Monthly Archives

February 2009

Next month's birthstones: aquamarine, bloodstone, & jasper

February 11, 2009

Planning ahead for March birthstone jewelry? Our crystal ball (actually a book we sell) says you can use aquamarine or bloodstone. Some folks use jasper too!

The zodiac says March is the month when most Pisces are born (February 20-March 20). Since Pisces is “the fish”, the hue of aquamarine (literally “sea water”) is a great color theme to use in birthday jewelry for these folks. Enjoy the organic feel of gemstone chip beads,

or make a more regular design by lining up some smooth round beads.

Perhaps better for quick-tempered Aries (March 21-April 19) would be bloodstone. An intriguing thing about this gemstone is how variable the colors can be, since it’s a combination of dark green with deep red in various proportions. Check out these 8mm rounds to get an impression of the color range:

And sometimes you’ll find this stone much more on the green end of things, like these 12mm rounds.

Jasper is a whole world unto itself. There are so many varieties in such a phenomenal range of hues–it’s worth browsing our catalog to absorb them. A couple of my favorites will give you an idea what I mean. There are fancy-jasper faceted diamond-shaped beads:

Another variety is leopardskin jasper, shown here in 8mm rounds:

Yet another type is ocean jasper. How about these tip-drilled puffed marquise beads?

And don’t forget to browse for color matches. We always have hundreds of styles, including aquamarine-colored crystal beads!

Have a March birthstone-inspired jewelry tip? Share it here by Replying in the comments section!

Exciting news: every month, we’re going to hold a lottery right here on the Rings & Things blog. Here’s how it will work:
*At the beginning of each month, I’ll announce a new lottery.
*You enter by leaving Replies, also known as blog comments. Comment on any post(s) this month.
*At the end of the month, I’ll randomly draw 2 names to receive surprise goodie packs!

Contest: Rings & Things goodie-pack lottery

February 10, 2009

Here’s another great idea that came from talking with one of our readers. (In this case, thanks go to @Rockcreekcreate on Twitter!)

Exciting news: every month, we’re going to hold a lottery right here on the Rings & Things blog. Here’s how it will work:

  • At the beginning of each month, I’ll announce a new lottery. (That’s what I’m doing right now, hint hint.)
  • You enter by leaving Replies, also known as blog comments. Comment on any post(s) this month.
  • At the end of the month, I’ll randomly draw 2 names to receive surprise goodie packs!

These packs will include a themed selection of Rings & Things stock. Of course I can’t tell you now what they’ll contain, but an example might be a bunch of jewelry findings, or maybe a variety of beads. You never know. 🙂

Leave your replies here to be entered in our Feb. 28 drawing!

Greening our commute

February 9, 2009

09_pinnacle_11At Rings & Things, we actively promote commuting alternatives through “Trippin’ to R&T” and the Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) program, using tools such as http://www.mycommute.org. We and our stellar Employee Transportation Coordinator, Selina Shehan (at center in the photo), have won a variety of awards for our commitment to “greening” our workers’ commutes.

If we could share a few highlights, they’d include these:

  • January 2009: Selina Shehan and Rings & Things win a second “Way to Go!” Pinnacle award. The Pinnacle Award is given to just three employers in our state each year, based on innovative trip reduction strategies, ETC commitment and participation, continued enhancement of their CTR program and management support.
  • September 2008: Rings & Things receives the Washington state Governor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Voluntary Employer in the CTR program.
  • January 2007: 2006 Pinnacle Award.
  • September 2006: September All Star Coach, Selina Shehan.

From time to time we’ll share other tidbits about our efforts to make Rings & Things and our industry the greenest they can be. You might be surprised by some of what we say. Stay tuned to learn what I mean by this!

Have ideas for “green” beads, findings, advertising or business practices? Share them through the Replies section below!

Exciting news: every month, we’re going to hold a lottery right here on the Rings & Things blog. Here’s how it will work:
*At the beginning of each month, I’ll announce a new lottery.
*You enter by leaving Replies, also known as blog comments. Comment on any post(s) this month.
*At the end of the month, I’ll randomly draw 2 names to receive surprise goodie packs!

Never lose your bookmarked beady websites!

February 6, 2009

To paraphrase Billy Joel, I’m in a bookmarks state of mind. I was writing about book thongs the other day, and now on to social bookmarking.

What is social bookmarking?! Is that like Stitch ‘n Bitch? Or the bead society meeting where everyone does a beaded-bookmark challenge? Actually, it’s something way better. Something that can help you grow your business!

Social bookmarking is a version of the Bookmarks or Favorites function you’re probably already using on the Internet. You’ve probably got a lot of places ‘Favorited’ in your computer already. But what if you’re traveling without your computer?

  • You might need to place an emergency order for jump rings from, oh, who was that supplier?
  • And who was that cool artisan on Etsy who you wanted to refer your sister to?
  • How about showing a craft-show customer something in your online store, via someone’s wi-fi?

Human memory sometimes helps out… But if you install a social bookmarking button in your browser’s tool bar, every Favorite will be stored online. That means you can go back to that social-bookmark site wherever you are in the world, from any computer, and use your bookmarks. Never miss an opportunity to support handmade businesses again!

