Threading Alternatives For Beadwork And Jewelry

There are many issues about the choice of stringing material for beading. Here is an interesting article on the different stringing materials and their usage. One very important lesson I learned is that there is no one, all-purpose (Universal) stringing material. Here are the major stringing materials along with how and when to use each of them.

Silk has a wondrous "hand" (a soft, flexible feel). This thread comes in many sizes and colors. It comes packaged on spools, and "carded" with an attached needle. This is a classic stringing material and forms beautiful knots between pearls and beads. But, silk tends to be relatively fragile. It can stretch, be cut by abrasive beads, rot when wet, and pearls strung on silk should be re strung every few years. It is best to use silk when stringing pearls and lightweight, smooth-holed beads, only. A needle is necessary.

Nylon strand likewise comes in several sizes and colours. It is packaged on spools, on bobbins, and "carded" with a needle attached. Nylon may be utilized where-ever silk may and Is not as frail. This material knots beautifully and may be utilized for ivory stringing, in some threaded jewelry, seed beadwork, loom interweaving, for Peyote and other uncommon stitches, and coral beads.

Nylon stretches out a great deal less than silk, and it will not decompose once wet. Like silk, you should not employ beads with sharp edged holes or that are heavy. When you use nylon string, I would urge you coat your string with bee's wax or "Thread Heaven TM "prior to using to keep it from fraying. A needle is essential.

Bonded nylon is a good deal stronger form of nylon strand. The strands are physically bound together for improved strength and abrasion protection. While it knots well, it doesn't have the "feel" of silk.

Attached nylon comes in an variety of colors and smaller size reels. Attributable to its abrasion opposition, you can utilise it with "demanding", harsher stone beads; this comes close to being an "comprehensive Thread". Brand names** include: "Stringth" or "Silkon". A needle is necessary, tho' you can put "Super Glue" on the end to arrive at a "Self-needle". This is a preferable beading material of mine.

Fishing Line is a tough, semi-rigid, single string of plastic. It does not knot easily, and eventually sunlight or UV may cause it to break and come apart. Fishing line is bought on littler spools and is sold in sports equipment stores.

Personally, I use fishing line for two purposes. I use it to do my preliminary stringing while I am designing a necklace (I transfer the beads to a better material for the final product), and to string together "raw" strands of beads. There is no needle necessary. I would never use this material for a final beaded piece.

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Writer Craftsman Ethan O. Tanner explains the different types of Stringing choices forBeads and Jewelryfor your beading plan.

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Lapidary Techniques That Will Amaze You!

By Emily A Clark

Every step in special lapidary techniques is vital from the choice of the slab, the trim sawing to the final polish. But potentially the most vital is the original coarse grinding stage. This is where you may be making calls on the bezel, curve, table, girdle and the general shape you need your stone.

When using polishing agents, technique and speed are significant. Decide what process you're going to use like leather, canvas, felt: Linde A, tin oxide, cerium oxide.

Also take care with the heat buildup, it's critical to have an even distribution. Some stones transfer heat uniformly, but it's best to dodge any unexpected thermal shock, keep it moving and bring it up slowly.

The following are some special lapidary techniques:
Sawing - a thin circular blade made from steel, copper or phosphor bronze alloy infused on the outside edge with diamond grit and rotating at several thousand surface feet per minute scratches its way through a stone. Oil or water is used to wash away the waste and keeps the stone and the saw blade from overheating.

There are various sizes of circular saw - routinely sixteen to twenty-four inches in diameter for stones that are 1/8 to 3/8 in. thick. A six to ten inch in diameter for smaller stones. There are jigsaws that are great for cutting curved lines.
Grinding - this is done with silicon carbide or diamond-infused wheels. These are used to shape the gemstones to the coarse form called preform. Water and oil is used to wash away the waste and avoid overheating. Coarse diamond or silicon carbide like sixty grit or 100 grit is employed for fast removal of stone and the finer abrasive (600 or 1200 grit) is utilized for the final shaping and sanding.

