I'm plotting and pondering my next project - stoning a black satin with gold trim freeskate dress. I'm eyeing Jet AB Swarovkis: 20 or 30 SS rhinestones on the bodice, 10SS scattered on a skirt, and some bead detail in bicones; plan is pairing them with crystal and either citrine, jonquil or topaz or a mixture of these (depends on the final shade of gold used). But, before I buy them/attach them - has anyone used the jet AB on a dress, and, if so, how do they look on the ice? The play of colours is beautiful, but, sometimes things that look beautiful in the hand don't look quite so beautiful on the ice.

The owner of my local shop (Carol's--they're vendors at a lot of Midwest competitions too) where I buy stones talked me into using the slightly lighter Jet Hematite swarovskis on the body of my black velvet freeskate dress instead of plain Jet, saying they would show up much better whereas the black would get lost. At first I was kind of skeptical but listened to them anyway. The Jet Hematites pick up/reflect light better. I was really pleased with the effect, the dress sparkles like crazy and I get a ton of compliments on it. They're mixed in with red and clear crystals on my dress.

You can see the difference here, the jet look very black in the photo while the jet hematite look more gray-ish, but they're not.

http://www.mjtrim.com/Catalog/Produc...020/03020.aspx

I wouldn't do the 10ss, I'd do 20ss scattered on the skirt....10ss are so small that they are a pain in the butt to work with.

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

I agree, go larger! Since you are talking about a skating outfit...larger is better, and anything small will not get noticed.

I stoned a dress for daughter a few years ago, using black stones on a black dress. All you could tell was an occasional sparkle. It was a nice (very) understated effect, since the dress was rather plain (anything else would have been way too much anyway).

There are also clear stones that are only for sparkle, but I'm not sure how they would look on black. I always go for MORE and LARGER!

__________________
Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Be careful with jet ABs (or, I guess, ABs in general) they can look like blue polka dots against really dark fabrics. Due to this, we opted for plain jet hematites instead on the black part of a dress that I was stoning. If you can order a half gross (or even less) and put it against the fabric to check the effect, that would be best.

The 10SS are incredibly effective on chiffon/silk skirts. What I do is take a couple hundred of them - hotfix are easy to work with, I can do a couple of hundred in a hour - and scatter them all over the material. You get incredible "twinkle" effect on the ice, and it's very visible. Because they're light, they don't weight the skirt, and it looks light and airy and very pretty. I "twinkled" my youngest's skirt with 10SS crystals over white, and the effect was beautiful - it looked like light was running across the skirt as it moved. With the heavier stones, it would have looked - heavy. Why not just use glitter chiffon? Because nothing beats the flash of a Swarovski crystal under light.

30SS and 20Ss and bigger - my favorite are sew-on rivolis, especially the 18MM and up - I use on bodices and for obvious accents on skirts, particularly on velvet skirts. I just like the effect of the little sparks of light from the 10ss ... umm ... I've also used a few hundred 5ss too, they also look wonderful ...

Those crystals are so gorgeous! Although I don't make skating costumes anymore, I would like to apply them to a blouse or t-shirt. Do they wash off or fall off? I guess you hot glue them.

Kay

__________________
Visit my figure skating journal
http://www.skatejournal.com/

If you use E6000 (or the hotfix ones that come with glue on the back) they shouldn't fall off. I have anywhere from 800-1500 stones on a dress and have worn them as many as 15 times, hand wash gently once a season, and have never lost a single stone.

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything