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New Beads on the Block – Gemcolor Crystal Pearls!

May 13, 2012

Hi bloglandia! Take a look around and what do you see, fashion wise? That’s right: color. Big bold blocks of vivid color.

These beads absolutely pop with gemstone colors.

Incorporate this season’s love for pure color into your jewelry designs with Swarovski “gemcolor” crystal pearls.

An easy to make bead bar necklace with red coral, pink coral, lapis, jade and turquoise crystal pearls.

I really love gemstones natural variations in color. However, even I am a fan of these not-so-natural crystal pearls. They are just plain fun, perfect for summer or anytime really. The color palette is really versatile, too. The gem colors make many great combinations. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Red coral and turquoise is a classic gemstone combination. The pearl in the middle is ivory color.

Coral, pink coral and jade crystal pearls.

Dark lapis, turquoise and mystic black crystal pearls make a cool blue mix.

Notice how shiny the little buggers are too – I couldn’t avoid getting reflections in my snapshots, especially that last one (the rings are light bouncing off the clear bowl the pearls were in.) That is one of the perks of crystal pearls – unlike natural pearls, which will get destroyed by common things like perfume & hairspray – crystal pearls are very durable. The shiny, uniform coating is meant for fun in the sun. So go get some – of both! ~ Cindy

Little House on the Pendant

May 8, 2012

Pendant frames for all styles and tastes.

Hi bloglandia! Today’s design question: What memories or images do you have that are worth framing?

I just stumbled across this photo of some little house hinged pendants our design team made awhile back. It always amazes me how you can give people, in this case 9, the same jewelry component and end up with such completely different results! Our hinged glass frame pendants are reversible, so you can have two images inside if you’d like! (Also check out the memory boxes, which aren’t two sided but are deep enough to hold all sorts of treasures.)

From the bottom right going clockwise, you see the following jewelry designs:

Selina made the Dia de los Muertos paper collage, another jewelry designer used fabric and a peace sign, Mollie has a spritely fairy with star charms, Lindsey made a ginormous, interactive wooden pendant, Amy captured summer childhood memories, Sondra soldered up some enlightenment, I used one of my favorite vacation photos, a bulldog earned a crown and wings, and Rita created a wee house inside her frame. Hopefully one or more of these designs will inspire you to frame some mementos of your own! ~ Cindy

Great Spokane Art Party 2012

April 30, 2012

Oh so many interesting beads to choose from!

Truly a FUNdraiser, the Great Spokane Art Party is an annual event that gives adults the chance to socialize and be creative while supporting the Community Building Children’s Center and Blueprints for Learning program. Rings & Things donated supplies, training for volunteers plus a few staff volunteers to help make the night a success.

Claudia getting ready for the chaos!

We had five tables where attendees dug through big dishes of beads to make their own unique earrings. We’ve been doing this for a few years and have learned some important lessons along the way. For example, bringing natural light task lamps for each table helped a ton – otherwise, come morning there would have been some unpleasant color combos! Also, after one event where attendees seemed to glue more beads to themselves than to their bracelets, we stuck (haha) to a glue-free project!

Fun-for-all jewelry fest!

I wish I would have gotten some pictures of the actual earrings people made – I was so impressed with their creativity! But at that point I had three pairs of pliers in my hands and not a second to spare.

Thanks to everyone who supported the party, either as an attendee or a volunteer! While we were busy making jewelry, other organizations and artists were helping people create everything from printed silk scarves to clay mosaic tiles to handmade paper. What a blast! Check out our Spokane Showroom Facebook page for more photos. We’ll post details about other community events there too.

~ Cindy

Glass Bezels: Clearly show off your treasures!

April 27, 2012

I filled this glass bezel with sand, starfish and seashell charms. It’s a little ocean microcosm.

Glass bezels are great! You can make your own by using a bottle cutting tool from Delphi. This tool is also pretty handy to convert old wine bottles and beer bottles into drinking glasses and votive holders. Check out this video from Six in the Suburbs Blog to see how easy it is to cut glass bottles. However, if you aren’t quite ready to go down the path of cutting glass, we have a solution for you here at Rings & Things: Glass Bezels already made and ready to fill with all of your wonders!

Vintaj BigKick by Sizzix

April 16, 2012

Our precious…

Do you ever feel possessive of your favorite belongings? I moved our jewelry team’s Vintaj BigKick closer to the windows – a distance of maybe 15 feet – to get pictures and no fewer than three people stopped me!

Mollie made this sweet necklace during a demo in our Spokane showroom.

“What are you doing?!?”

“Where are you going with that?!?!”

Kickin’ it Vintaj style!

Really guys, the BigKick belongs to *all* of us – but I understand wanting to keep tabs on it: it is a super fun tool! Despite the name, the BigKick is actually a very small rolling mill. It is designed specifically to texture Vintaj Natural Brass blanks with their DecoEmboss folders and DecoEtch design plates.