Sanding - This has similarities to grinding but it utilizes the finer grits. This takes away the deep scratches left by the harder abrasives. As this step isn't done as quick it permits more control when getting the final shape of the stone prepared for polishing. A belt sander is utilized with stones that have round surfaces as they avoid making flat areas and inspire smooth curves.

Lapping - is both like grinding and sanding, with the exception that it is done on one side of a rotating or vibrating flat disk called a lap. This is used to make flat surfaces on a stone. Laps are made from steel, cast-iron or copper-bronze alloy.

Polishing - when you have the stone sawed and ground to the shape you would like and have removed any coarse marks, it is then polished which assists the light to reflect on the surface of the stone. Grades of 50,000 to 100,000 diamond mesh are used to shine materials. There also are metal oxides that may be used to shine stones as well like: aluminum, cerium, tin, chromium, ferric oxides, or silicon dioxide.

Stones differ when it comes to the simplicity of polishing and you may be quite creative when using polishing agents and surfaces. For flat surfaces you may use tin, tin-lead, lead, leather, felt, pellon, wood or Lucite laps. For round surfaces polish on felt, leather, cork, fabric or wood.
Drilling - when you would like to drill a hole through a gemstone you want a little rotating rod or tube with a diamond end of silicon carbide and coolant. Vibrating or ultrasonic drills are also great but these are pricey.

These are just a few of the special lapidary techniques, there's a lot of info available online and they're going to give you recommendation and tips when using these techniques.

Emily Clark is a lapidary expert. Who Else Wants To Make The Most Stunning Polished Gemstones, Glass, Minerals, Rocks And Other In Few Easy Steps!

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How to Use a Rotary Rock Tumbler Kit | Tumbler Instructions

Author: Joe Kanooga

A rock tumbler is a tool commonly used by rock collectors and geologists to polish rocks. It is amazing to see a rough rock transformed into a beautiful gem, just be spending time in the tumbler. This article provides you with rock tumbler instructions so you can use a rock tumbler and make it perform its' magic.

For an aspiring geologist, gemologist, or mineralogist, a rock tumbler kids will enjoy can be both a toy and an educational tool. However, there are many types suited to different purposes, and not all of them will work for an amateur.

A standard rock tumbler kit can be found at most toy stores.
This rock kit usually contains the tumbler along with some rocks, grit, and a few jewelry findings. With proper care, a good rock kit can be used over and over and can last indefinitely. However, the small size and small power of the motor will limit the size of rocks that can be used. Should the tumblers break, it may be difficult to find replacement parts.
More than likely you would be looking at buying a new rock kit.

The type of rock kit available from toy stores includes rotating or rotational rock tumblers. In a rotating tumbler, the rocks fall over and over, rolling around and polishing them as they collide with one another, similar to the way mountain rocks are polished by the steady collision with a mountain stream. It is advisable to choose a rock kit made by a company that has been around for a while in case you need a replacement part.

Vibration (or "agitating") tumblers are higher quality and generally more expensive form of rock tumbler. Instead of physically rotating the rock, vibration tumblers either use ultrasound or spin around the vertical axis. They work much more quickly, one to two weeks, as opposed to about a month for a rotational tumbler. They also maintain the essential shape of the rock, rather than producing a uniformly round rock. So unless you want all of your rocks to have the same basic round shape, you will need to consider a vibration rock kit. They are a bit quieter as well.

Size is extremely important. Rock tumblers are sized according to the weight of the load they can continuously bear. Since it can take a month or more for a rotary tumbler to polish a rock, it is important that the tumbler can handle the weight of the rock. The most common cause of rotor failure or broken belts is an overloaded barrel. Large barrels can hold both large and small rocks, but small barrels can only hold small rocks. This seems logical, but on the day that your tumbler breaks, you will regret purchasing a small barrel!

At the same time, large barrels generally cost more money (no surprise), and you will need to balance your budget against the size and type of rocks you hope to polish.

