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The materials described here are crafted by me into jewelry. There are always Do's and Don'ts - that's why taking care when selecting them is of the uttermost importance.
| Acrilic | Beads and "crystals" are manufactured with this material. It is used to substitute glass or crystal to reduce the weight of jewelry. It scratches easily, that's why I don't recommend crafting anything exclusively with this material. |
| Brass | A wonderful metal. It is not considered “fine quality” as silver or gold, but it has been and is still popular in the costume jewelry branch. It is NOT cheap. All well known jewelry manufacturers use it in their creations, be it silver plated, gold plated or in its raw color and shape. It can be aged (patinated), etched, polished and modelled. Soft, but still sturdy. One of it’s best aspects is though, that good brass is lead and nickel free, because of being a copper/zinc alloy. |
| Brocade Ribbon and Gimp Braids | Textile decoration. Much stronger than common lace. There are many types of it, the names of which I sadly don't know yet in English. I have often seen what is called generically "cord lace" in Germany called ribbon in the USA, although only the shape of a textile ribbon is common to both. All I can note here is that my stash comprises many different types of high-quality cord lace in several material types: polyester, viscose, silk. The silken ones are very expensive, though. I will only use them for custom orders. Feel free to contact me about them. |
| Cabochons | These glass stones have a smooth surface and flat back. They are perfect for Medieval jewelry or Renaissance inspired objects. High-quality cabs seem to glow with an inner fire, because they are so well polished. |
| Glass beads | A fascinating subject. Many books and treatises have been written about these fascinating objects. Due to the size of this subject I will add later a new page, so I can delve deeper into explaining the bead types I use. I will only say this much here: Glass beads are defined by their origin and age. Usually I work with old bohemian (nowadays Czech Republic) glass Beads and old German glass beads (50s and earlier). New, recently manufactured glass beads I use: glass and lead crystal beads from the Czech Republic, Swarovski silver crystal, lampworked beads and India glass. My preference for Czech and Bohemian beads is partly due to their color not fading over time. Bead colors can fade drom some beads (like, f. ex. Japanese ones), but not the ones from the Czech Republic. On a side note … I just love the richness of color of those beads – their color-range is just amazing! :-) |
| Glass jewels | Glass jewels are becoming more popular over time. They have been always used in costume jewelry to substitute and imitate gems. During Victorian times, Art Nouveau and Art Deco they were even used in fine jewelry – therefore they are vital for vintage-style jewelry. Most often those stones have been manufactured in Bohemia (nowadays Czech Republic), but Swarovski has got some impressive ones in their range as well. I prefer working with vintage jewels from old stock. This means high-quality, old and never used stones. In the 40s, 50s and 60s replicated gems were still too expensive to be used in custom jewelry – so they resorted to those high-quality glass products. I have a few antique glass jewels in my stash (100 years old, maybe older). Those are reserved for special projects. |
| Lace and Trim | Wonderful materials for chokers in Victorian and Baroque styles. Main types are:
Cluny lace, tulle lace, passamenterie, crochet lace, embroidered and tattered lace. I am sure there is lace out there crafted with rare techniques (like “Hardanger”), but I haven’t seen them yet. There are so many variations and qualities, that there is not enough space on this page to describe them all. I will add a dedicated page on this later on. Most of the time I use cotton cluny lace in my desgns, but my stock comprises passamenterie trim, embroidery lace and woven lace as well. My passion lies with vintage and antique lace and trim, though. If you wish so, I can make your choker with genuine vintage old stock or antique old stock lace. This means very high quality lace, because nowadays lace is not made with such minute detail and art anymore (most of the times anyway). |
| Lucite | This is top quality acrylic. It is stronger and less prone to scratching. It imitates glass so well, that I have to touch the crystal for identifying the material. Lucite was very popular in the end of the 60s and in the 70s. Often organic gems were replaced by this material (amber, coral etc.). Also opaque stones like onyx and turquoise were often substituted with this material. |
| Nymo | My favourite beading thread. It is thick, very flexible and long lived. It resists degradation though light and won’t wear out easily by the abrasion of the glass beads. Available in different thicknesses and colors. |
| Pearls | “Pearls are the tears of the sea.“ I don’t know anymore who wrote this, but I consider it to be the best description for one of the most beautiful jewelry materials. Usually I will exclusively use old stock faux glass pearls from Bohemia. Those are very good imitations of Japanese culture pearls. I do have some fresh water pearls as well. Genuine pearls seek “their” wearer, which is why I won’t offer jewelry made with them on Ebay. Maybe in my shop over time. |
