Volcanic Lava Beads, Opal for October & Halloween Beads
This month is
how lava beads can make great jewelry, opal for October and Halloween beads. Scroll down, or click
one of the links below on the html version to go to a certain section. The
cost of shipping is one of our largest expenses - but to help out in these hard
times, we have lowered our base shipping charge slightly.
See us in the UK during September and October -
for dates click here.
First bead show tomorrow at Edinburgh, on Sunday 25th September.
If you're in the East of England, come to see our own bead fair at Norwich on
16th October - details here.
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Volcanic Lava
Beads
Opal for October
Halloween Beads
$10 or £6 off
Volcanic Lava Beads
What are lava beads?
They
are a new type of jewelry-making gemstone that is becoming increasingly
popular. Everyone who makes and sells home-crafted jewelry should try
some. The inexpensive stone is surprisingly light, making the present
fashion for large chunky jewelry, comfortable to wear. The chic
usually-black beads are also available in many different shapes and
sizes allowing creative designs. Some are even dyed brown, and others
brighter colors.
How they are born
Lava beads started life as molten rock over 1,000 degrees
Celsius. It takes this high temperature and huge pressure to make rock
melt beneath an active volcano. Most rock deep inside the Earth's
interior is not molten. This molten rock is spewed out of the erupting
volcano and flows in streams until cooler air freezes it solid.
Sometimes the flow can travel as fast as 30 km/hour on steep slopes and
reach tens of kilometers, destroying everything in its path. However,
usually it moves less than 1 km/hour, giving people time to move out of
the way.
Properties
Lava beads promote strength and fertility. Bringing stability
in changing times, driving away anger - and helping one to understand a
problem in order to spring back to a stronger position. A very grounding
stone that strengthens our connection to Mother Earth.
Lava bead jewelry
Beads from these rocks make very unusual jewelry. Used as
pendants or parts of a necklace, these unusual black beads ooze style
and mystique, drawing attention whenever worn. When admiring lava bead
jewelry, people will ask, "whatever is it made out of?" This ensures all
the mystique and power of a volcano are in your design!
Designing lava bead
jewelry
Take
advantage of how light these beads weigh, and try making long earrings
to match large lava bead pendants for necklaces and bracelets. Mix
different sizes and shapes to make the design interesting. Because most
are jet-black, they go well with any color or style of clothes, making
them more appealing, and so easier to sell. By their nature, these beads
create an earthy rustic style - ideal for "wild" outdoor jewellery,
especially for late-in-the year or Halloween. And as most are large and
powerful in a design, you need fewer beads to make your piece, saving
you money
Lave & Pearl and Lava &
Coral
Lava
mixed with pearl or coral can produce striking jewelry!
Lava bead finish
Although looking coarse with tiny holes and cracks, most of
these beads are polished to feel smooth, making your jewelry comfortable
to wear.
To see our many lava
beads click
MrBead.com or
MrBead.co.uk
Opal:
October's Gemstone
What is Opal?
All of Natures fury can be seen in fine opal. Like a Rembrandt: fire,
lightning, all the colors of the rainbow and the shine of far seas. Australia
supplies about 95% of the worlds opal from the outback. Aborigines there
believe their creator came down to Earth on a rainbow to bring the message of
peace to all humans. And at the spot where his foot touched the ground, opal was
born.
The name Opal could have came from many places. In Greek Opallios translates
as color change, and to the ancient Romans Opalus was a stone from several
elements. Pliny, a Roman author, wrote that opal combines the sparkle of
Almandine, the shining purple of Amethyst, the golden yellow of Topaz, and the
deep blue of Sapphire.
Types
of Opal 
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Fine opals shine and sparkle in a continually changing play of colors called Opalising.
Depending on the rock and location they have names like Harlequin, Peacock,
Mexican, and Fire Opal. Most opal has this play of colors except Common Opal,
a name give to all others, like Pink Opal. Because demand outstrips supply, fine opalizing opal is very very expensive, so is sold in individual beads for
hundreds of US dollars each. Therefore, the type of opal common in necklaces is
non-opalizing opal - usually pink opal from Peru (more below).
Opals fantasy-like play of color is caused by small spheres of silica creating
interference and refraction manifestations. The spheres, which are arranged in
compact structures, dissect light through the gemstone, turning it into the
rainbow effect, always new and different.