Once you've chosen and purchased your tumbler, you will also purchase a few accessories for your polishing. You will need Vaseline to seal the barrel against leaks- an ordinary store brand of petroleum jelly is fine. You will also need extra grit, unless of course you want to use the grit purchase as an excuse to buy a nicer tumbler! Keep in mind the time that will be required to tumble (a week or two for vibration or a month for rotational tumblers) and the noise that will be generated by the tumbler. If noise is a concern, you may want to purchase a large cooler to insulate and minimize the sound.

A basic rock tumbler can inspire a future career in the geology or gemology. It can also lead to the purchase of a larger and nicer rock kit! Some children may be satisfied with a simple rotary tumbler as a supplement to their rock collection, while others may seek better tumblers in their quest to collect amazing rocks. Regardless of what kind you get, a rock tumbler will inevitably be an educational and entertaining toy.

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Joe Kanooga is a successful business owner and the author of numerous articles about <a target="_new"
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Can The Mohs Scale Help the Lapidary?


The relative hardness of minerals is measured using the Mohs Scale. There are 10 minerals/levels of hardness on the Mohs Scale, the least hard is talc with a measurement of 1. The hardest mineral on the Mohs scale is the diamond with a measure of 10.There are also half measurements on the Mohs scale, 6.5, 7.5 for instance, but this article will not explore half measurements in any detail.

One of the ways a minerals "hardness" is determined is by the use of scratch test.  If a mineral is can be scratched by a harder mineral, but not a softer one, then the mineral will have a Mohs scoring equal to or greater than the softer mineral but less than the harder mineral.  For instance, Topaz has a Mohs 8 while Quartz has a Mohs rating of 7.  So, if an unknown mineral can be scratched by Topaz but not by Quartz then the specimen will have a Mohs rating of 7.

Even though the scale attempts to define the hardness of a mineral, it is a relative score.  It simply tells you that in comparison to another mineral, the sample specimen you are using is either harder or softer.  For a lapidary, this can be helpful information when grinding down the specimen and when it is being polished.

The minerals on the Mohs scale, ranked from 1 to 10 are:

  1. Talc
  2. Gypsum
  3. Calcite
  4. Fluorite
  5. Apatite
  6. Orthoclase
  7. Quartz
  8. Topaz
  9. Corundum
  10. Diamond

You have probably found yourself looking at a mineral specimen in which you were uncertain about its identity.  When faced with such a situation it can be helpful to know the Mohs scale to either help you identify the specimen, or, in the least to help you eliminate what the specimen isn't.

So, the next time you are getting ready to use your slab saw, lapidary equipment or faceting machine, don't forget the Mohs scale and how helpful it can be to you in identifying just what you're working with.

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Stringing Choices For Beading And Jewelry Making


One very important lesson I learned is that there is no one, all-purpose (Universal) stringing material. Here are the major stringing materials along with how and when to use each of them. After you work with the various types of jewelry threads and lines you will find favorites for your work.

Silk has a marvelous "hand" (a soft, flexible feel). This thread gets in many sizes and colors. It arrives in packaged on spools, and "carded" with an attached needle. This is a standard stringing material and forms fine-looking knots between pearls and beads. But, silk tends to be relatively delicate. It can stretch, be cut by abrasive beads, rot when wet, and pearls strung on silk should be re strung every few years. It's best to use silk when stringing pearls and lightweight, smooth-holed beads, only. A needle is necessary.

Nylon thread also comes in many sizes and colors. It comes packaged on spools, on bobbins, and "carded" with a needle attached. Nylon can be used where-ever silk can and is not as fragile. This material knots beautifully and can be used for pearl stringing, in some strung jewelry, seed bead-work, loom weaving, for Peyote and other specialty stitches, and heishi. Nylon stretches much less than silk, and it won't rot when wet. Like silk, you shouldn't use beads with sharp edged holes or that are heavy. When you use nylon thread, I would recommend you coat your thread with bee's wax or "Thread HeavenTM " before use to prevent it from fraying. A needle is necessary.

