The Bead du Jour

In Houston, anyway, the Most Popular Bead status currently belongs to any kind of gemstone briolette. I went to a church bazaar yesterday and there were at least three booths with beaded necklaces, and it seemed like 75% of them contained gemstone briolettes. They're pretty, yes, but it was kind of funny to see them EVERYwhere. I'm sure each artist thought they were being unique, and, well, oops. And definitely, for folks who sell, at any rate, gemstones seem to be the way to go. I didn't see any glass at all, except in imported off-loom seed bead work. I think it is because you can charge enough for the results that you can actually get your labor back out of it (gemstones, not off-loom work--I think you only get your labor out of the seed bead work if it's somebody else's labor!)