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How to Value Opal
The most important criterion for determining the price of fine opal is the play
of color, the colors themselves and their pattern. If red appears when looking
through the stone, all the other colors will also. Value also depends on body
color, transparency, and original location. Body color can be black, dark or
light, or colored. Black Opal or a dark grey body has the most brilliant play of
color. Black Opal from Lightning Ridge or Mexican Fire Opal is the best. Crystal
opal, is the next best, and should be more transparent with a deep play of
color. White or milky opals show more diffuse color and are the cheapest.
To best bring out the play of color in a fine opal, the stones are cut and
polished to round or oval cabochons, or any other softly domed shape. Only the
best qualities of Fire Opal are suited to faceting. The opal cutter removes any
impurities using a diamond cutting wheel, before working out the rough basic
shape, fine cutting, and finishing with sandpaper and polishing with a wet
leather wheel.
How does Opal Effect You?
Opal is thought to solve depression and to help its wearer find true love. Opals
are supposed to enhance the positive characteristics for people born under the
sign of Cancer. With Black Opal recommended to Scorpios and Boulder Opal for
Aries. The opalizing effect reflects changing emotions and moods of people.
People prefer different opals for different moods. Opals are like human
emotions: each type creates different feelings.
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Peruvian Opal
Peruvian Opal comes in faint pink, light blue and light mint-green tones. From
the Andes Mountains near San Patricio, Peru, just like the name implies.
Although native South Americans have been using the stone for more than a
thousand years, it only became widely available commercially within the last
decade or so. It is usually translucent to opaque with no play of color and
often has lots of black and tan dendrites. Most Peruvian Opal beads are
semi-opaque to opaque.
Peruvian opals metaphysical properties are similar to other opals. Helping to
intensify your traits and characteristics and deepening your personal
understanding. Peruvian Opal in particular is used to activate the heart charka
and to assist you during spiritual journeys.
Looking
after Opal
Due to 2 to 6% water, opals easily become brittle and if stored too dry or
exposed to heat over a longer period of time, they will show fissures and the
play of color will fade. Therefore, Opal jewelry should be worn as often as
possible, for then the gemstone will receive the needed humidity from the air
and from the skin of its wearer. In earlier days opals sensitive surface was
oiled, but today they are sealed with clear resin.
To buy our Peruvian Opal Nugget Beads click
MrBead or
MrBead.co.uk
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Skull Beads
  Skull beads are very
popular right now - we sell loads! They're ideal for Halloween and students
have been hanging them on their rucksacks all year. We stock ten different
skull beads to see these key SKULL BEADS in our search box at
MrBead.com or
MrBead.co.uk.
 Orange & Black Beads
With Halloween just around the corner, we thought it
fun to look at orange and black gemstone beads. You can¡¯t celebrate Halloween
without using the colors black and orange. They are also great to wear
during autumn since orange matches the beautiful fall leaves, and black is a
classy tone that will compliment every color. The classic gemstones in these
colors are orange carnelian and black onyx.
Carnelian gets the brilliant orange color from iron
oxide, and black onyx is usually made by treating chalcedony or agate with a
sugar solution and then carbonizing it with heated sulfuric acid. Color
enhancements for these stones are so common that majority of carnelians and
onyx sold today are enhanced agate. However, this makes the stones available
in larger sizes and at more affordable prices.
Other stones in these colors are
fire opals, pearls, and orange aventurines for sunset tones - and obsidian
or jet for black beads. It may also be fun to combine copper findings with
onyx beads if you want a classy jewelry that you can wear year- round but
would still have a hint of Halloween.
Checkout some of our spooky gothic
jewelry at our sister store, click:
AwesomeRings
To see our
Carnelian beads click
MrBead.com
or
MrBead.co.uk
For our Onyx beads click
MrBead.com
or
MrBead.co.uk
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|
From our
new book How
to Make a Killing Selling Bead Jewelry - to
buy at a 33% discount to listed price click:
US Version
or
UK Version
US$10 or £10 off
T
o receive $10 or £6 off anything in our store, key the code "LAVA"
(without the commas) in the box at checkout, and click "Redeem Coupon" Act NOW -
as only valid until Thursday 29th September 2011. Only for use in our store
at the checkout and not valid with any other offers.
To see our bead store at
MrBead click
MrBead.com
or
MrBead.co.uk top of page
To return to the top click
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