Call me Red

In 2021, Swarovski (the company that makes the very sparkly crystals you see in certain jewelry, on figure-skaters' twinkliest outfits, on red carpet dresses), decided they didn't want the grubby fingers of small-time jewelers, clothing designers and costumers and crafters on their shiny beads and rhinestones anymore. They decided to limit their sales to "luxury" and couture creators, not girls who sell stuff on Etsy. The tenor of their press release on the subject was snide and insulting. Resellers (like your favorite bead shop) would no longer be allowed to carry their product; the average Jane on the street would not be able to purchase them. You could only get them if you had an authorized business agreement that bound you to very strict brand behavior. And those of us who still had good stock of the crystals would no longer be "permitted" to use the brand's name in our listings for sale.

Every bead shop and craft supply place and many, many small clothing makers--wedding shops, prom and dancing dress suppliers, the sort of salt of the Earth mom and pop time machines of shops that are the backbone of the field--scrambled to find something that could replace them. The last of the stock dwindled quickly, all of us grabbing what we could get while there was any chance of it, and then it was gone and we no longer had any access.

I was Big Pissed about it at the time. It was just so goddamn stuck-up, when wholesalers and indie jewelers had made them so much money, when some people I knew--when *I!*--had been brand-loyal for decades. But with no recourse, everyone pivoted fairly quickly, most of us to Preciosa Crystals. Those are Czech, quite sparkly, and considerably less expensive than Swarovski. The faceting method they use is different, but not worse; any differences are hardly noticeable when you're seeing them as a hundred pinpoints of light.

Well, out of nowhere, Swarovski just dropped this: https://www.harmanbeads.com/swarovski-brand-policy-update

"Effective June 1, 2026, Swarovski updated the distribution and brand usage policies introduced in 2021. Businesses may now purchase Swarovski Crystals without signing a Brand Control Agreement, and Authorized Distribution Partners may once again sell Swarovski Crystals to resellers, including bead stores and online retailers. Businesses may also use the Swarovski brand name when following Swarovski’s Proper Use Guidelines. Designers, manufacturers, artists, brands, retailers, and resellers are now eligible to purchase Swarovski Crystals through authorized distribution channels."

They want us back. A lot of the companies who could have kept a brand relationship with them also have swapped to Preciosa, over the last half-decade, in solidarity with indie creators and out of a sour awareness that it could be them, next. And it doesn't hurt that Preciosa was able to expand their line quite a bit now that everyone who wanted sparkle had no choice but to go to them.

And I'm not seeing nearly anyone who intends to return. The feeling is, "Y'all told us to fuck off! Off we fucked! And now, that's what you can do, too!" I'm seeing a lot of "How many of us did you stab in the back?" comments from the people whose money they're hoping to attract.

so here's a super long post about strokes in general, and mine in particular/what I went through.

while other media representation consisted mostly of mlm or wlw couples and the occassional trans character, SU dared to explore beyond what cishets would find acceptable. it was not afraid of being weird, it wasn't afraid of being "too much".

the whole concept of a genderless alien race who were mostly fem-presenting was already a brand new thing for many people, some of who are still confused to this day.

there were polyamorous fusions. there was an intersex character who went by they/them pronouns.

it had non-binary characters, fluid characters, aroace characters, characters inspired by drag queens.

and it's not just queer representation. there was also amazing representation of various body types.

the main character as well as his dead mother who played an extremely important role in the story were both plus-size. additionally, Rose chose to have a bigger body. she was skinnier as Pink Diamond but her bigger body is a sign of healing and redemption.

Greg was also on the chubbier side, and none of these characters were treated as a joke. Steven loved to eat but that wasn't a punchline or a reason for people to make fun of him. same goes for Amethyst.

there were tall muscular women. there were short skinny men. there were men who weren't afraid of being seen as feminine and women who were unabashedly masculine. one of the canon ships was literally a tall woman and a short man, and it's never treated as a joke.

i saw someone talk about how Goat (2024) had a male character who looked up to a female character and wanted to be like her, and how new that was. and while that's true and it's still new in the grand scheme of media, SU did it first. Steven was a little boy who respected and admired the gems and his mother, and wanted to be like them.

if you take a look at all the other queer media we've got — The Owl House, Arcane, SPOP, TDP — the difference is that these shows were afraid of being "too much".

TOH had wlw couples, a couple (exactly ONE couple — 2) of non-binary characters, and an aroace character whose identity was only confirmed post-canon.

Arcane has wlw couples and maybe hinted at a mlm couple, and that's about it. i think one of the side characters were trans? but it's like a character who appeared for exactly one (1) scene.

SPOP, again, has mostly wlw couples and one non-binary character. all other identities and orientations are either confirmed offscreen or headcanons.

TDP has a few wlw and mlm couples and a trans character.

all these shows only portray the LGBT part of the community. sometimes, there's an aro/ace character. that's the extent of queerness they go to.

and you can't use the restrictions excuse because guess what, SU had restrictions too. they had to jump through so many hoops and figure out so many loopholes to do what they did. but the creators were ambitious and didn't let the general public or the shitty executives convince them that only certain queer identities are acceptable while others are too weird or too much.

Thanks, Anon!

The Fence has published an exposé on Stuart Semple (of Anish Kapoor 'feud' notoriety) which they have been working on for six months.

investigation reveals Semple / his studio / his partner Emily Mann (who's described as acting as his 'enforcer' in his business) :

mishandled £400k grant of public money intended for a public gallery, allowing the money to flow freely between the public project, his own personal studio and personal projects such as Culture Hustle (his online business selling paint etc)

underpaid or failed to pay many of his assistants to the tune of several thousand pounds each.

former assistants have taken him to court and he simply hasn't bothered to show up and he's threatened to sue former assistants who asked for their back pay

repeatedly funds ambitious projects that never see release eg Abode, an 'Adobe-rivalling' suite of creative software (he claims he still intends to release this)

encouraged a cult-like atmosphere at his studio in Bournemouth

was frequently in debt and having to negotiate with bailiffs etc for his debts while at the same time crowdfunding various projects

ran fake social media accounts boosting Semple and his work

The portrait that emerges is one of decades-long scam artistry tbh and someone who's juvenile, manipulative, narcissistic.

The Fence btw is a decent fairly small-circulation quarterly magazine from the UK which specialises in satire, investigative journalism, culture, and fiction. You can read the piece in its entirety if you register (which is free).

a few links:

The Fence's newsletter from April discusses this article & how Semple has tried to muddy the SEO waters

Semple threatened to sue The Fence for publishing this story - many of you are American so here's the relevant UK law on defamation.

The first thig that put up a solid red flag was the shipping material. It's cool that he has custom boxes for his studio, it looked really neat. Then I opened it and sae things like "Not for bean boy" printed all over the inside of the box.

Between Mirror, hyper pigments, and black 2.0, none of them were as extremely out there as the videos on his site made them seem. The colors are vibrant, the black is dark, and the mirror is shiny. But the level the videos showed them at are not levels I can recreate.

So like, he exaggerated as an advertising scheme. Alright, shame on him.