Bonded Nylon is a much more effective form of nylon thread. The chains are physically bonded together for additional durability and abrasion protection. While it knots well, it does not have the "hand" of silk. Secured nylon gets in a assortment of colors and smaller spools. Because of its abrasion resistance, you are able to use it with "hard", more abrasive jewel beads; as a matter of fact these approximates to being a "Universal Thread". A needle is necessary, although you can put "Super Glue" on the end to form a "Self-needle". This is a favored beading material of mine.

Fishing Line is a hard, semi-rigid, single strand of plastic. It doesn't knot well, and in time sunlight or ultraviolet light can cause it to weaken and fall apart. Fishing line is purchased on small spools and is sold in sporting goods stores. Personally, I use fishing line for two purposes. I use it to do my preliminary stringing while I am designing a necklace (I transfer the beads to a better material for the final product), and to string together "raw" strands of beads. There is no needle necessary. I would never use this material for a final beaded piece.

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Leather expert and Author Ethan O. Tanner explains the different types of Leathercraft the process forprecious jewelry making for your project.

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Why Some Gemstones are Cut as Cabochons


Author: GemSelect
In the gemstone world, a cabochon is a stone that is cut with a highly polished rounded or convex top with no faceting, with a flat or slightly domed base. A cabochon may be cut in any shape, though oval is by far the most common. The term comes from the French caboche, meaning knob or small dome. Certain stones are almost always cut "en cabochon," including opal, turquoise, onyx, moonstone, and star sapphire. In the gemstone world you will often hear the term cabochon shortened to "cab."

Technically, cabochons are not really "cut." Rather they are shaped and then polished. It is thus a much simpler task to produce a cabochon than it is to cut a faceted gem with many faces. Before the art of faceting was developed, all gemstones were produced as cabochons, though some were intricately carved as well.

Faceted gemstones
made their appearance in European jewelry during the late 13th and early 14th centuries. With the advent of the horizontally turning cutting-wheel in the late 1400's came the possibility of designing and repeating elaborately conceived geometric faceting schemes, thereby controlling and enhancing the light coming from within the stone.

The fascination with geometry and reflected light during the Renaissance accelerated the development of a sophisticated lapidary art. Starting with the Renaissance gem-cutting trade in Bruges, to Venice, Florence and eventually the whole of Europe, the management of light became the central theme in gem cutting.

Once the technology and skill was available to facet gemstones, why were cabochons still produced? The question is an interesting one because different gems are cut as cabs for different reasons. In many cases it is because the gem has special properties that are displayed only when it is cut as a cabochon. Examples are gems that display asterism (the star effect) or chatoyancy (the cat's eye effect) or iridescence (e.g., opal) or adularescence (e.g., moonstone).

Most gems that are opaque rather than transparent are cut as cabochons rather than faceted. You will also see lower grade material in gemstones such as sapphire, ruby and garnet cut as cabs. If the gem material has very good color but is not sufficiently transparent or clean to be faceted, it can still be shaped and polished to be a very attractive cabochon. It is also common to cut softer stones as cabs, since gems with a hardness less than 7 (on the Mohs scale) can easily be scratched by the quartz in dust and grit. Minute scratches show much less on a cabochon than on a faceted stone.

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Fancy Cuts And Cutting Techniques That Enhance The Glamour of Gemstones

By Gen Wright

Gemstones have the natural glamor and aura in them. However, their grace and sparkle comes up when they are given fancy cuts and design by the jeweler through the use of his various tools.

Generally speaking, a gemstone can just be a rock, or a petrified substance, or a mineral or an organic substance. Being precious by their very nature of existence, gemstones create a perfect unity with the attire and the occasion. Statistics show that from the odd 2000 naturally occurring minerals, less than 100 are put under the category of gemstones, and amazingly, none of these classified gemstones are used in their original or the natural form, as almost all of them undergo numerous procedures and cuts to reach your hands in its current form which looks nothing but elegant.

