Czech Glass Beads

  1. June 03, 2019

    Another winning design: Our etched design contest runner up

    Last month we introduced you to our etched bead jewelry design contest winner, Sabrina Finch. We had so many amazing submissions that we can't…
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  2. May 30, 2019

    SUN COINS, DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT, AND THE MUSE

    I’ll never forget the moment my first batch of goodies from Nirvana Beads arrived. The box was small but quite heavy, and when I opened it I saw rows of teal and red, the glint of light on faceted beads. They took my…
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  3. May 16, 2019

    Etched Bead Contest Winner

    Last month, we put out the call for your etched bead jewelry designs, and you answered! The submissions we received were all beautiful and original, so selecting a winner was no easy task. We chose this stunning necklace by designer…
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  4. March 10, 2019

    From Glass Sculptures to Artistic Glass Beads

    If a tiny bead could talk, it would tell you many stories you could not have imagined. From ancient times, when glass was first created, to the moment when glass becomes a bead, a piece of glass has gathered on its…
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  5. October 11, 2018

    JEWELRY BY MAGGIE DYKZEUL

    JEWELRY BY MAGGIE DYKZEUL When designing the dangle drop earrings, what was your process in designing them and what about them sparked your creativity?
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  6. April 16, 2018

    Melon Beads Are "Boho Pearls"€ Worth Celebration

    Melon beads are like that guy in high school that you could always count on — a guy so consistent and dependable you forget to notice him in the parade of flashy bad boys and…
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  7. April 07, 2017

    Color your world -- birds, beads and colorful possibilities

    One glass bead in the palm of your hand can harvest, hold and celebrate color. It can excite us, relax us or inspire us – sometimes all at the same time.For an artist, the challenge is to take that sweet solo and build it into a sweeping…
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  8. March 10, 2017

    On the road again - Nirvana's Shelley Ashley delights in delivering the exceptional- 

    To call her job “sales” is to seriously undersell what Shelley Ashley does for Nirvana Beads and her customers on her outreach journeys every spring and fall throughout the Southern and Midwestern United States. With Nirvana veteran Daniel…
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  9. March 01, 2017

    Versatile Dahlias are a designers' dream

    Some beads are ever-ready wildflowers – rugged, hardy, and plentiful  — while others are hothouse varieties, exquisite in their beauty but often temperamental and hard to handle. Don’t let the apparent delicacy and…
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  10. January 23, 2017

    Fearless Sherry Serafini finds magic in Czech glass beads

    This is the first in Nirvana's occasional series sharing the inspiration and ideas of breakthrough designers. If you’d like us to consider your favorite designer – or you!  — send us an…
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  11. January 16, 2017

    Arrival of a ton of beads means a deluge of detail

    About every 2 months another metric ton (or so) of Nirvana’s specialty beads arrive from Jablonec in the Czech Republic. Even though owners  Nir Kronenberg and Cynthia Shanti Moralez have the basic process down to a science, the actual
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  12. December 07, 2016

    Sometimes it's just about the bead

    As a bead designer who owns a wholesale bead company with my husband, I am surrounded by beads all day in my office. They stay with me mentally most other places as I work through designs in my head. Under those circumstances,  people…
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  13. December 05, 2016

    Our Czech Glass Garden blooms with more dazzling dahlias

    Backyard gardens in Jablonec — where the majority of our Czech beads and buttons are made individually or in small batches by traditional artisans– are not orderly cages of color…
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  14. November 09, 2016

    What does it take find new possibilities in Old World processes?

    How does Nirvana Beads create new, exclusive and exciting designs in Czech Glass using shapes and techniques that predate our great grandparents? The…
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  15. October 19, 2016

    A Scribe is Born

    The word “artisan” officially joined plaid shirts in Brooklyn when McDonald’s launched their latest poultry product on an “artisan” roll. But marketing-speak be damned, artisans themselves have an…
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