Trollbeads information that can inspire your creativity with your own Trollbeads collection. Share your thoughts, be involved and please leave comments!

By Brigett Johnson  (guest blogger)

The Trollbeads People’s Bead always generates a tremendous amount of excitement and interest, but 2012 is truly special. The collection of 11 beads and a Fantasy Necklace designed around the theme of “Spirituality” embodies the symbolism and personal meaning that make Trollbeads unique and wonderful.

From over 10,000 designs submitted from around the world, Trollbeads selected 100 finalists, and online voting determined 11 final designs for production.

 Trollbeads Gallery Forum had many members who submitted designs: 14 were in the top 100 finalists. Congratulations to everyone who participated, whether as designers offering a glimpse of something important to themselves out to the world, or as viewers and voters, giving thoughtful consideration.

Since it is the first year glass has been selected, the two glass beads, Chakra Colors and Spirit Light, stand out. They are contrasting opposites: one a rainbow of colors, the other crystal white.    

In Hindu and Buddhist belief, the seven Chakras are the focal points of life energy in the body, each connected with the other.  Designer Jolanda J. Hos explains her design: “I was inspired by the spirituality of the rainbow. The different energies are swirled together in one single bead, so you always have the color you need at that moment.” This bead is a natural focal point for a bracelet featuring the Chakra beads released in 2004, with gorgeous bands of 22 carat gold leaf highlighting the chakra colors. But its bright, rainbow colors will also blend easily with many other beads.

  In describing the inspiration for her glass bead, Spirit Light, designer Marta KubeŠová, speaks of “light, water, air, thought, creativity, imagination, faith, unity and infinity”—things that are abstract, invisible and pure. It is a perfect description of this bead, which will complement Dichroic Ice and other white beads in the collection.

 The 8 silver bead designs are as varied as the beliefs that inspired them.

World Within, one of the design winners, was created by Trollbeads Gallery forum member, Linda Karuso. Many congratulations!! It is fast becoming one of the most loved and popular beads from this release. Linda says “Spirituality is a way to move beyond the most surface understanding of life and to begin to focus on the depth of meaning behind our lives. Outside it is reflecting the outward appearance of everything like a mirror. Inside you find the core, representing the search for inner meaning, the essence of spirituality.”

 Stay Positive is beautiful in both the simplicity of its design and its encouraging message. As designer Maria af Rolén suggests in her description of the bead, everyone can use “a reminder to stay positive and focus on the good things in life.”

 Designer Maria af Rolén will be attending TrollbeadsFest 2012 (October 5-6).  As another special surprise for TrollbeadsFest 2012 Louise has shared that Trollbeads Gallery is having 18k gold versions of World Within and Stay Positive specially made--another reason to get your tickets right away if you haven’t yet done so!

 Heaven’s Gate represents the peace of a garden, and designer Yumi Shimizu includes an invitation to “create your own spiritual and beautiful garden by putting the beads you love around this bead.”  When I see this bead, I cannot help but think of the rainbow bridge that leads from this world to the next, and the many loved and missed pets who have crossed it.

 Dream Catcher and Feather reference Native American beliefs and traditions. Dream catchers were originally made by the Ojibwa tribe, but were adopted by other tribes and are now part of popular culture too. Like the spider’s web it represents, the dream catcher is believed to trap dreams sent as messages from the sacred spirits. The good dreams slip down the attached feather to the sleeper and the bad escape through the hole in the center and are banished by the morning light, or “into the wind” as designer Silvia Iacurto explains.

 Feather echoes the beautifully detailed design found also on the bead Angel Feathers. According to designer Carolyn Brettell, “in native America the feather is a symbol of spiritual ascension and evolution and is used by the chiefs to symbolize their ability to communicate with the spirit world.”

 Designed by Allan Bayer, Happy Dragon is “associated with a new beginning, growth and energy. “ From a cultural perspective, dragons are associated with the Orient, and especially China. Chinese dragons are benevolent creatures, associated with wisdom and long life, and often have magical powers.  If you look closely you can see the smile.

  The two beads Loving Light and Rosary have Christian meanings. Designed by Canadian Kevin Powell, Loving Light represents “the relationship between humanity and god.” A small heart decorates the cross it features. Rosary, designed by Elisabetta Marini, “is a chain of ten small grains and a hanging crucifix.” As an additional detail, the words “Ave Maria” are engraved on the center of the bead.

Last, but by no means least, is the bead Prayer, designed to adorn a Trollbeads Fantasy Necklace. Its designer, Daniele Celani speaks to the thing that brings us all together. He acknowledges that “we are all different. We think, we do and we believe in different ways. But what is common for all cultures is the spirit.” He invites us to customize his bead “with the stone that most reflects your soul.” Here it is adorning the new Fantasy Black Onyx Necklace released with the Spiritual Collection, holding a faceted Amethyst.

 No matter which beads from the Spiritual Collection speak most to you, Trollbeads has done an amazing thing: it has brought together people from around the world and given us a little insight into what others think and believe.

Shop the complete collection at http://www.trollbeadsgallery.com/.

With all the outstanding Trollbeads releases in 2010 it has taken a full 5 articles to complete the story, with this being the final one.  The World Tour of Trollbeads continued with the set for Italy. The glass bead was created in the colors of the Italian Flag and the silver beads all had great meaning to the history of Italy including pasta wrapping around a fork!

The final World Tour Trollbeads set for 2010 was for Holland complete with 4 beads also including a windmill, wooden shows and a bead representing Van Gogh's Sunflowers! All great designs for a great country filled with many Trollbeads fanatics!