Birds, trees, leaves, keys, clocks – embossing/etching folders are available in a ton of cute designs.

Simply choose a blank, lay it on the design, sandwich it between the plexi-glass plates and run it through the BigKick. The metal comes out with a reversible design, and since Vintaj brass has a natural patina, just few swipes with the metal reliefing block to polish the high points really brings out the details. (We’ve linked Vintaj’s YouTube demo videos right from the product listings in our online store if you’d like to see it in action!)

Simply turn the handle – it really is that easy to add beautiful texture to your jewelry!

We recommend using only Vintaj Natural Brass blanks with the BigKick machine as they are the right gauge and softness. If you use other items, you may be risking this precious machine! [ Update April 2016: These new 30-gauge aluminum blanks also work great! ]

One roll and you’ll be in love…

The Vintaj art heart blanks are sold in pairs – perfect for earrings!

If you’re buying a BigKick, you need three other things:

Embossing folders or etching plates

Flat Vintaj brass shapes/blanks

Metal reliefing block (sand paper or steel wool also work, but are not as easy to use)

And that’s it – instant gratification! Have fun kicking your style up a notch! ~ Cindy

spring bling

April 9, 2012

Hi bloglandia! Today we had a make n’ take event in our Spokane showroom. I taught customers how to make wire-lashed bling pendants using rhinestone chain and 24-gauge Artistic Wire. Very fun! You get a lot of sparkle in a very short amount of time.

Rhinestone chain wrapped onto hoops with turquoise wire.

A common complaint we get is that our showroom is just too far away for most of our customers, who happen to live all over the world. Sadly, we can’t transport our showroom to y’all, but I thought I would let you know that the techniques we used today are available here on this blog and in our design gallery. Plus I wanted to show off the insanely sparkly earrings I made while teaching. Happy Monday! Hope you find time to do something creative! ~ Cindy

springing forward!

March 30, 2012

Blink and you miss it – March is already behind us! Here in Spokane we were teased with one gorgeous sunny day last weekend…following by a week of pouring rain. The Bead Show crew has found pockets of nice weather here and there, but spring is a most changeable season.

I had a lot of big plans for what I wanted to accomplish this week, but they’ve gotten derailed by the need to do some basic computer housekeeping. I’m not going to admit to how many pictures I have saved on my hard drive – I mean on the network. Yes, I always make sure all my files are backed up on the network drives! That’s right techs, no worries here! But um, yeah, it is always a good idea to purge old files periodically. So that’s what I’m doing and I just happened to find this picture of a necklace I made in February and neglected to post. I used the new Knew Concepts saw frame to cut a fiddle-head fern shape from nickel silver and soldered it to brass sheet metal with a Blazer micro torch.

The message “unfurl” seems especially appropriate today – what looked like dead branches just a week ago are now alive with new growth. Spring has sprung! Hope your creativity is unfurling as well ~ Cindy

Hoppy DIY Easter Jewelry Ideas!

March 27, 2012

I just spied this new selection of freshwater pearls over in our sales department and suddenly I realized – Easter is almost here! There is something about the egg-shaped pearls that is just so very…what’s the word…eggy?

Freshwater pearls in candy-delicious colors.

Hop over to our design gallery – we have a whole category devoted to spring and Easter jewelry. We make all of our designs “copyright free” meaning you are welcome to replicate them exactly, or to just as eye candy (eye jelly beans?) get your creative ideas flowing. Several of the designs are official “Create Your Style with Swarovski Elements” designs that use crystal pearls and sparkly crystal beads. No matter what materials you choose, now is the perfect time to add a pop of spring color to your wardrobe…unless you are Bill. Bill already has enough color – if you’ve ever placed an order by phone you’ve probably experienced it! ~ Cindy

I don’t remember what I said to get the “oh no you didn’t!!” finger wag, but it must have been good. Or maybe he is dancing? Hmmm. One never can tell wtih Bill!

Birthstone Jewelry: March is Aquamarine

March 15, 2012

A couple of weeks ago at our Spokane Bead Frenzy, I was demonstrating how to use microtorches to solder pieces of metal together. Much to my shock, since I was doing 10 things at once and answering questions, some of the pieces actually turned out to be quite adorable! I turned one into a necklace with our new “Zambian aquamarine” beads as March birthstone jewelry project inspiration.

Aqua Love necklace composed of 6mm round gemstone beads with copper findings.

