Some neat new friends, met at our Houston bead show
(we got the best photo we could with our camera)
Steampunk in person
The crew of the Airship Isabella paid us a visit!
We love meeting our Bead Fans at our bead shows, and seeing how creative you all are.
Come see us this spring, we’re on the road to your town right now!
WILL WE SEE YOU THERE?
Handmade magnetic bottle cap necklace with assorted buttons
Mollie has been borderline obsessed with one particular item lately. It’s not a pretty gemstone bead or sparkly crystal pendant. It isn’t even new. No, Mollie is obsessed with plain old sticky dots. Almost daily, she’d ask me, “Oooh, have you tried the sticky dot?” and I’d just roll my eyes. But now I’m a convert too.
Sticky dots are just that – self-stick little glue pads. Easy to use, strong, zero mess, no fuss, no cure time, no smell. This is true instant gratification!
Round sticky dots fit perfectly under our magnets!
Two of Mollie’s recent designs use the sticky dot: the interchangeable magnet ring and the interchangeable magnet bottle cap pendant. Like many of you crafty people, Mollie has a button making machine. The little 1″ buttons are particularly adorable, and since they are made of steel, naturally they are magnetic. I don’t have a button machine myself, but I buy lots of buttons – and now I can wear them instead of leaving them on my bulletin board!
Here’s the magnet
Here’s the pendant – so cute!
Rings & Things’ wholesale price breaks makes it really affordable to make a whole bunch of these necklaces. For about $50 (before shipping and tax, if applicable) you can get everything (except the buttons) to make 70 necklaces – with supplies leftover! If you don’t already have one, add a pair of EuroPunch pliers to make holes in the caps.
1 spool of ball chain (makes 70 17″ necklaces) $18-25 ~ 100 ball chain clasps $2 ~ 1 oz. jump rings $5-6 ~ 100 bottle caps $7-10 ~ 144 adhesive dots $6 ~ two packs of 35 magnets $12-14
The adhesive dot is completely hidden by the ring and magnet.
1″ buttons make perfect rings!
The same value applies to the magnetic ring design – and absolutely no tools are required to make these!
72 adjustable flat-pad ring blanks $42-62, depending on color (we do sell a less expensive ring blank if you prefer, but the style and comfort of this style is worth the added cost) ~ 144 adhesive dots $6 ~ two packs of 35 magnets $12-14
At these quantities, the necklaces cost less than a dollar and the rings about $1.20 to 1.50 each to make. Buy more and the cost per is even lower. Ah, the genius of good design! ~ Cindy
“Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
~ Albert Einstein
PS: here are some handy links to some other how-to’s in the Rings & Things blog!
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Update:
See current Sales and Clearance items
— no codes required!
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I admit it: there is a secret discount code at Rings & Things.
Through Sunday, anyway.
Here it is — SALE1C4-10.
How do you use it??
Order these before March 27th passes you by:
5-Day Sale! |
| Thru Sunday, March 27, 2011: Roll into springtime with great deals: sparkling SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS round crystal beads, striking gemstone donuts and easy-to-use donut bails! Save 10-20% on these quality components.Your savings will be visible in your final Order Review (after entering payment info), just below the “Place Order” button. (No coupon needed, yay!) |
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10% Off: SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS Rounds Use versatile #5000 round crystal beads from SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS, and add sparkle to an endless array of designs in an endless array of colors! 2mm through 10mm rounds are on sale now for this limited time. (SALE1C4-10) |
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20% Off: Gemstone Donuts Add natural beauty to designs with gemstone donuts in a huge variety of semi-precious stones. Find round donuts in 7 sizes (from 15mm to 60mm), plus rectangle, oval, trillion, and new octagon & square styles! (SALE1C4-20) |
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15% Off: Donut Bails Make connections with ease using donut bails in white, silver plate, antiqued silver, gold plate, bright brass, antiqued brass, bright copper, antiqued copper, gunmetal and sterling silver. Perfect for hanging focals & more! (SALE1C4-15) |
 Click here for free projects that feature sale items! |
Now, does that get a comment out of you?
Let me know what you think 🙂
The time for our fabulous showroom picks has come nigh!