And when you bookmark a favorite site online, you can add some descriptive tags to it. So other people can then find recommendations by searching for tags that match their interests. (That’s the “social” part of it.) For example, if you bookmarked Rings & Things and tagged us as ‘bead supplier’, ‘beads’, and ‘findings’, searchers with similar interests could find this site too.

I should explain that what you’re really bookmarking is web pages, not whole sites. This means you can save as big a list as you want of various neat things that you found on any given site. An example from Rings & Things again might be bookmarks of our lead information page, our inches to millimeters conversion page, our blog’s main page, and The Tank bracelet (it’s awesome) in our Design Gallery.

There are dozens of social bookmarking sites. Check out a few major ones:

  • del.icio.us (great website address, huh?)
  • Digg (this is more about sharing recommendations of good information, like a neat blog post, cool tutorial, a news article, etc.)
  • Technorati
  • Bloglines (if you read a lot of blogs, this is a good tool for managing the bookmarks on one page)

Did you know, you’ll be helping out the sites that you bookmark? The search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN all pay attention to social bookmarks. Every bookmark you make is a recommendation to the search engines that “this is an interesting site.” As a result, that site tends to show up a bit higher on the screen when people go searching.

Have other favorite bookmarking sites? Use them for other reasons? Share your thoughts by leaving a Reply!

Exciting news: every month, we’re going to hold a lottery right here on the Rings & Things blog. Here’s how it will work:
*At the beginning of each month, I’ll announce a new lottery.
*You enter by leaving Replies, also known as blog comments. Comment on any post(s) this month.
*At the end of the month, I’ll randomly draw 2 names to receive surprise goodie packs!

New beads: brown lava stone

February 5, 2009

Lava rock beads have caught on in recent times. Their pockmarked surfaces have a really interesting feel. Because they’re basically pieces of pumice, these beads are also surprisingly light–with tiny holes all through them, they’re full of air!

Most of these beads so far have been glossy and black, from the treatments applied to their surfaces. Rings & Things has just added another great color, brown lava stone beads. They’re an earthy matte hue, and we have them in a lot of shapes and sizes! Look how nice this stone looks in corner-drilled and regular cube shapes:

Does that make anyone else think of brown sugar cubes?

There are also plenty of brown lava beads with curves that contrast wonderfully with their naturally uneven surface texture. Have a look at some rondelles and rounds to see this effect:

You can see how impressive this stone looks in all kinds of beads. Do you think it might set off metal beads nicely, the way the black lava stone does? Will it pair with wood? Hmmm, azurite makes a nice planet-Earth bead… How about brown lava stone beads of various sizes to represent a few of our rougher neighbors in a solar-system necklace or bracelet? (Mercury, the Moon, Mars?)

Exciting news: every month, we’re going to hold a lottery right here on the Rings & Things blog. Here’s how it will work:
*At the beginning of each month, I’ll announce a new lottery.
*You enter by leaving Replies, also known as blog comments. Comment on any post(s) this month.
*At the end of the month, I’ll randomly draw 2 names to receive surprise goodie packs!

Design idea: book thongs

February 4, 2009

The word “thong” has a funny recent history. When I was a kid in the ’70s, we wore thongs on our feet. Times changed, thongs migrated upwards a bit, and now we wear flip-flops. Or “foot thongs”.

Always on the go, thongs have also moved along to the world of bookmarks. Beautiful book thongs have been a trend lately, but you may have seen something like them before. Think of those fancy ribbons built into old, important books to help readers keep their place.

bookthong_heavymetal

This trend has a couple of nice side effects:

  • Expanding your product line of beaded bookmarks beyond metallic findings.
  • Multi-purposing (re-branding) a piece of jewelry that could also function as wrist wear.

The basic component is a length of cording, for example the flat suede lace that Liz at The Crimson Moon uses. Other approaches to book-thong cording include beading (necklace-style) on Beadalon or other stringing material. Finish the suede cord with a leather crimp end; other stringing materials can be finished effectively like a necklace but leaving off the clasp. The important thing is to have loops at the ends, because…

Your creativity really comes out in decorating the ends, attaching a dangle to each. This can be a focal piece like a lampwork art bead, a seed-bead creation, a pendant, a crystal, some charms… It’s a good idea to make the weight on the two ends pretty equal, so the thong doesn’t fly out of the book like Wile E. Coyote on a pulley.

bookthong_calypso2

Why not display your book thongs for sale “in action” in an artful stack of books? Or, because the thongs are long, wrap them around a paper card with your business information on it. If you make handcrafted paper products like diaries, or know someone who does, you could offer a package deal with a bookthong.

Have more book thong or bookmark ideas? Share them by leaving a Reply! ☻☺

Exciting news: every month, we’re going to hold a lottery right here on the Rings & Things blog. Here’s how it will work:
*At the beginning of each month, I’ll announce a new lottery.
*You enter by leaving Replies, also known as blog comments. Comment on any post(s) this month.
*At the end of the month, I’ll randomly draw 2 names to receive surprise goodie packs!