The hidden beauty of gemstones comes into light only once they are cut and polished. It is only then, that these stones are used with the precious metals. The name given to the entire process of cutting and polishing gemstones is termed as gem cutting or lapidary. The most common of the techniques used in the process includes, sawing, grinding, sanding, lapping, polishing, drilling and tumbling. By employing these cutting techniques, the gemstones are designed into different forms such as cabochons, faceted stones, beads and spheres, inlays, intarsias and mosaics, cameos and intaglios, and the sculptures.

There are two most prevalent form of shaping the gemstones. These include cabochons and the faceted. While the cabochons are dome-like, smooth stones, vis-à-vis, opals, turquoise or onyx; the faceted are five precious transparent gemstones. The transparent gemstones such as diamonds, rubies emeralds and sapphires are expensive, and for this purpose lot of care needs to be taken in order to keep the facets in their original form, and also that polishing is done tenderly. If during the cutting of the gemstone, the angles are too steeply cut, the light will not be reflected back properly from the stone, resulting in fall in the stone's quality.

It is important to note here that gemstones are given a fancy cut and then polished through the progressive abrasion method that employs finer grits of solid substances altogether. Substances such as Mohs and Silicon Carbide are also employed in cutting the gemstone into the fine shape. Furthermore, compounds such as cerium oxide, tin oxide, chromium oxide, and aluminum oxide are widely used in polishing the cut surface of the gemstone so that they get all their shine and sparkle.

It is indeed worth every penny you spend on gemstones because of the hard work and beatification it undergoes. Next time, when you see a gemstone, you would really know what lies behind its sparkle and glow. Your basic understanding of cutting techniques will improve your judgment of gemstones.

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What To Look For In Any Bead Program

by Laura Kay


Running your own jewelry business is hard work, and sometimes the day-to-day business operations get in the way of doing what you love most: making beaded jewelry! Tasks like inventory tracking, customer invoicing and proper pricing are all tedious steps which can drain the energy and creativity right from you, leaving little time or interest in making jewelry with beads. It's easy to get overwhelmed with the business end of running your own jewelry business.

There are actually a lot of different options you can use when it comes to choosing software to run your jewelry business, from homemade spreadsheets and databases to spending a thousand dollars or more on some sophisticated jewelry store and business software packages. Here are three features you'll definitely want to have in any software package you buy to handle your beaded jewelry business:

Jewelry Pricing Calculator: Keeping track of what beads and supplies you have in stock is important for ordering and making sure you don't run out of essential items, but you should also be able to enter the items used in each piece and the software should be able to calculate the amount of money it costs to produce each piece. This will help make sure you'll never make a bead jewelry piece and sell it for less than you paid for the materials.

Invoice Printing and Customer Tracking: Tracking customers is just as important as being able to give your customers a professional receipt for their purchases. You don't want to hand someone a little piece of carbon paper with some scribbles on it after they spend $50 for an elegant beaded necklace and earring set. Tracking your customers is a great way to inform them of sales and craft shows you'll be at and really helps to grow your number of repeat customers!

Reasonable Price: When you're starting your beaded jewelry business you may not have a lot of money to spend initially, but you'd be surprised how quickly a good software package can pay for itself in saved time and professional results. Generally, you should expect to pay about $100 to $150 (but no more than that) for a decent bead software package.

Any beaded software package you buy should definitely include the features above as well as many others. Remember that a good bead jewelry program will actually help you make money by allowing you to communicate with your customers in a more professional manner and help you run all the tedious inventory and tracking functions that take up so much time. This way you'll have more time and creative energy to dedicate to designing and making your beaded jewelry!

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Jewelry Making for Fun and Profit


There is an old adage that says work isn't really work if you enjoy what you're doing. If one of your hobbies is jewelry making, why not turn this activity into a source of income? You're already having fun anyway, and it wouldn't take a whole lot more to share your jewelry creations with people who would appreciate them and be more than happy to pay for them. With a bit of extra effort, time management and discipline, jewelry making for beginners is a great way to have fun and make a bit of extra money on the side.

