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Rings & Things Products

You asked: How to 'open' wood-chain links

November 19, 2009

You asked (in response to yesterday’s R&T News Flash):

“OK, this is a totally dumb question, but when you have solid wood circles that are in the chain, there’s no way to ‘open’ the wood chain in order to adjust the number of links you want, is there, short of breaking one of the links?”

If you can cut wood chain, you can make this!

If you can cut wood chain, you can make this!

Our response:

“Hi, your question is definitely NOT dumb — in fact several people in our warehouse have asked the same thing!

The short answer is: just like with soldered chain, you’ll need to cut through a link to shorten the chain or use small sections. You’ll have to sacrifice cut links, unless you saw through them carefully.

One of our purchasers says, ‘I have a the link we broke in order to shorten the chain. It broke on the glue line and could maybe be glued back together. These are not solid links — at least not all of them (every other one?). The chain would be sooooo expensive if solid! So, the glued ones have a barely visible line.’

Co-owner Russ adds: ‘So far, most people using these styles of chain use the whole length. You could use a fine jeweler’s saw and cut open a link. It should be possible to glue the link together with wood glue however it might snap as you try to compress the cut ends together. It would be safer to glue it together with a thin slice of veneer into the gap created by the saw kerf. We’ve not tried this yet, and I’m not going to recommend it, but it should be possible. In other words, you are on your own if you try it. :)”

I hope this helps! 🙂

Let us know if you find a method that works well for you!

Charmed by Twilight

November 18, 2009

You don’t need to know all the dialogue from Twilight

"Beautiful. Very visually dynamic."

“Beautiful. Very visually dynamic.”

…to recognize that these are hot stuff right now.

Speaking of Twilight charms, check these out by the light of the New Moon…

:)

“I can’t bring myself to regret the decisions that brought me to Forks.”

$100 could be yours (to give)

November 18, 2009
could be yours

…or $75, or $50…

…with Rings & Things gift certificates.

The holidays are coming.

Drop hints to your loved ones now 🙂

Featured bead: shell pearls

November 12, 2009

A.k.a. “Shellies”…

shell_pearls_christmas_cluster_choker

…maximize the shine per penny…

…with shell pearls…

Perfectly round every time!

…perfectly round every time!

I’ve challenged myself – – write 5 great things about shell pearls – – in 25 words or less 🙂

  1. Mixing real & faux!
  2. Awesome feel & cost!
  3. Durable!
  4. One of the few beads you can call pulverized!
  5. Coated with fish scales or pearl powder!

Does my nerdy enthusiasm for shell pearls shine through? I hope so! Get ’em in lots of colors & sizes from…well, you know where 🙂

Crystals worth every penny

November 6, 2009

Crystal fans — heads up!

We can all expect to see small increases in the price of CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements over the next few months.

Still pennies per crystal bead!

Still pennies per crystal bead!

Why?

  • The value of the Dollar against the Euro continues to worsen.
  • Materials costs continue to rise.
  • For nearly a year, Swarovski held the currency surcharge at the same level, despite the fall of the Dollar. But in late October Swarovski announced they are increasing the surcharge, thus making Crystallized Elements by Swarovski cost more for all US distributors and retailers.

The effects of the surcharge increase, plus an expected across-the-board price increase from Swarovski in early 2010, will ripple through the jewelry and bead markets as new goods arrive or as vendors implement across-the-board price changes.

Rest assured, Rings & Things plans to keep bringing you genuine Swarovski crystals at the best prices possible!

Featured bead: crystal snowflakes

November 4, 2009

This week’s featured beads, just in time for the holiday season, are crystal snowflakes.

Bright stuff coming down!

Bright stuff coming down!

These crystal pendants are the classic Swarovski #6704 style, perennially popular for the way they gently glisten.

Make your list now, and check it twice! You have enough time to stock up some great styles for Christmas and Hanukkah shoppers.

