Bead shopping

On yesterday's list of things to do, was a stop in a bead shop to purchase additional chalcedony beads for a necklace I am making.  Also, I wanted to find some similar, smaller and rounder beads to be the pomegranate seeds of a recycled tin brooch that is forming in my mind.  There are many bead and silver jewelry shops just outside Istanbul's  Grand Bazaar.  The jewelry shops can be wholesale only, but the bead shops are open to all!    

                             

I went to Onur Inci to find my magenta chalcedony.  They did not have the size I wanted, but did have a smaller diameter, which I decided was just fine.  And I found a dark pink chalcedony to use as the pomegranate seeds.  In another shop, I was attracted to a bright, light green strand of beads - calcite, which has been colored using laser technology.  Not sure what that means, but all shops are now saying that all beads are sourced in China.  It looks like stone and feels like a stone, but only the Chinese know for sure.

The Grand Bazaar is an old, massive, covered shopping area which will be featured another day, but here is one of the many entrances and the one by the bead shops.  Yucel Bufe offers fresh squeezed orange and pomegrante juices as well as hot sandwiches.

Another vendor has cut open some pomegranates to entice patrons to order the delicious juice.

I am pleased with the pink beads for the pomegranate brooch.  They look very close to the real thing.  But now that I see the beads I bought for three seperate projects, I like the look of them together - coloring of a fushia plant.  Possibilities are endless when it comes to beads!