This week’s featured bead is a huge favorite…
Coin pearls are loved for a lot of good reasons.
They go great on bracelets, since they’re pretty flat. That nacreous, mother-of-pearly surface feels nice against your skin. And these days, with the booming cultured freshwater-pearl industry, you can get a strand of coin pearls that are neatly matched in shape and size — at a great price.
Besides the luminous-colored offerings in our online store that you see sampled here, you’ll always find our latest purchases of new styles and hues if you attend our BeadTour bead shows. Make sure you’re on our mailing list to get invited!
Have a favorite way to use coin pearls in your designs? Share your inspiration in a comment below!
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4 Comments
Since the coin pearls lay relatively flat, they make an excellent surface to embellish with collage details or decorative papers. A couple of drops of resin will help protect the new mixed media touches.
Designs can be etched onto the surface of the coin pearls. Use a resist to create a pattern or design and glass etching cream to create matte surfaces. These matte surfaces can be rubbed with an acrylic paint to color the matte areas.
A bead reamer can be used to enlarge the holes, which is good to disguise crimp tubes.
Great ideas, ArdentTie, thanks so much for sharing these comments. They’re practically a whole blog post on their own! 🙂
Fascinating! I had never considered. Thank you ArdentTie!
I bought coin pearls some time ago and all 3 of the pieces I’ve made with them have sold. I need to make more!
I love pearls. They are the only gem that arrives to us completely ready to use. One of the finest gifts of nature.
I think coin pearls are a great shape. They have a great deal of surface area so a little goes a long way. I enjoy featuring one or three (always an odd number) in my designs paired with other shapes of pearls. It helps to have your eye rest on them, like a nacreous lily pad to jump onto!
I think ArdentTie’s comments are really cool! I never thought of embellishing them! Thanks for sharing!
Enjoy the day! Erin
P.S. Thanks for making it easier to comment!