I love everything about Fireline. Well, almost everything.
Ever since I discovered how great Fireline is for making open-backed peyote-stitch
bezels and making supple and strong beaded bracelets and necklaces, I've
lamented the fact that it only came in two colors: "crystal," which showed up
as a white thread against darker beads, and "smoke," which was supposed to be
black but turned out to be a dark gray after I gave it the customary swipe with
a damp paper towel to prevent that color coming off all over my fingers and my
beads.
Then Kelli Burns of The Hole Bead Shop told me about Sparkle
Spot Bead Shop and its owner, Kelley Darcangelo. Kelley, she said, had a line
of colored Fireline available! Intrigued, I contacted Kelley and she sent me a
sample pack of colored Fireline for me to test out.
At first, I was a bit skeptical. I know how easily that
black dye comes off of the "smoke-colored" Fireline, and I was afraid that
the dye would run on these colors, too. Still, they were beautiful to look at:
a whole range of blues and orange and purples that looked like they would blend
perfectly with my beads.
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| The colored Fireline blended perfectly with my seed beads. |
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My first project made with the colored Fireline was one of
the earring projects from Rachel Nelson-Smith's new book,
Bead Riffs. I had recently decided to bead my way through the
entire book and blog about it, similar to the Julie/Julia Project, and these
beautiful purple earrings made a fantastic project for testing this colored
Fireline.
I decided not to give the Fireline a swipe with a damp
cloth, as I usually do with the black Fireline, so I could see just how
colorfast this stuff was. To my amazement, there was just a tiny bit of color
on my fingers at the end of making both earrings, and the colored Fireline
blended perfectly with the beads in the earrings!
I asked Kelley about this new colored Fireline, and this is
what she had to say about it:
"As a Fireline fan, I
have been working on this as a pet project for about two and a half years and
have been selling it and testing it in my store for about two years. I have
worked with a chemical engineer and we've developed a process for colorization
that achieves the most stable dye possible outside of adding the color at the
point of manufacture.
Of course, as with most dyes, there is occasionally a bit of color loss
(similar to the current Fireline Smoke product) and this should not be used for
any project that will be immersed in water. I'm going by input and feedback
from my customers who have been using it with great success and several
national designers who have given it a thumbs-up, ordering it again and again, and
even using it in class kits. Based on these recommendations, I feel like it's
time to put it out there for public consumption."
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The only drawback that I can see so far with the new colored
Fireline is that it costs more than the Crystal or Smoke Fireline. Is it worth
it? In my opinion, the answer is yes. If you want all the great benefits of
beading and stitching with Fireline and the great color options of Nymo or
S-Lon, then this new colored Fireline beading thread is definitely for you.
You can see all the colors of Fireline available and
purchase them through Kelley's website, Sparkle Spot Bead Shop.
Have you tried the new colored Fireline yet? What did you think about it? Would you recommend it to someone else? Share your thoughts here!
Bead Happy,
Jennifer
Filed under: Crystals, Beading Tools, Seed Bead Patterns, How to Bead, Beaded Beads, Bead Making, mixed media jewelry, Beaded Jewelry Design, Beads, Bracelet Making, Beaded Jewelry