Browsing Category

Rings & Things Website

New free technique sheets!

April 28, 2010

Technique sheets: learn all the hottest jewelry craft tips. They’re now right in our online store!

Print them right out there, as high-quality PDFs — Or, click to add any technique sheet to your order for free.

Basic technique sheets now offered include these fun fliers:

ITS Image Transfer Solution technique sheetITS™ Image Transfer Solution

Gluing to metal, a technique sheet for jewelry makersGluing to metal

Metal stamping

Epoxy resin

Stamping on resin

And that’s just a sampling. Check ’em all out! Grow your business with a new skill or two.

Let us know if you have a request for guidance in the form of other technique sheets…

New, improved…R&T website

March 8, 2010

We’d like to mention a recent success.

We upgraded R&T’s online store. Enjoy the easier and convenient-er times you’ll have shopping with us!

Same look. Way better!

Same look. Way better!

The old dog can do some new tricks, like these…

  • It saves your shopping cart: automatically, even, when you close the browser window! Just view your cart when done shopping session. (It saves only what you’ve viewed.)
  • It won’t interrupt your shopping: so you’re not taken away from the page you’re looking at!
  • It redeems more than one gift certificates: at the same time (on the same order).
  • It previews product categories for you: just scroll over a product picture & there’s a pop-up bubble.
  • It collects recent product reviews: from your fellow shoppers.
  • It finds multiple previous carts: if you’re a registered R&T customer, this is a snap now.
  • It lets you check out as a guest: so you don’t have to register if you don’t feel like it.

Happy shopping! Let us know how you like your new, improved R&T store.

Viddy this, droogies

March 3, 2010

Translation, for non-Clockwork Orange fans: Check out these videos!

R&T now features a growing collection (a raster roster?) of jewelry-making videos.

2 highlights:

For perfect crimps every time...

…For perfect crimps everytime, a crimping-tool video, and…

...some help for those of us with 2 left hands...

……some help for those of us with 2 left hands…a knotting-tool demo, video-style!

Visit our videos, and you can scroll up that page for many more fantastic free artists’ resources!

10 tips to top designs

October 29, 2009

You might be expecting a top-10 list of craft tips. This is a 10-in-1…

Subscribe to the “feed” from the Design Gallery. You’ll have 10 new design ideas at a time delivered to your desktop.

Home delivery!

Home delivery!

How? Click the orange RSS link, the iGoogle link, or the MyYahoo! link. You’ll get a constantly updated list of our 10 latest jewelry projects.

Just like that! We’ve had plenty of people say that they turn to us first when they have a new project idea. Let us return the favor with some jewelry inspirations.

Enjoy!

Featured beads: Swarovski "by color"

October 16, 2009

In which we yank the shroud aside…

Introducing “Search by Color” for crystal beads in our CRYSTALLIZED™ –
Swarovski Elements section! Thanks to Melissa for a ton of hard work to make this happen. (Maybe I should say a gross of hard work…uh…)

screenshot_searchcolor

Now you’re just a click away from seeing every single crystal bead color that we have, laid out in an attractive table. As you can see, similar colors are grouped together — which makes it easy to build on a color theme, or find a substitute for a color you can’t get.

Let us know how you use “searching by color” in your crystal shopping…

Setting a record?

July 29, 2009

Over the last week, Rings & Things has uploaded a kazillion new entries to our free Design Gallery. I think we set a record, and I want to share some highlights…

Great Southwestern-influenced earrings to introduce you to a really handy jewelry finding, the bead bar…

Our bead bars show off pretty amazonite beads...

Our bead bars show off pretty amazonite beads…

Seasonally appropriate shark charms & rad surfboard pendants make this one a perfect guy / beachwear item… (update on August 13: I’m wearing this one to Rings & Things’ anniversary sale this weekend, so come see it in person):

A midsummer day's inspiration! The Shark Week necklace

A midsummer day’s inspiration! The Shark Week necklace.

Here’s another finding we sell that will find an appreciative audience this time of year…

A fun, customized bottle opener for your thirsty customers! (Read the lettering)

A fun, customized bottle opener for your thirsty customers! (Read the lettering)

So get yourself to the shade of a beach umbrella in a place that has wi-fi, pour some iced tea, and browse the dozens of fun new designs in our Gallery! Did I mention we’ve added several whole new design categories? Resin designs, beadables (great gift ideas), metal stamping, causes & awareness, and more…

Have a fun summery design idea? Share it in a quick note below!

