About Special Coatings:

As many of you know, there is a new trend in town regarding special coating on Swarovski Crystal that is not produced by Swarovski.

 Swarovski allows special coatings to be done on their crystal and this is in part to the impossibility of keeping up with the demand in an ever changing fashion industry.  Many of the Bicone beads (art 5301) are done with special coatings that are not coated by Swarovski, an example I believe is the Champagne coating.

There are rumors being told to discredit the efforts to bring new and exciting color combinations to our beading community.  I am writing this to assist in squashing the rumor

I will begin by saying that these specially coated beads are not easily obtainable.  What is not being communicated is that there are minimum purchases.  Example being is the Art 5100 Vitrail Light.  I am required to have a minimum of 2 gross coated.  In some cases, I am required to purchase up to 1800 pieces such as the Art 8115.  There is also shipping expense in this venture.  Typically, the crystals arrive here in the United States from Austria and then they are shipped again back overseas for the special effects coating.  Upon an order, it can take up to 6 weeks for them to arrive back to the US.  Other risks include receiving damaged beads which can occur in the coating processthese damaged beads are at the purchaser expense.

In comparison to Swarovski coating, I personally think some of the coatings are equally as nice to Swarovski Coatings.  A fabulous example is the Glacier Blue coating; I find Glacier Blue to have just as much brilliance and fire as the Crystal AB coating done by Swarovski and in fact, in comparison of Glacier Blue Coatings done by Swarovski and by the outsourced company, I find very few variations.  I will say that there are some coatings that are not 100% exact but with those coatings come a new creation for the jewelry designer. 

Our company, Beading in the Rain, Inc. decided to make the costly investment to be able to offer our customers more variety for the artisan.  As many of you know, I bring in new coatings several times a month and we now have a very nice variety and inventory to offer.  I have personally fallen in love with these new coatings as have many of you!    

If you have any questions, please contact me at: judi@beadingintherain.com

If you would like to talk to me via yahoo please IM Me Yahoo: invctar.