This time some of these items are “Cash and Carry” items. For those of you who haven’t had a chance to visit our showroom or go to one of our Road Shows, Cash and Carry items aren’t available through our online store or catalog. Most of the time, they’re one-time special buys that our purchasers get for either the showroom or the road shows…so come & visit us in our warehouse or in your town!
Tiffany:
Cash and Carry “Birdseye Rhyolite“
These new items will soon be live on our online store! Here are the stock numbers for each new item:
21-005-227-10, Birdseye Rhyolite, 30×40 Puffed Oval
21-005-227-11, Birdseye Rhyolite, 20mm Puffed Coin
21-005-227-16, Birdseye Rhyolite, 20mm Puffed Square
21-005-227-22, Birdseye Rhyolite, 18×25 Puffed Rectangle
21-005-227-29, Birdseye Rhyolite, 30mm Puffed Coin
Sondra:
Cash and Carry Mixed Rainbow Gemstone Strands
Toni:
Turquoise Magnesite Butterfly Beads
Lindsey:
Cash and Carry Bottle Cap Beads
Some of these styles will soon be part of our stock as well!
Kameron:
New Tim Holtz!
These new items will soon be live on our online store as well! Here are the stock numbers for each new item:
55-000-20, Ideaology, 90 Red Game Pieces
55-000-21, Ideaology, 10 Tin Light Bulbs
55-000-23, Ideaology, 9 Distressed Plaquettes
55-000-24, Ideaology, Regal Adornments
55-000-25, Ideaology, 24 mini Hanger Clips
Mandi:
If they weren’t so disgustingly cute, they’d be good enough to eat!
Hello, bloglandia! We just added a whole bunch of bottle caps to our mixed-media jewelry product line. The best of the bunch, in my opinion, is the cute little mini cap.
Wee bottle caps make regular size (1″) ones look huge in comparison!
As soon as I saw them I became obsessed with making tiny pies. It was basically an illness that I had to treat before I could move on with my life. So today I went ahead and baked my little cherry pie earrings. Disclaimer: I am by no means a polymer clay expert. My skill level is clumsy at best. But really, I think anyone can have fun making these! Here’s how:
These pliers make it so easy to punch holes!
Criss cross to make a traditional lattice top.
Ready for the oven!
Following the instructions for your type of clay, bake the pies in a toaster oven to cure.
Pie is the new cupcake, I’ve been told. What do you think? Can a pie really be as cute as a cupcake?
Well, I thought baking these earrings would cure me of my pie obsession, but then a friend suggested making blackbird pie (from the nursery rhyme) and now I really want to make that too! And what about Pi Day earring? What kind of clay creations can you imagine making with these bottle caps? ~ Cindy
PS: here are some handy links to some other how-to’s in the Rings & Things blog!
[last update, May 2nd:
designer entries added at the bottom–scroll down!
Grand Prize winner to be picked this week]
Take our design challenge!
(PS: while you’re all waiting for the entries to be posted at the bottom of this post,
enjoy our last design challenge featuring glass bezels!)
The theme is brushed copper beads, look at ’em:
Design challenge! Satin-finish copper beads
We think you’ll love these: They’re gorgeously shiny… fun to touch…
and we like how people’s faces light up when they see ’em at our bead shows!
Here’s how to enter:
Then, wait for an email from me: One week from today, on Thursday, March 24th, I’ll do a drawing & pick 15 lucky participants. I’ll send those 15 people a packet of these satin-finish copper beads.
They’ll have 1 month to provide photos of the jewelry they make with these beads. Out of all those entries, Rings & Things will pick a Design Challenge winner to receive a surprise pack of our jewelry supplies! So enter now, tell your online friends, and get thinking–what will you do with a bunch of brushed copper beads? Doming? Sawing in half? Image-transfer solution? Patina’ing? Hole punching? –Dave at Rings & Things–
Update, March 29th: Yay! Winners! Here’s the list of the lucky 13 people whose names were drawn:
The design entries keep coming in…
Celebrate spring abundance with Easter bunnies + eggs
From the fertile imaginations of our designers, a springtime pairing: SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS pear-shaped crystal pearls with
TierraCast® rabbits make perfect eggs ‘n’ bunnies for Easter jewelry. (See the design ideas below!) Plus, we have a basketful of other Easter jewelry parts!