| Perlon | Known also as fishing line. Finer strengths are usually used for jewelry purposes. It is crystal-clear, which is rather important for some choices. It can substitute certain wire types, because of sturdiness and lack of flexibility in comparison to fabric threads. The negative side to it would be its weakness towards light. Sunlight, and even light in general will degrade the fiber in it to the point where it will turn brittle and break. It takes a few years of good use to happen – but still I wouldn’t use this for heavy beads or very intrincate jewelry. |
| Precious stones | Term used for natural stones and crystals. Jewelers usually refer to sapphires, rubies and emeralds only as precious stones though. I will use this term in the more generic way, including thus all semi-precious stones in my stash too, like: onyx, jet, garnet, citrine, amethyst and many more. |
| Rhinestones | Controversial material. What are rhinestones? Originally, as the name indicates, those were rock crystals found in the bed of the Rhine river. They were used for jewelry back then as a fine stone just like garnets and pearls. The name widened over time to also comprise man made lead crystal jewels. Their main purpose then was substituting diamonds. The German language still differentiates between the real quarz rhinestones and the lead crystal or glass "strass" stones, which as the name implies, were created for the first time by Georges Frédric Strass (1701 bis 1773), who was King's Jeweler in Paris. Authentic (crystal) rhinestones were – and still are – expensive. There are also acrylic and plastic rhinestones available, but they are not only cheap – they look cheap. Acrylic can never substitute glass – and less lead crystal. Its glitter is dull and its resistance to scratches is low. High-quality rhinestones, hence valuable ones, are manufactured mostly in the Czech Republic. The most expensive ones are the so called Swarovski™ Crystals. Those are made of so called silver crystal. Lead ions are substituted by silver ions in the glass mixture. That’s where the unique luster and glitter come from! |
| Silver | The best fine metal for beading. Gold is way too expensive and really soft. To maintain my prices at an easily affordable level I have chosen not to offer sterling silver jewelry at the moment. On custom order I will though. Please, don’t hesitate to ask. |
| Silver wire (German) | The “little brother” of genuine silver wire. Called crafting wire as well. This is basically copper wire with a sterling silver coating on it. This does not mean that this wire is cheap. It depends on the thickness of the silver coating how good this wire will be. I only use quality wire from German brands. The way I work with it in my jewelry will guarantee little contact with your skin, so that it will last for years to come in its pristine condition. |
| Spinels | Commercial name for laboratory created precious stones. These are copies on a physical level. Zirconia are almost perfect copies of diamonds. In the same ways spinels are almost perfect copies of colored gems. I have a few spinels in my stash. All of them are cut with 56 facets and tabletop. They are ca. 2,2 ca. in size. Their ultimate destination are my PMC projects, but should you wish some REAL sparkle on your jewelry, we can talk. |
| Tombak | For completeness’ sake I will mention this brass variation. Some Ebay-sellers at Ebay.de include this name in their listings trying to make their jewelry look more valuable. Tombak is brass, because it’s also a copper-zinc alloy. The only difference to “regular” brass is the mixture relation, which will start, depending on the type, at 65% copper. Tombak is also called red brass or orivin (French gold) and was often used in Victorian and Nouveau times to substitute gold. Tombak will age in a similar way to brass, though, and has to be cleaned, if the owner wishes so. There is NO silver colored tombak in existence. If tombak jewelry has this color, then it has been pewter or silver plated. |
| Velvet | My favorite material :-) Velvet exists in many different variations. The finest one is made of natural fibers (cotton, viscose – even silk as a rarity!). It can be smooth or pleated into shapes with a hot iron. The best quality is considered to be smooth and lush. At any rate, the more threads per square cm velvet has, the higher the quality. Color should be rich and deep. I only use high density and richly colored velvet for my creations. It depends on the design if I will use polyester (wonderfully deep black!) or viscose velvet. But I will never use fabric of lesser quality. For custom orders I have the following colors available in silk velvet: blood red (5 cm wide), blackgreen (2,5 cm wide), lolita pink (2,5 cm wide), ice blue (2,5 cm wide). |
| Working hours | A part of jewelry, which is often undervalued. Design is not everything to good jewelry. Often the crafter (me) has to pour many hours of careful work into it. None of my major items has seen less than 4 hours of work regardless of how simple or uncomplicated the concept may appear. This is due to the very high quality standards during manufacture and finishing I have set to myself. The crafting techniques chosen by me are work-intensive to insure a long-lasting result. |
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