Whether you're a beginner about to enter the jewelry making line of business for the first time or whether you're already an expert, there are always various staple factors to deliberate. First, it's crucial to have a decent amount of space where you can work unbothered for a certain length of time each day and where you can stow your jewelry making materials and tools. It doesn't have to be an enormous space, just a corner or room where you can focus on bringing your ideas to life and be away from unwarranted distractions.

If you haven't already, determine the type of jewelry you are going to produce. If you're just getting your feet wet in the jewelry making domain, begin with something easy. Imagine what type of jewelry you'd enjoy and feel comfortable wearing and conduct your jewelry making processes from there. Whatever materials your work might require are readily purchasable either on the net or in an actual retail store. Then, as you become more proficient at what you're doing, you can start researching other, more engaged jewelry making methods. Bear in mind that there is an excess of information resources to assist you in turning your hobby into a business, including books, specialty magazines, the web, and fellow jewelers.

After you've made a number of jewelry items, there are steps you can take to get other people interested in them. Be a walking advertisement for your jewelry making for beginners business. Wear some of your creations whenever you go out: wear them to work, when you go to the supermarket, or when you attend parties. Word of mouth is also a great way to let other people know about your jewelry making endeavor. Show some of your finished pieces to family and friends, and encourage them to spread the word.

The noteworthy thing to remember is that you keep on enjoying jewelry making and that you pride yourself in your creations. Your love for this hobby and business will reward you mentally and monetarily. Your passion for jewelry making will be the central factor in sustaining your creativity level and it will allow you to muster up the designs that appreciative clients will buy. Never forget the 'fun' factor in jewelry making, as this will be mirrored in your portfolio, and the 'profit' element will come after.

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WIRE COILING KIT Cutters Wire Tool Jewelry Making Set
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LOT of JEWELRY MAKING SUPPLIES GEMSTONES TOOLS TOTE
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Craftsman Ethan O. Tanner gives advice on converting your jewelry making hobby into profit forbeginning and practiced jewelersalike.

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Jewelry Making: Fantastic For All Ages


The art of jewelry making has always been a great past time for many women and men to join in on. Presently, one of the most popular jewelry making trends is bead jewelry.

Bead jewelry is the easiest form of making jewelry for beginners. There are a plethora of young girls that simply adore making a variety of creations from beads. The craft is extremely simple and pretty much anyone can engage in making jewelry by this means.

When you commence in jewelry making you can create your own creations that do not look like anything that you have ever seen before. The main objective in creating adorable bead jewelry is creativity. A lot of young girls will commence in the art so they can give their creations away to people that they adamantly care about.

There are so many different materials that you can use when making bead jewelry as well. The main thing that you need to have when making bead jewelry is an imagination as well as the willingness to want to create a stunning piece of art. Many will find that the fruit of labors may turn out looking a lot better then they could have ever imagined.

One of the latest fashion statements that many people have probably seen with bead jewelry is cell phone charms. A lot of people are making little charms to hang off of their cell phones to give their phones a little bit of added personality.

These charms are extremely popular with younger girls. It allows them the opportunity to make their phones appear different in comparison to their friends phones. A lot of the materials that adults may see as a little too outlandish are perfect for young girls to utilize.

Jewelry making is an art, despite what anyone has to say. It takes a great amount of patience and creativity to create something that you would have no problem showing people. However, many older people have turned their attention away from jewelry making, and many young girls are just getting started.

Regardless of how hold you get, you should never turn your back away from creative crafts. It seems as if women and men get older things that brought them happiness and joy such as jewelry making begin to be thrown to the back of their minds. They simply lose sight of the things in this life that make them think outside the box.

Jewelry making does not have an age limit on it, anyone can make gorgeous creations. Jewelry making is an art that allows beauty to be left in the eyes of the beholder.

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WHITE GLASS 12 0 SEED BEADS 25 GRAMS JEWELRY MAKING
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DARK RED GLASS 12 0 SEED BEADS 25 GRAMS JEWELRY MAKING
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Wendy Racklave owns website The Silver Lining which has details of cheep jewelry findings and best price jewelry tools.

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