Like real snowflakes, these come in many forms. Sizes are 20mm, 25mm, 30mm and 35mm — in other words, from nearly an inch to an inch-and-a-half. Choose from “pure” crystal, crystal AB (aurora borealis coating), and crystal/moonlight (also coated).

Crystal snowflakes fit for a princess

Crystal snowflakes fit for a princess

PS: You can also get new snowflake beads in raku, as well as other styles. Merry browsing!

The Spokane keychain experiment

October 28, 2009

Strung on #61-723-49-02 Beadalon, this keychain held up in daily use for over 2 years!

Rita's keys

How burly is your Beadalon?

This is a nice testament to the durability of the stringing materials you can buy here. 🙂 Thanks to Rita who works here, for pointing out that you can learn from broken jewelry too!

FYI, the big cool bead is #28-900-01-01 (George O’Grady borosilicate glass). It’s been restrung on #40-099-28-3 beading chain, finished off with a #41-151-99-20-3 crimp tube at one end and #41-256-02-3 crimps at the other end. The crimp at the end of the tassel is covered with a crimp cover from the #48-289-00-3 set. The clip itself isn’t ours, but is similar to our new #30-610-01-1 teardrop clip.

By the way, here's "Mark 2" :)

By the way, here’s “Mark 2” 🙂

Dare to share — have a jewelry failure that we can learn from? Spill it in a comment here!

Featured bead: Christmas lampwork

October 27, 2009

Rings & Things has added a bunch of Christmas lampwork beads this year…so that’s the featured bead this week.

Snowman earrings feature holiday lampwork!

For jolly happy souls!

Add goofy grins to the festivities with the snowman-head beads above — or with the fun snowmen, Xmas trees and Santa beads below!

Making spirits bright...and helping mittened fingers zip jackets!

Making spirits bright…and helping mittened fingers zip jackets!

(There’s also a really fun bubble wand in our Design Gallery, featuring these same three beads.)

Besides these designs, check out such festive baubles as lampwork Christmas stockings

Stocking stuff!

Stocking stuff!

…and many more!

Have holiday plans involing beads? Share the inspiration here!

What are trade beads?

October 20, 2009

Spend enough time around beads, and you’ll hear people tossing the phrase ‘trade beads‘ around.

What would you trade to have these...?

But what are trade beads (or ‘tradebeads’)? Rings & Things often gets asked this question. I got our bead-loving founder, Russ Nobbs, to talk a little about this…

Q: What are trade beads?

Russ: Generally the term ‘trade bead’ refers to the kinds of beads collected and sold in Africa. In the public perception this includes

  • European-made glass beads
  • Indian-made carnelian and agate beads
  • African-made stone, metal and powdered-glass beads
  • and, more recently, contemporary glass beads from India and China.

So, it’s a catch-all name for what could be called “African beads just because they are found today in African sources.”

Q: What do trade beads have to do with trading?

Russ: When asked if trade beads were really traded, well-known bead researcher Jamey Allen said, “My definition merely says that ‘trade’ beads are ‘beads that were made for exchange purposes, not for use purposes.’ Not all old beads are ‘trade’ beads.”

Very few of the ‘trade beads’ on the market today are truly ‘trade’ beads, in that they were made to sell as commodities. Beads made for the slave and gold trade are from an earlier era than most of what are called “trade beads” on sale today.

Q: What are some major kinds of trade beads that people might enjoy checking out?

Russ: At Rings & Things we tend to describe this category as “African and Trade Beads.” This includes Indian stone and European glass beads made in the 18th, 19th and early 20th century. It also includes the powder-glass beads made currently in Ghana and lost-wax cast metal beads from Ghana and Ivory Coast. These were made in the last century and production continues today.

Thanks to Russ for sharing some thoughts about this. Have another question for our resident bead expert? 🙂 Ask here!

Featured beads: Swarovski "by color"

October 16, 2009

In which we yank the shroud aside…

Introducing “Search by Color” for crystal beads in our CRYSTALLIZEDâ„¢ –
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…