use jumprings to make connections, or try out the new riveting tool. Little pieces of metal treasure are like mini blank canvases.

We have a diverse and unique collection of vintage metal beads and components. Each style is in limited supply, so if you see something you like, be sure to grab it!

Tip of the Week: Stamp a meaningful quote into a vintage brass blank for a lasting heirloom gift.

   

New flowers in the bead garden.

New petals in the garden. We introduced some hot new flower bead styles while in Tucson, including the clematis flower style and new colors in our ruffled calla lily beads and spike flowers.

What was the hottest? The 2-holed flower bead buttons. Use them as a button, or a 2-holed jewelry component for multi-strand necklaces, or wire them into a metal piece. The options are endless.

Our on-staff designer uses these flowers to create gorgeous floral center pieces, like in this beaded necklace how-to.

 

What are cabochons? Are they beads?

Vintage Lucite Cabochons add that spot of wowing color. Cabs are not your average bead, as they are not actually beads, so you might have some questions.

Q: How do I use them? They have no holes..."

Q: How do I incorporate them into jewelry?"

A: Use industrial strength adhesive to fix a lucite cabochon to a filigree finding or metal stamping. Or seed bead weave a bezel around a lucite cabochon and harness it into a bead woven ring.

Since cabs have flat backs, they work perfectly with settings and blanks. We have a bunch at BeadinPath.com if you don't already have them in supply. A couple of our favorites are the pendant loop setting, and new to our stock, the vintage ring finding, both ideal fits for cabochons.

Don't forget that we have the popular eye cabochon style too. If you'd like to make a cabochon charm bracelet, be sure to check out our recent BeadinPath.com tutorial.