2011 November » Kristall Buzz... Swarovski Crystal News Blog by Crystal Exchange

Crystal Fanatics provide Swarovski Event Summary

Nov 062011

A few of our Swarovski crystal fanatics clients were fortunate to attend the Swarovski event signing last weekend and have allowed us to pass that along to our Kristall Buzz readers!

The recent Swarovski signing in LA’s hottest hotel, the Sofitel on October 29, 2011 featured Swarovski designers Anton Hirzinger and Heinz Tabertshofer.

About 300 Swarovski collectors attended the signing during the day and were warmly welcomed by Swarovski staff. Just inside was a very large display of the gold tone Fortune Cookie introduced in 2010 and collectors were encouraged to take one home, compliments of Swarovski. Attendees entertained themselves playing Jeopardy for crystal prizes. A very nice highlight was that collectors were given clear crystal stars and decorative crystals to enhance them. This will be a nice remembrance of the day with Swarovski.

On display was the Crystal Myriad Matang, Asian Elephant, NLE of 300, and the Crystal Myriad Longwang Dragon, NLE of 888. Longwang, shown below, is Chinese for ‘King of the Dragons’. (Isn’t that clever….2012 is the Chinese Year of the Dragon and Swarovski has created a Crystal Myriad for it!) Heinz Tabertshofer is the designer of both of these magnificent Crystal Myriad sculptures.

Swarovski Crystal Myriad Longwang

Swarovski Crystal Myriad Dragon, LE 888 Sculptures

Swarovski Crystal Myriad Dragon, NLE 888 Sculptures

A Swarovski outlet center was located near the hotel; so many collectors could not resist a trip to find the special retired treasure they had been looking for.

The evening VIP cocktail party reception and dinner event was spectacular. The bar was graced by an ice sculpture of the Swarovski Polar Bear. SCS members were recognized for special attributes, like youngest and oldest in attendance, traveling more miles to the event and some other things.

Swarovski Siku - Ice Sculpture Polar Bear

After the comical Lucille Ball and other Hollywood look-alike performances ended and near time to go home, dinner attendees were given a set of the new Swarovski Wine Glasses.

Sounds to me like the event was packed with Swarovski fanatics having a great time and that they were lucky to be there!

Crystal Christmas by Swarovski…Grand Debut at Harrods

Nov 052011

November 5 marked the debut of Harrodâs Swarovski Crystal Christmas!Â Can you believe itâ¦.50 days til Christmas?

Inspired by Swarovski, the large department store has a seven-window display featuring a glitzy woodland landscape with dazzling trees drenched with Swarovski gems.

Harrods Swarovski Wedding Gown

When Harrods and Swarovski joined forces, nothing but the finest should be expected. The fascinating forest scene features mannequins hanging from trees along with wintry branches and garland.

‘We are really excited to be part of âA Crystal Christmasâ, Tamara Ralph said. ‘When I was asked to create my ultimate Swarovski gown, I was instantly inspired by the 1920âs era. I wanted to create a show-stopping and intricate piece that oozed glamour.’Â The wedding dress contains approximately 152,000 Swarovski crystal stones. The gown workforce consisted of more than 25 couturiers working hundreds of hours to completion.

Swarovski will have a pop-up store in four of the seven windows, selling jewelry, including that from the Atelier Swarovski collection.

Check out the display windowsâ¦.

Harrods Swarovski Window Display

Swarovski Harrods Christmas Window Scene

I personally thought that the display seemed a bit dark, missing the true meaning of Christmas.Â After writing this article, I revisited the web site where I found the news and found LOTS of comments from readers who seemed quite turned off by the display.Â Â Some adjectives and phrases posted by readers include âscaryâ, âbizarreâ, âdepressingâ,Â âinducing nightmaresâ,Â and âcreepyâ.

Sometimes pictures donât do justice to the actual live displayâ¦.Iâd be interested to see it personally, but really cannot seeing as it is on a different continent than I live.

In any case, I hope that it is the success that Swarovski and Harrods are hoping for.

Swarovski News: Swarovski Orange Shine Panther, NLE of 888, Sold Out!

Nov 022011

Today, we received the official Swarovski news that the Swarovski Orange Shine Panther is now SOLD OUT! The Orange Shine Panther publicly launched August 29, 2011. This Swarovski Panther was a limited edition figurine (Swarovski NLE) of 888 units. The orange wild cat, in a typical cat pose, retailed for $1110.

Swarovski Soulmates Orange Shine Panther

Swarovski Orange Shine Limited Edition Panther

Despite it being âanother limited editionâ panther, I expected a quick sell out, like the Swarovski Â Black Panther.Â The Swarovski Limited Edition Black PantherÂ (Swarovski NLE) was limited to 500 units and retailed for $960 when it was briefly available at the online Swarovski shoppe in April, 2010.

The Orange Shine Panther and Black Panther are among Swarovski crystal feline friendsâ¦.Swarovski also produced a clear Panther figurine, that retired in 2011 and a moroda Panther figurine which is presently available in the Swarovski shoppe.Â The Kristall Buzz has featured a number of articles about Swarovski Panthers:

Iâm wondering what the crystal brand is thinkingâ¦.

Is another colored, limited edition Swarovski panther figurine in the works?
Does the extended time available indicate that Swarovski collectors did not like the orange-shine color?
Does the extended time available imply that Swarovski collectors might not be interested to purchase another limited edition panther in a different color?

Now, if feline fanatics want to purchase the Swarovski Orange Panther, they will have to turn to the secondary market or online auctions. At Crystal Exchange America, the Black Panther and Orange Shine Panther, as well as other Swarovski NLE figurines, can be found in the âLimited Edition Swarovskiâ category of the store.Â Or collectors can use the powerful store search feature, keyword âpantherâ to restrict the search results to Swarovski panthers.

Swarovski Magnets without Swarovski Logos

Nov 012011

Yesterday, I wrote about the many Swarovski magnets in the Swarovski Crystal Moments product line. However, what I did not mention in the article is that there are also magnets that were not in the Crystal Moments product line.

Swarovski Crystal Magnets

These âotherâ crystal magnets do NOT have a traditional Swarovski logo on them. Some examples of these Swarovski magnets include:

Swarovski Crystal Ghost Magnets

Cat and Bat Magnet set – 1295606
Hearts Magnet set – 1295636
Seahorse and Octopus Magnet set – 1295599
Ghost Magnet â BSC2009003

These Crystal Magnets without the Swarovski logo are sold in boxes that do say Swarovski on the white packaging.Â However, these magnets do not have any little decorations or accents like the ones in the Crystal Moments product line.Â For comparison sake, look at Glenn the Ghost and the (plain, unmarked) Ghost Magnetâ¦there are no eyes.Â And the backside of the magnets appears to be of lower quality than Swarovski magnets with logos.Â A picture of cat and bat magnets with eyes can be seen in the Happy Halloween to Swarovski Crystal Fanatics article here on the Kristall Buzz.

I have not seen these plain, unmarked magnets in Swarovski crystal boutiques or stores, but only at popular online auction sites.

While I am certain that these plain, unmarked magnets are authentic Swarovski, this is definitely something to pay attention to when you are bidding on / buying Swarovski magnets.

At Crystal Exchange America, we do not see much activity on the Swarovski Magnets.Â However, when we do have them available, they can be found by using the search feature keyword âmagnetâ.Â The listing details will indicate if Swarovski logos are present on the magnet figurines.

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