All of the lampwork beads and furnace glass beads in my designs are individually hand-crafted by talented artists across the United States (some of my beads are handmade by myself!) These beads are made by melting rods of glass with a torch, wrapping the molten glass around a stainless steel rod, then adding more glass for decorations. The beads often look like they are "painted", but all of the artwork is done purely with glass. During this process, the glass reaches temperatures exceeding 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Once complete, the beads are cooled very slowly in a kiln, for strength and durability. Cooling them in a kiln ensures that they will not cool too quickly, which can result in weakness and breakage. It is quite amazing to note the attention to detail that goes into each beautiful little bead!

Swarovski has been a leading manufacturer of cut crystal since 1895. Today, the superior-quality cutting and polishing of all Swarovski products makes Swarovski crystals the most brilliant and remarkable in the world. All the crystals used in my designs are genuine Swarovski crystals, made in Austria. All the pearls used in my designs are Swarovski crystal pearls. The glowing, natural-looking pearl coating is resistant to scratches, sun fading, perfumes, and perspiration, and it will not peal like the coating on glass pearls! Swarovski pearls have genuine Swarovski crystal as the center core.

	Gold vermeil (pronounced 'ver-may') findings have an inside core of sterling silver, with a heavy coating of 22 karat gold on the outside. This combination produces jewelry that looks and feels like pure gold. All of the gold-color daisy spacers and beadcaps I use are gold vermeil.

Gold-filled refers to the process by which a layer of 10 karat or better gold is mechanically bonded with heat and pressure to the surface of the supporting base metal, then rolled or drawn to a given thickness. In the jewelry industry, the quantity of gold must be at least 1/20th by weight of the total product. All the small gold-color balls in my designs are 14K gold filled, as are my gold-color earwires.

The silver-color findings used in my designs are sterling silver. This includes earwires, balls, beadcaps, daisy spacers, and any larger ornate silver beads (some of which are handmade in Bali, Indonesia). Some of my bracelet clasps are sterling silver, while others are pewter. Some styles of beadcaps are also pewter--please see individual item descriptions for further details.

All of my necklaces and bracelets are strung on Soft-Flex or Beadalon beading cord. These wires have more flexibility than other beading wires, and they have a very high resistance to kinking. The cord is a miniature cable made up of *forty-nine* strands of wire, then coated with nylon for a smooth finish. These cords are very strong and durable!

All of the gold-color clasps used in my bracelet and necklace designs are pewter with a gold finish.