You would think the year was full and productive as it stood but next came the extraordinary "Skeleton" necklace, available only in Europe. It was sensationally dramatic with a gold collar and it was unlike anything yet produced by Trollbeads. This may have not been the most popular release due to its size and price but it served to show us there is still a wildly adventurous side to this great company!  I would love to find one for our Trollbeads Museum!

The most popular release was the introduction of the Limited Edition Picasso Jasper Trollbeads.  These are natural, organic and very popular! It's releases like this one that puts Trollbeads so far above the other brands and I hope they never stop testing the limits. Each Picasso Jasper bead has a variety of veining and colorations giving great drama.

Natural stone, when polished, has a quality to it that separates if from glass and amber giving it Trollbeads a nother whole medium to offer its collectors.

Trollbeads Gallery offers the Picasso Jasper here!

The last release for 2010 was the Holiday Trollbeads collection offering a few very spirited beads! New earring components, the Ice Bear, Sparkling Star, Pink Diamonds bead were among the new releases along with others shown in the image below.

Accompanying the Winter Trollbeads were two sets of new glass offered as a Limited Edition.Christmas in Hawaii and Christmas in Australia each offers a new depth of colors and designs never before seen!Trollbeads Gallery offers the Limited Edition Christmas Trollbeads here! They are available both as sets and as individual beads.

Thank you for your outstanding imagination and creativity Trollbeads!! We all very excited with anticipation for 2011!

Trollbeads has recently introduced a new group of Glass, Silver and natural Stone Trollbeads.  This new introduction, is referred to as the new “Autumn 2010 Release Trollbeads”. The new beads were  delivered to its top tier retailers, consisting of Platinum, Gold Plus and Gold Premier dealers across the United States.  The Troll collectors responses have been overwhelming and these dealers are already running low.  Each of the top tiered dealers are allowed 25 of each new design to start with and through a few discussions with other Troll retailers I have found the "Golden Quartz" Precious Stone bead and the "Blue Azure" Glass Trollbead are the hottest new beads of the bunch. 

From my standpoint I favor the Golden Quartz.  It is a new addition to the Trollbeads Precious Stone collection and like the other stones in this category it has qualities and features only a natural stone can have.  From a design perspective it is valuable addition because there are multiple tones of gold with this single bead and this makes is so usable.  In our first shipment of the Autumn Release 2010 Trollbeads we received  Golden Quartz in very light gold tines (imagine a light Corona beer) to a very dark gold (imagine a hearty dark ale) and all the tones in between.  Then imagine what you can do with these Trollbeads!  Trollbeads has only about one or two major new bead releases each year and with each new release that come in my first reaction is to see how the new beads can be used by a collector to utilize the older beads.  With each new release there are new and fascinating combinations to be made.  The new "Golden Quartz" will work very well with all of the Amber Trollbeads and especially well with the retired Trollbeads, the Tiger and Tortoiseshell Glass beads.  The Golden Quartz is so neutral yet so warm, I am sure it will be one of the great transitional Trollbeads.   It is also the first of the faceted Precious Stone Trollbeads to have its facets reflect and shimmer, like a bright yellow diamond.

The qualities of the Golden Quartz are as intriguing as any of the Troll natural precious stone beads.  The historical legends of all precious stones make them a perfect material to be used in Trollbeads and the Golden Quartz bead is no different. So much of Trollbeads is about myths and legends.  "Golden Quartz" is known primarily as a stone of success therefore if you are looking to create or grow a business if you wear this stone it will help increase your productivity and creativity. The "Golden Quartz" is a great stabilizer in stressful times and it helps ward off laziness and depression.

You can see in the photo below I have mixed new Trollbeads with old Trollbeads and what a great combination they have made.  Besides the new Trollbeads I have used the "Deep Bubbles" (make sure to find one with light blue bubbles) and "Khaki Stripe", (again make sure you find a "Khaki Sripe" with light blue instead in the stripe instead of Khaki. The blues I have found look great with the new "Light Blue Shadows.  There is always a variety of tones in with each Trollbead so you can find the ones that look best. We can help you with that is you would like!

The past week has been an emotional roller coaster for Trollbeads collectors.  On a very high note the "Autumn 2010" Trollbeads release is the best release yet.  The new glass introductions are exquisite and are amazing to work with.  There is so much you can  create with all of the colors and textures.  We have only just begun to utilize the new Troll offerings to their fullest extent. Thank you Troll designers, we are thrilled! Link to see New Trollbeads!

While receiving the images of the new beads we also learned that Trollbeads Denmark has notified us of a price increase across the board averaging 10%- 28%.  There has not been a price increase at Trollbeads since 2008 while all during this time the raw prices of precious metals have increased steadily.  None of us are happy about the price increase but it was a necessity. The chart below clearly illustrates the increase in the gold market.  As a gallery owner who sells many lines of jewelry, I have experienced rising prices on a weekly basis.  Many wholesalers of gold and silver jewelry have the freedom to base their daily invoices on the price of gold that day.  A business like Trollbeads has to set their prices for the present and future and cannot be keeping up with the changing prices on a daily basis so "across the board" changes like this has to occur. 

I believe our love of Troll will survive the increase and collectors, new and old alike will understand that this price increase was necessary.  Just think of yourself as a shareholder.  You understand the prices need to rise so your company can continue to invest in the future with new designers, new designs and in a very bright future and as a shareholder you have helped assure it!

So go and buy any and all of the beads your little Troll heart desires before the increase on August 30th!