Notice my use of quotes – these beads are neither “Zambian” or “aquamarine.” In actuality they are quartz beads that have been dyed to look like the ultra-rare and ultra-spendy Zambian aquamarine. (You can learn more about gemstones in our Gemstone Index. ) I did a quick Google search and found many examples of these beads being called Zambian aquamarine by both bead stores and jewelry designers. I don’t think they intend to be dishonest, but are merely using a descriptive name. It can be confusing, but if you’re ever in doubt, the price tag can be a good indicator of whether the beads you’re looking at are a pretty imitation or the real deal. Materials such as quartz, magnesite and howlite can make pretty convincing substitutes for pricier stones, and in fashion jewelry, affordability is often a huge factor! There is nothing wrong with using less expensive stones as long as you are honest about it.

When designing birthstone jewelry, some people select their beads based purely on color, like I did for this necklace, while others like to use the traditional mineral or material. Both colors and materials are believed my many to have metaphysical properties. Here is a list of the traditional birthstone(s) for each month. Our Gemstone Index lists many of the metaphysical properties for the stones, so below I have added just a few tidbits about the colors themselves.

Birthstone colors and meanings

January – Garnet. Red is known for warmth, energy, love and passion.
February – Amethyst. Purple is a color of transformation and renewal.
March – Aquamarine. Blue is a color of truth and peace.
April – Diamond. White/clear is the “perfect” color since it combines all colors.
May – Emerald. Green represents balance and harmony.
June – Pearl. White is also known as purity.
July – Ruby (red). Physical strength and energy are also attributed to red.
August – Peridot. Because of its balancing nature, green is very healing.
September – Sapphire. Blue is cooling and brings tranquility.
October – Tourmaline or Opal. There are too many color options here! 🙂
November – Topaz or Citrine. Orange is cheerful and stimulates creative thinking, as well as appetite! Brown is stable, like the earth.
December – Zircon or Turquoise. This color is said to help increase intuition.

What do you think – is it more important to use the traditional mineral/material or the appropriate color in birthstone jewelry? My vote is actually to give people their favorite colors and stones, no matter what the chart says! ~ Cindy

Leather strap wrap bracelets in bright new colors!

March 6, 2012

Spring is (almost!!) here, and what better way to celebrate the return of short sleeves than a wrist full of bracelets? With this in mind, we chose a fun new palette of leather strap bracelets based on the Pantone Color Chart. These triple-wrap bracelets are 1/2″ wide and feature three snaps for an adjustable fit. The gorgeous colors are created with lead-free vegetable dyes. Vegetable dyes are color fast, but you should avoid getting your leather bracelets soaking wet, as it could damage the leather.

Leather bracelets are easy to customize and fun to wear. Here are some of the ways our design team dressed them up:

Some of the brighter and bolder Pantone-inspired color choices – Solar Power, Lagoon, Bellflower and Pink Punch! The concrete gray makes a great neutral base for many colors, including sapphire crystals.

Most of our designers chose to sew their beads, charms, crystals and other decorations in place. Pretty much any stringing material can work, depending on the situation. We used Nymo, Superlon, embroidery floss, hemp cord and even wire.

From the top: Jaci used a jeweler’s saw to cut skulls out of sheet metal. I attached bronze clay charms and bronze shade crystal margaritas. Laurae stitched crystal channels on with wire. Toni used freshwater pearls and antiqued brass filigree.

Use a r otary hole punch tool or an awl to make holes where needed, and stitch away! Just be sure to choose a thread thickness that feels durable enough for the weight of the items you are attaching.

As you can see, our stitch methods varied a lot. Mine are quite clumsy while Toni’s are practically invisible – but they all worked! Laurae’s wire was the most problematic to sew with, but it does add a nice heft to the bracelet.

Another leather embellishing option is to use rivets and/or eyelets. Eyelets line holes nicely for durability, which allows you to hang charms from them, like on Sondra’s stack of ankh bracelets:

wrapped-in-ankhs-rings-things sondra barrington leather ankh bracelets

Simple and stylish wrapped leather bracelets in black, dark brown and scarlet leather. I wanted to name that color of red “lipstick red” but was out-voted on the grounds that not all lipstick is red! Scarlet won because it is a pretty true red without orange or brown tones.

Polly used the Crafted Findings riveting system to attach TierraCast charms and spacer beads to her purple leather bracelet. The teal blue bracelet uses evenly spaced eyelets to create an industrial style, while Toni used a couple of large leather eyelets to create attachment points for pretty charms and beads.

The front pearl bracelet is on “Silly Putty” colored leather. The pinkish yet neutral color is hard to describe, but somehow we all agreed silly putty summed it up!

I stitched Dark Indigo bicone drops in place over the bezel loops on my “Clueless” bracelet to make spikes.

I had a hard time rounding up all these bracelets … I didn’t quite have to pry them off people’s wrists, but almost. They’ve been getting a lot of wear – and a lot of compliments! We hope you have just as much fun creating your own jewelry with them! ~ Cindy

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