Playing with my beads...Bicones - Burgundy Blue Zircon Blend

SWAROVSKI BURGUNDY BLUE ZIRCON BLEND BICONES

I only tried these bicones with one bracelet pattern but with two different seed bead colors. I tried the Metallic Chocolate beads first but decided that they are too dark. I do like the sample with Dark Bronze seed beads though. Both samples were made with Deborah Roberti's "Venetian Bands" pattern which you can buy HERE. I have 40 of these bicones which will leave me plenty to make a pair of earrings to go with my bracelet.

I bought these bicones from Artbeads.com HERE. One thing that I noticed while working with these particular bicones is that the quality isn't very good. I assumed that anything made by Swarovski would be of the highest quality considering how much they cost. What I found was that some of the bicones in this batch have a definite point on one end and are just chopped off on the other. And, some are chopped on both ends. That's the kind of thing that I expect when I buy cheap Chinese crystals but not from Swarovski. So far I haven't noticed any defects like this in the Czech bicones that I've tried so I think I'll stick to buying those from now on and give Swarovski a miss. I'm not keen on Swarovski's colors much anyway.

Venetian Band (about 28 bicones)

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (461)
• 4mm bicones Swarovski "Burgundy-Blue Zircon Blend"
• 3mm fire polished beads "Dark Bronze"

Venetian Band (about 28 bicones)

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 4mm bicones Swarovski "Burgundy-Blue Zircon Blend"
• 3mm fire polished beads "Bronze"