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Thinking about design and contests

October 20, 2009

Rings & Things’ own Metalman, Kurt Madison, took some time before our big design contest to talk about what makes a winning entry…

I have been reflecting on what wins an award in a contest. Is it the biggest / most elaborate entry? The one with the most obvious $$ spent?

What makes this a winning contest entry?

What makes this a winning contest entry?

Lots of times, it does seem to look that way. When you feel like it works that way, try looking at several years of winners for that contest. There may be a unconscious bias working there somewhere. I feel I have seen some cultural bias in international art exhibitions — this happens and you can’t really complain about it. You can become aware of it and use it to your advantage, or at least know that it’s working against you.

So anyway….what makes a winner? I think it’s always design. The work has to have good design.

How to get to good design? Well, I guess my method is to collect ideas for a while, then I do small sketches (thumbnails) and play with my elements (beads/stones/etc.), until I start to get a real idea or concept in my mind’s eye.

Then I do some larger drawing. I really like an expressive/abstract style of drawing — this gives me more ideas. After that: I do a final design drawing to life-size, and really tight so I can cut metal to fit and all. Many times I get halfway through and the materials or visual ideas shift. That may mean a new piece gets started, or that the current one gets benched for a while, or just improvements.

So in this description, how many pieces got designed? Maybe 10 various directions — and from them, picking the best one and making builds for that GOOD DESIGN WINNER.

Featured bead: Cowrie shell

June 4, 2009

This week’s featured bead is an old, old, old favorite!

Still hip after 1,000 years...cowrie shell beads

Loose matte cowrie shells, a favorite from Africa for centuries, get their extra-large stringing holes by grinding or breaking off the top of the shell. With the tops ground off like this, they sit nice and flat, forming a smooth border.

How big are they? Anywhere from about a half-inch by 1/3 inch, to an inch by a half-inch. (13x8x8mm to 25x20x10mm.)

These bleached shells are often sewn upside-down on beaded Nigerian wall hangings, belts and ceremonial items. We’ve been seeing these woven or sewn onto chokers, too. They’re a classic staple of macramé work, too!

Love cowries, and want more ethnic beads? Rings & Things carries a full line of African beads, both old trade beads, and newer beads made or strung in Africa for the world-wide bead trade. Trade beads are old and/or used beads, and will show varying amounts of wear. Newly-made African beads are generally handmade in small communities. Style and availability vary.

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!

You won!

June 2, 2009
Winners!

Winners!

If your name is joia or Beadsophy, you’ve won the May blog drawing here at Rings & Things!

Congratulations to both of you.

I’ll announce a very exciting new contest for June — tomorrow.

See you then!

Peace!

Out!

Beads as a war memorial

May 26, 2009

A simple idea for a sober occasion.

warmemorial_scan-090119-0001Beads as a war memorial.

We hope your Memorial Day was safe and rewarding.

May giveaway:
* You enter by leaving comments this month
* At the end of May, 2 winners will receive coveted Rings & Things goodie packs!
*So read the blog regularly, to enter a lot & to see if you won!

We have 2 winners: our first monthly blog drawing

March 4, 2009

We have a winner! Actually we have two winners. Rings & Things’ blog introduced a monthly drawing in February. Everyone who comments at our blog is entered into the prize drawing for the month.

Our two drawing winners for February are:

  • Swati
  • FezelryJewelry

Congratulations! I have goodie bags of Rings & Things products ready to mail to you. Please contact me, drobertson (at) rings (dash) things (dot) com, with your postal addresses.

Everyone, thanks for your blog comments last month. Keep commenting through March and every month, for your chance at our upcoming drawing prizes! (I’ll put a reminder at the bottom of every post, like the one you see below.)

March news: New monthly drawing, 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!

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!

Wednesday, Jan. 28: CPSIA blog-in

January 28, 2009

Thanks to chichiboulie over at Etsy.com for mentioning this:

Today is a “blog-in” by people concerned about the upcoming CPSIA law. That’s a law which looks to strongly affect the use and sale of countless items that kids might come in contact with, by ordering expensive testing for lead content. It takes effect on February 10th. (At this writing Rings & Things has an informative link up on its home page.) Over 300 bloggers have joined in; will you?

Here’s some information from chichiboulie:

“As parents and concerned citizens I’m sure most of us at one time or another have been confronted with the question of lead poisoning. But have you asked yourself what your government is doing to protect your children from lead contained in toys? The answer? They’re banning toys, taking books from schools and libraries, hurting low income families, killing entrepreneurial spirit and risking putting the economy in an even greater depression than we’ve seen in decades. I’d like to introduce you to their solution: the CPSIA.

“Do you know about the CPSIA? No? Then I ask you to take a few minutes to find out about it.

“The CPSIA stands for Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, a new set of laws that will come into effect on 10 February, 2009 and will impact many, many people in a negative way. Make no mistake, this is very real. View it for yourself. If Forbes, the American Library Association and numerous other media are paying attention, perhaps you should too.

“How will these new laws affect you? Well, here are a few examples…” [read more]

Customers, meet our costumers!

November 21, 2008

Before it’s too late and the Thanksgiving/Christmas seasons totally swamp us, we wanted to share some pictures from Rings & Things’ Halloween costume contest. We think you’ll agree, our coworkers are not only talented jewelry makers (and sellers), but pretty great costume designers too!

Let’s start with the top vote-getters. Here’s the first prize winner and Elf Warrior Princess:

Second place was this marketing-department “Product Pimp”–you’ll have to squint through the glitter:

Third prize was the revenge of “Mr.” Poindexter (with some help from Daisy Mae):

And if you can spare another moment, here are a couple more popular costumes. We liked this little girl from the “Village of the Damned”, although she kind of scared us…

In case the horror got out of hand, we had a knight in shining armor:

We’re still taking bets on who would win a matchup between this he-man and Princess Adora’s alter ego (you know, the Princess of Power?). She was present but not pictured here…

The moral of this story is, you can’t run a business with customers only…you need costumers too!

4 November birthstones

November 4, 2008

“4 November birthstones”? Mistake, or silly pun on today’s date?

Neither! Here’s how there can be 4 different birthstones for November…meaning four times as much market for your jewelry creations this month!

STONE 1: The original source of today’s usual birthstone list is the “Foundation Stones” of the book of Revelations, in the New Testament. According to that ancient list, November’s birthstone is
topaz. The modern list agrees, and the traditional list of “zodiac stones” also has topaz for Sagittarius (November 23-December 21).

STONE 2: But! The modern birthstone list, established in 1952, contains an alternate November stone,
citrine.

STONE 3: Notice how Sagittarius doesn’t cover the whole calendar month? Another sign occupies the beginning of the month, which is why the other November zodiac birthstone is beryl — the stone of
Scorpio.

STONE 4: There’s also a traditional list of stones associated with the 12 apostles in early Christianity, where Matthew is associated with November. His stone is
amethyst, which is also the stone of November’s guardian angel Adnachiel (in ancient rabbinical writings). This gives us our fourth birthstone for this month.

All of this great information, plus the stones for the other 11 months and much more, is in Bruce G. Knuth’s superb book ”
Jeweler’s Resource: A Reference of Gems, Metals, Formulas and Terminology for Jewelers”. Thanks for this Rings & Things staff favorite, Bruce!

Got to have even more options? Check out Rings & Things’ selection of
birthstone-related products!