Real Swarovski Crystals or fake glass ?

Do you know how to tell a difference between real Swarovski Crystals and fake glass beads. Some sellers sell fake glass beads as Swarovski. Have to know how to tell a difference so you can't be fooled with cheap glass as quality Swarovski crystals. There is a complete different branch in jewelry making for glass beads, but they are still not Swarovski. Here's some tips to notice the difference:

• Swarovski® crystals are generally not strung when offered for sale.

• Original Swarovski® packaging   - dependant on size, the bulk packages will range from 10 gross to 1/2 gross, in well-branded, sealed envelopes. The newest Swarovski® bulk packaging is sealed with an authenticated silver toned hologram saying "CRYSTALLIZED."

• Swarovski uses technology and machines that give just that right cut to each and every crystal.       Swarovski® crystals are perfectly uniform. Since they are machine cut, each crystal is the same. This means that the height, width and slope are consistent. A hand polished imitator bead will not have as uniform a cut. You may also notice different dimensions from bead to bead.

• In addition the facets on a genuine crystal will line up. Imitations will not meet at the points. A Swarovski will have all the points meeting. Examine the crystal. You will see a perfect meeting of the points. 

•  If you look at the surface of a genuine Swarovski®, you probably won't see any scratches. The "imitations" often have scratches, swirl marks ("oily" looking surface).

• When you look inside the crystal, you will see no bubbles. If you see any bubbles, you know immediately that it is a fake.

• One of the best ways to find a fake, is to put it next to the real thing. A Swarovski will outshine a crystal that is not a genuine Swarovski. The other crystal might be pretty, but there is something that just doesn't look the same.

• Color Names - This might be a strange one to some, but the color names are specifically chosen by Swarovski and something we always look at is, what color name is the company using.  
When searching for colors you might find some generic names like yellow or red or blue but these are not colors that Swarovski has produced.  Swarovski names their colors Citrine, or Red Topaz, or Montana Sapphire instead of more generic use names.

 

Introducing Swarovski crystals

Swarovski crystals are the most sparkly crystals, they are machine cut and shiny-shiny-shiny.
They consist minimum of 31% of lead making the crystal so pure.
Swarovski crystals are from Austria.



Here are my first jewelry made of Swarovski crystals. It's hard to get Swarovski crystals in Estonia, but I made it and I have quite a plenty of them atm.

It's a Swarovski 14mm heart, rose AB.

Sterling silver bail

on a 16" silver chain

Swarovski 20mm star, crystal AB

Just look how gorgeous it is. It sparkles as a crazy-crystal. The photo doesen't show how shiny it actually is.

Swarovski 16mm starfish. Needs a moon :'(.

Some pieces together to show how pretty they are together.

"Love is a star"

These two belong together.

All three with a gift bag. No they are not for sale at the moment. Haven't even thought about selling. But may do it. I really want everyone else to experience the joy when you hold or wear a crystal like this.

Silver rocks!

I know I haven't made new jewelry lately. But now I have.

"Plain hoops ;)"
I made plain hoop earrings, silver. They are really simple and elegant, but have to admit hard to put on. But when they are on they wont come off.

DIY earring holder

I decided to share my do-it-yourself projects with the readers.
I have a lot, like I mean LOT of earrings and if they're in bags or boxes, how can I choose which to wear, so I made an earring holder to hang on the wall and to save some space.

You'll need:

• An empty frame
• scrap window screen (the one you need to have on the windows for an insect-free home in the summer)
• scissors 
• Staple gun

1. Find an empty frame. 
2. Put the frame on the screen and cut the scree around the frame.
3. Staple the screen to the frame, hold it tight and staple the corners. 
4. Cut the unnecessary screen
5. Attach a ribbon or some other string with which you can hang it on the wall.
6. Hang it on the wall hang your earrings and you're done.
7. That's it! easy and useful!

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DIY projektid siis ka eesti keeles. Mõned inimesed on minu käest siiski kysinud, et miks ma inglise keeles kirjutan ja eesti keeles mitte - põhjus väga lihtne, ma ei näe selleks nii suurt vajadust, eestlased ju mõistavad ka inglise keelt, kui mitte andke aga teada ;).

Selle lihtsa kõrvarõngaste hoidja saab teha kiiresti ning see on ka ruumi kokku hoidev ja ülevaatlik.

Vaja läheb:

• Tühja raami
• Klammerduspüstolit
• Akna võrku (seda mis suvel akende ette pannakse, et sääsed sisse ei tuleks)
• Käärid

1. Pane raam võrgu peale ja lõika raami jaoks vajaliku suurusega tükk võrku.
2. Klammerda võrk tühja raami külge, esmalt nurgad, tõmba võrk koguaeg pingule.
3. Klammerda ka ääred, et võrk korralikult püsiks.
4. Lõika üleliigne võrk ära-
5. Kinnita pael või mõni muu nöör, et saaksid raami seinale riputada
6. Riputa raam seinale ja raamile riputa kõrvarõngad
7. Valmis ta ongi!

Mine turned out like this / minu oma siis selline

Guitar lessons - yes please!

Hi!

I've been very busy practising guitar playing.
Practising the chords by yourself and playing them over and over again gets boring when you often do it.
But when you're a beginner like me you can't play normal songs cuz the fingers don't move as fast as you would want them to (or are my fingers just slow, but they won't go where I want them to be).

The other day I was just practising with my guitar and found some very helpful videos from youtube to make this learning fun. They are easy and very playable for beginners, super beginners too :). There are some finger exercises too. Hope they are as useful to you as they were to me.



Easy acoustic beginner guitar songs, how to.
Sublime "What I Got" 
Green Day "Good Riddance Time of Your Life"
Green Day "Wake Me Up when September Ends"

Finger dexterity exercise here
Chords (if somebody doesn't know yet) here