Druzy, Lapis, Bead Fair Reports & Sept Stone
25th August 2019
See us next weekend in Wadebridge, 1st September at Cornish Bead Fair. Along with Tanzee Design’s huge range of seed beads & spacers. This hall used to be a railway station!
Many NEW beads just arrived in the UK in our 800 kg shipment of 37 boxes! Some already listed on our online shop, click New Beads.
We’re taking a break in Italy after this, so online orders will be delayed between Wed 4th Sept to Wed 11th. Plus a slight hold up while we’re in Cornwall from Wed 28th Aug for a few days.
Then on Sat 14th September, we’re in London at Kilburn Bead Fair – the following day, Sun 15th Sept at Essex Bead Fair.
All our shows booked so far this new year click 2019 Bead Fairs.
Content:
Druzy Beads
Summer Bead Fair Report
Lapis Lazuli Beads
Sapphire For September
chalcedony – Alternate Gemstone
Late-Summer Bead Fairs
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15% Off Anything From MrBead
15% off all orders with no minimum. Key DRUZY at checkout now, as offer ends Friday 30th August. Use at MrBead.co.uk or MrBead.com, but can’t be used with any other discount.
Druzy Beads
Druzy beads are great for a focal point in a necklace or bracelet. So each string can go a long way, making them not too expensive.
They stand out because of their unusual display inside the beads – like a miniature geode.
Usually crystal, but can be other semi-precious stone – all natural with a coating of crystals. Druze’s are formed by mineral deposits seeping through cavities in a stone and crystallize on the surface to form a bright sparkle.
We have lots more druzys at our bead fairs.
To our latest Druzy Beads online, just key DRUZY in the search box at MrBead.co.uk or MrBead.com
Summer Bead Fair Report
Kempton Park Gem n Bead Fair – 27th-28th July
This was our best Kempton take so far this year – much better than in June. More visitors, although not really enough for four two-day shows there a year. Always hard work, but this time, worth it.
Burges Hall Gem n Bead Fair – 3rd-4th August
After Harrogate and Kempton Park, Cambridgeshire is now our best Gem n Bead Fair in the country. We made a killing at Burges Hall with many sales with few small totals.
However, it was really hard work. We couldn’t get into the hall until 5.30pm because of use by a school, so by 9.30pm exhibitors was totally warn out after working over 15-hours.
Also, difficult to unload our stock with narrow loading bays and passages. Plus to make it even worse, it took 40-minutes to drive the 4 1/2-miles to our hotel because of road blocks. The road into the hotel’s village was closed and diversion signs took us onto the A14 which was also closed with more incoherent diversions!
Berwick-Upon-Tweed Bead Fair – 10th August
We always do well at Berwick, thanks to Rod & Karen who not only buy beads by the bucket-load – but were kind enough to take MiMi and I out for seafood platters opposite Holy Island. So easy to setup at these village halls!
Scottish Bead Fair – 11th August
A little quiet this year, despite three other exhibitors present. However, well worth the rush the day after Berwick, despite torrential rain on the evening 2 1/2 hour trip further north. It always rains this time of year in Scotland! Beautiful hall with loads of space.
Just one night camping at Loch Lomond was enough. Dentist & I got covered with midge bites drinking by the loch in the evening – Scottish mosquitoes are much more violent that what we’re used to in the Far East!
Fantastic waterfront hotel, seafood and views a few days latter in Port Patrick though (picture). This part of Dumfries & Galloway is like Ireland, which is just across the water.
Harrogate Gem n Bead fair – 17th-18th August
We made a killing at this one – like the spring fair here, many visitors, and all good spenders. We do better these days at Harrogate than at Kempton. Great show!
Lapis Lazuli Beads
The combination of royal blue and flakes of gold has made lapis very popular right now. Its quality speaks for itself making it easy for you to sell. And everyone expects jewellery made from the gemstone to be expensive, giving you an edge on price.
