Trollbeads will release limited edition Chinese Zodiac beads

Thank you!

They look almost as small as the prisms

Now I cannot wait to see them IRL.

Wondering too if they come out in the entire world or just China to begin with

Would still love two of them, probably rat and pig for two of my cats
Thank you for the update!

OMG, they look great, also the bracelet that they are on.

I wonder if they are as heavy as the LE Chines silvers?

Thank you for the update.
I can't wait to see them in real life.

I like them smaller, but not the larger price . They will definitely be very useful. I need the tiger.

Undecided TBH. I have the chinese silvers which details are awesome also at pictures. I'm a bit wary these might be less intricately detailed.

My LDs won't be getting these LEs so I'd need to order from a store online to be able to see them IRL. But the price... oh la la. They better be good!

The beads appear to be slightly smaller than the previous Chinese silvers.
However, still large cores!

So less silver and cheaper to make, but more expensive to buy !

One of the things I love about my China silvers is they are so heavy, you sure know when you are wearing them !

Fuzzyfeet wrote:

The beads appear to be slightly smaller than the previous Chinese silvers.
However, still large cores!

So less silver and cheaper to make, but more expensive to buy !

One of the things I love about my China silvers is they are so heavy, you sure know when you are wearing them !

Very true, I pair mine with ambers to offset the weight. These look sort of cute though, with the smaller size. But I can imagine that maybe some detail was sacrificed to make them smaller.

hhmmm don't really like how hard it is to see what they are and yes are they wanting lots and lots of the same thing? A long huge heavy necklace of all of them would be cool though mixed with stones. But seriously...why are they so obsessed with China that they keep revisiting? There are some really great Asian cultures like say Korea too?

They are so tiny! Especially for the price. I just got an email from an LD that the price increase is effective January 27. I'm bummed because I feel like the quality and amount of silver has decreased but they have the nerve to raise prices.
Sorry, but I just read that email and still fuming about it.

The amazing thing to me is...silver is DOWN from what it has been this year. I make jewelry and as someone who frequently buys sterling I watch the price. It is about 28 US $ right now and was in the 30's most of the year. I understand those who have weathered the silver storm, hoping it would go down and taking hits on their sales but Trollbeads has already raised not too long ago....I don't get it.

I have said this before, but this time I might mean it, I will just get this set and be done with it! I have enough beads for one person. With the price increase we can al just swap back and forth here for our newness. I do have to have these though. One bead a month for the year if they last that long!

Beadmama wrote:But seriously...why are they so obsessed with China that they keep revisiting? There are some really great Asian cultures like say Korea too?

Probably more Chinese customers than Korean ones. Is there even a distributer in Korea??

Well, all of Asia uses the Chinese zodiac, so it's not really just a Chinese thing.

Also, China is so big and old that there's just a wealth of ideas that TB probably can't resist.
Personally, I hope they revisit Japan and bring some more beautiful designs from there.

Right - I need to see them IRL, and then I think it will be either all of them, or none. Hmm, guess I just gave myself the answer (12 x 52? Those times when I spent that on silver are over...) Still, wondering which one would be the horse?

Beadmama - I'm sorry to say that I think "we" marketing people would explain that by "marketing opportunity" Sheer size of expected revenue, also obviously the concept is quite familiar to Western customers, too. I wouldn't know about Korean zodiacs. TB executives' minds probably work that way, too.

Freue mich riesig auf diese Beads! Sie sehen wundervoll aus
Hoffentlich ist bald Freitag!

kionee wrote:

Beadmama wrote:But seriously...why are they so obsessed with China that they keep revisiting? There are some really great Asian cultures like say Korea too?

Probably more Chinese customers than Korean ones. Is there even a distributer in Korea??

Until now TB can only be bought in Hong Kong - nowhere else in China. But there is a distributor for South Korea

Tiny is good (but hopefully solid for that price)...
Big core - not so good but I can live with that as the bigger Chinas also have the big cores, I just hate them on glass beads.
Still I have to see how they'll look IRL and still unsure whether I really want a horse...
But DH is a sheep, so is that any better? Perhaps a Dragon just because it's a classic Asian symbol and we have the year of the dragon soon.

Beadmama wrote:But seriously...why are they so obsessed with China that they keep revisiting? There are some really great Asian cultures like say Korea too?

As Kionee, says.. more customers..

The Chinese continent is enormous for a potential market, at one time I would have said learn Chinese, .. you will go a long way except there are a lot of dialects. If you speak French, German, English and Spanish, add Chinese,, you will always find the way if your satnav lets you down. I digress, the Chinese Commercial Market, is Big. Do not underestimate it!

Population of USA 312,884,000
Population of China 1,330,141,295

We British, or Dutch are a tiny part of the world cog, but the Chinese population respect! It would not be science fiction to think of the world as controlled by China in a not too far distant!

GRUMPY wrote:

Beadmama wrote:But seriously...why are they so obsessed with China that they keep revisiting? There are some really great Asian cultures like say Korea too?

As Kionee, says.. more customers..

The Chinese continent is enormous for a potential market, at one time I would have said learn Chinese, .. you will go a long way except there are a lot of dialects. If you speak French, German, English and Spanish, add Chinese,, you will always find the way if your satnav lets you down. I digress, the Chinese Commercial Market, is Big. Do not underestimate it!

Population of USA 312,884,000
Population of China 1,330,141,295

We British, or Dutch are a tiny part of the world cog, but the Chinese population respect! It would not be science fiction to think of the world as controlled by China in a not too far distant!

I think that you are right!

Actually Sweden has decided that all schools should be able to offer Chinese within the next 10 years. I think that they too have a good idea of the future to come.

Already for sale

http://stores.ebay.de/Uhrenfachhandel/_i.html?rt=nc&_sid=189783187&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14&_sop=10&_sc=1

12x52€ No Thanks

I didn't realise these silvers were smaller - a good thing for me as I find that the chinese silvers can 'swamp' some of my glass beads, most of which are smaller sized.

I just noticed a German business seller has put these for sale on Ebay today - 10 of each.
Wish I didn't have an enormous electric bill to pay!

SnorkMaiden wrote:Right - I need to see them IRL, and then I think it will be either all of them, or none. Hmm, guess I just gave myself the answer (12 x 52? Those times when I spent that on silver are over...) Still, wondering which one would be the horse?

Beadmama - I'm sorry to say that I think "we" marketing people would explain that by "marketing opportunity" Sheer size of expected revenue, also obviously the concept is quite familiar to Western customers, too. I wouldn't know about Korean zodiacs. TB executives' minds probably work that way, too.

Actually Korean zodiacs are the same...Korea is a traditionally confucian culture and has tons of Chinese architecture and themes in their culture. They do have a lot of their own cultural things too such as their hanbok clothing which is very colorful. I think I am mostly bummed they are not being visited on the world tour.

I would like to eventually get the love locks bead from the world tour because there is a tower in Seoul where lovers or family put locks on with their names written on them and I want to do that when we go to pick up our new son. The tradition is to throw away the key but they discourage that now and want you to keep it to not litter the ground with keys.

Unfortunately I am a dog, and even more unfortunately the dog is pretty ugly
I am not going to buy a whole set of 12 beads, I am asking myself if it would bring bad luck to buy the dragon or the snake, these 2 I find really cute?