Introducing Aurora Crystals
Posted by Taylor Shelby on
Over the next few months you'll start seeing a new type of stone used in my jewelry called "Aurora" crystals. I wanted to give some background and introduce you to these new offerings.
In 2020, Swarovski announced that it would be discontinuing many of its production lines for loose stones and beads. I typically only use vintage Swarovski stones but this announcement meant that many of the vintage supplies on the market were quickly bought up and the supply has been significantly impacted.
The good news is that new and existing brands are working to fill the void left by Swarovski, including a new Crystal I am carrying: Aurora
Please note that there is a type of crystal coating called "Aurora borealis" that creates a lovely iridescent finish (as seen in this necklace: https://www.damesalamode.com/products/aurora-borealis-crystal-necklace-small-round-draft?_pos=1&_sid=88d62326d&_ss=r) but these are not the same thing as the new line of Aurora Crystals.
Aurora crystals are made in China and I have typically avoided using Chinese crystals because the quality has been poor, but after sampling a number of different shapes, colors, and sizes of this new line of crystals I am confident in their quality and will be incorporating them into my jewelry. The sparkle quality is somewhere between my current offerings of Czech glass crystals and Swarovski crystals. They have less complexity of sparkle than Swarovski stones, but they certainly don't have a cheap plastic sparkle of previous stones I have seen coming from China.
One of the huge benefits of Aurora Crystals is that they come in a huge variety of colors, shapes, and sizes, so I will have the opportunity to offer a larger selection of items, including some colors that have always been too rare for me to find in enough quantities to turn in to collet necklaces!
For the time being, I still have a number of Swarovski crystals that are already in my excellent hoard of supplies, so they are not going away immediately.
You will start to see these new pieces showing up in my shop over the next few months!
Shop Aurora Crystal jewelry here: https://www.damesalamode.com/search?type=product&q=aurora+crystal
Shop Swarovski Crystal jewelry here: https://www.damesalamode.com/search?type=product&q=swarovski