DON’T MISS OUR June-July giveaway:
* in our online store, find a fave product & review it there, then…
* …leave a comment about it at the contest article in our blog
* On August 3, five winners will receive coveted Rings & Things gift certificates!
* Enter often & see if you win!

Tips for epoxy resin!

June 19, 2009

We’d like to send you into the weekend with some fun reading material!

Epoxy resin was used to make our "Facebook" earrings

Rings & Things has added a page of tips for epoxy resin!

Now the basics are at your fingertips, so bookmark that page. Learn how to:

  • Prevent image “bleed”
  • Stop “floating” images
  • Keep resin projects from sticking to your work surface

And much more, all in a handy single .PDF sheet. (Perfect for printing out and tacking up in your workshop!)

PS — Soon, you can look for a new Resin projects area in our Design Gallery!

Do you have a helpful resin hint that you’ve learned the hard way? You can share it here, by leaving a comment!

DON’T MISS OUR June-July giveaway:
* in our online store, find a fave product & review it there, then…
* …leave a comment about it at the contest article in our blog
* On August 3, five winners will receive coveted Rings & Things gift certificates!
* Enter often & see if you win!

Create your own gift registry in R&T's online store!

June 8, 2009

You asked, we listened: A feature that you’ve been asking for is to have a Gift Registry for your personal wish list of Rings & Things products…

You'll be charmed by our gift registry!

An improved gift registry: This feature provides a great way to let your friends and family know what you want for Christmas, birthdays and other special events. (Just make sure they know about our $25 minimum order, and $4 small-order fee for orders between $25
& $50).

The gift registry feature is not just for requesting gifts, though! Bead societies can use it to create project parts lists,
businesses can use it to share upcoming order info between employees, and anyone can use it like a wish list of things to buy
in the future. In fact, the gift registry has an advantage over the wish list feature of our store, in that it allows you to save desired quantities!

gift_registry_44-687-0

Here’s how you set up your own Gift Registry:

Now just fill in some blanks:

  • Specify the Event Type — the “occasion” for people to buy you R&T items. (Birthday? Wedding?)
  • Give it a name. (“Dave’s 29th birthday”?)
  • And a date. (You don’t mind folks knowing when your birthday is, do you?)
  • Specify what kind of shipping address the items should go to. (“My address” goes right to you; “Customer’s address” goes to your generous friend.)
  • :Look at the other few options that display, and check any that matter to you. Now click Continue.

From here, it’s easy to shop for products to add to your Gift Registry. You know which ones you’ve had your eye on!

Have you thought of other features you wish were in our online store? Suggest them here in a comment!

DON’T MISS OUR June-July giveaway:
* in our online store, find a fave product & review it there, then…
* …leave a comment about it at the contest article in our blog
* On August 3, five winners will receive coveted Rings & Things gift certificates!
* Enter often & see if you win!

Bead societies

March 20, 2009

Are you a member of a bead society yet? (Or a polymer-clay or metal-clay guild, or another craft group?) Rings & Things always encourages you to share knowledge and fun with like-minded souls in your area…

russ_bead_army

“We’re here to help you”: join a bead society & meet some new faces!

There are lots of reasons to join a local group of beaders or other craft/jewelry artists.

  • Socializing with people who have similar interests
  • Learning new techniques & tricks that’ll help you “grow your business”
  • Donating your skills for a cause: editing a newsletter, scheduling workshops and field trips, organizing charitable fundraisers or educational workshops in local schools…
  • Membership is usually very inexpensive or free!

…but the simplest reason to join is for FUN! ☻☺

Do you realize how incredibly many of these groups exist? Check these constantly-updated resources to find a group near you:

There seems to be quite an upswing of interest in forming local groups lately. If you don’t find a group near you, will you be the founder of a new one?

Rings & Things wants to hear from YOU about any more bead societies and art guilds that haven’t made it onto our lists yet. Leave us a comment here with information!

By the way, Rings & Things doesn’t track the meeting times & places of all of these groups. (We’ve found that these may change.) But you can announce your bead society’s latest meetup schedule right here — so just leave a comment below to plug your group.

March news: New monthly lottery, right here on the Rings & Things blog. Here’s how it works:
* You enter by leaving comments. Comment on any March post(s).
* At the end of March, I’ll randomly draw 2 winners of surprise goodie packs! …So read the blog regularly to see if you won!