Lapis Lazuli is a gemstone straight out of fairy tales of the Arabian Nights: deepest blue with golden shining pyrite inclusions which twinkle like little stars.
Named after Lapis, the Latin word for stone, and the Arabian for blue. Thousands of years before Christ, Egyptian and Persian royalty wore lapis as a talisman to deter danger.
In other cultures it was worshipped as a holy stone and thought to have magical power in oriental countries. Many believe the Biblical sapphire was actually lapis lazuli. Through the ages, lapis has been associated with power, wisdom, love, and a psychic stimulant.
In the art world it’s famous for the ultramarine blue paint used by the Grand Old Masters, like on portraits of the Virgin Mary. While other compositions have long since paled, lapis has lost nothing of its brilliance.
Lapis is mined in the remote mountains of Afghanistan, the best stones being deep and intensive blue with finely distributed golden crystals. The twinkling inclusions are not gold but pyrite, caused by iron. The blue colour comes from the sulfuric content of lazurite, and looks dull until polished.
Lapis is a soft stone that should be treated gently while polishing. Unpolished, the dark blue looks dull with golden inclusions and whitish veins from marble. However, a Lapis which has dulled after being worn too often is easily polished, and jewellery is often surface sealed with wax or resin.
For many people lapis is a stone of truth and friendship. Bringing harmony to relationships and helping its wearer openly state their individual opinion. While aiding inner vision, wisdom, insight and good judgment. It’s also said to be good for treating thyroid problems and helping to get in touch with our inner selves. A powerful gemstone that should not be worn by those who lack strength of character.
MrBead has 22 different shapes of lapis beads at MrBead.co.uk and MrBead.com.
SEPTEMBER’S GEMSTONE
Sapphire is the birthstone for September, and is chemically and structurally the same as ruby, an aluminum oxide. However, where rubies are only red, sapphires come in every color but red: blue, golden yellow, reddish-orange, or violet.
We have some sapphire beads at our bead show, but generally Sapphire is too expensive for most crafters, so a great alternative for September is blue chalcedony – which can look similar at a fraction of the cost. Chalcedony is a very fine-grained variety of quartz with a waxy luster with a compact fibrous structure.
ALTERNATE GEMSTONE FOR SEPTEMBER: CHALCEDONY
Natural chalcedony is usually grayish blue and sometimes with hints of pink, however it can be color enhanced to light blue. It is said that chalcedony was used as a sacred stone by the Native Americas, promoting stability within the ceremonial activities of the tribe.
Chalcedony is thought to augment emotional balance, vitality, stamina, endurance, kindness, charity and friendliness. It also supposedly alleviates hostilities, irritability and melancholy.
For our Chalcedony click MrBead.com or MrBead.co.uk
15% Off Anything From MrBead
15% off all orders with no minimum. Key DRUZY at checkout now, as offer ends Friday 30th August. Use at MrBead.co.uk or MrBead.com, but can’t be used with any other discount.
Late-Summer Bead Fairs
- Sunday 1st September: Cornish Bead Fair at The John Betjeman Centre Southern Way, Wadebridge, Cornwall, PL27 7BX. Full details here.
- Saturday 14th Sept: Kilburn Bead Fair at The Granville, 140 Carlton Vale, London NW6 5HE. Full details here.
- Sunday 15th Sept: Essex Bead Fair at Great Bromley Village Hall, Parsons Hill, Great Bromley, Colchester, Essex CO7 7JA. Full details here.
- Sat & Sun 21st-22nd Sept: Newark Gem n Bead Fair, Newsrk Showground, Winthorpe, Notts NG24 2NY
- Sunday 29th Sept: Beads Up North! Haydock Racecourse, Newton-le-Willows WA12 0HQ. Full details here.
To see all the bead shows we have booked so far click Bead Fairs 2019 – many more yet to add!
See our beads at MrBead.co.uk or MrBead.com
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