 Swarovski “pear” pearls (Easter eggs!)& TierraCast® bunny rabbits |
Easter jewelry ideas: |
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 “Bunny Foo Foo” necklace |
 “Easter Egg” earrings |
 “Easter Egg” charm bracelet |
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Happy hopping…er…shopping! 🙂
Did you catch the bottle-cap jewelry we recently featured? (It’s cute!) It shows off three techniques–packing tape, glass tiles, and epoxy stickers.
Here’s another take: using resin in bottle caps. Over to designer Rita…
CROWNED bracelet
What you need for the “Crowned” bracelet:
Qty. Stock # Name
3 each #55-075-17-43 Bottle cap, 17mm (chrome)
3 each #55-075-32-43 Bottle cap, 32mm (chrome)
3 each #83-220-25-02 1″ round epoxy stickers, Nostalgic 2
1 each #40-337-9 Bracelet blank, 7.2″, disk and loop, hammered oval (black gunmetal)
Tools and supplies:
3 buttons (artist’s stash)
Magic-Glos UV resin (#82-501-01)
UV Light (#82-593)
Epoxy 330 (#60-230)
Hints:
* Seal buttons inside mini bottle caps first.
* Glue bottle caps to bracelet blank.
* Then apply epoxy stickers.
MILKY WAY cufflinks
To make the “Milky Way” cuff links:
Qty. Stock # Name
2 each #55-075-17-43 Bottle cap, 17mm (chrome)
2 each # Cuff link, 10mm pad (white)
Tools and supplies:
Images from scrapbooking paper
Scissors
Clear packing tape
Hypo cement (#60-250)
Magic-Glos UV resin (#82-501-01)
UV light (#82-593)
Epoxy 330 (#60-230)
Hints:
* Cut image to size.
* Seal with packing tape and cut out.
* Adhere to bottle cap with hypo cement.
* Apply UV resin.
* Attach cufflink findings with epoxy.
HOW MANY STARS clip
Materials Rita suggests for the “How Many Stars” clip:
Qty. Stock # Name
1 #46-881-266-3 Amate Studiosâ„¢ 26mm bottle cap bezel pendant, silver plate
2 #28-333-89 lampwork glass chili pepper beads, red
12″ #47-036 22-gauge round wire, silver plate (cut two 6″ pieces)
2 #37-167-3 8mm round jump rings, silver plate
1 #30-620-50-3 31x15mm oval swivel clip, silver plate
1 #82-500-08 8oz EasyCast epoxy resin kit
Tools and supplies:
scissors
colored craft paper
Mod Podge®
paintbrush
resin mixing set (#82-599)
antacid tablet (!)
flat-nose pliers (#65-080)
Hints:
* Seal the front and back of paper with Mod Podge to prevent the color from bleeding. Glue this to the bottom of the bezel cup to prevent it from floating.
* Coat the antacid tablet with Mod Podge to prevent it from dissolving in the resin.
3 Bonus Tips!
Tip 1: For additional details about techniques used in these designs, see the technique sheet: Gluing Hints for Metal Findings
Tip 2: View free jewelry-making technique sheets (PDF files) for scads of designs like these!
(You’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can download it free here.)
Tip 3: …Secret…a whole nother kind of bottle-cap jewelry is coming soon to Ring s & Things’ online store…
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Update:
See current Sales and Clearance items
— no codes required!
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.
.
.
5-Day Sale! |
| Thru Sunday, March 13, 2011: Celebrate the beauty of Mother Nature with 10-20% off laser-cut wooden charms, sale natural-material beads and sturdy hemp twine! 5 days only! |
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15% Off: Laser-Cut Wood Charms Use light-weight laser-cut wooden components as is, or finish them with stain or paint. These finely-detailed embellishments offer great versatility. Choose from steampunk gears, delicate flowers & over 100 more shapes! (SALE1C2-15) |
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15% Off: Malas & Wooden Beads Find peace of mind with rosewood, sandalwood & rudraksha malas, plus round wood beads. Use as malas, to make beaded beads or to add texture to a wide variety of jewelry! Some sizes are perfect for making rosaries, too! (SALE1C2-15) |
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20% Off: Mother of Pearl Beads Combine the shimmering beauty of Mother Nature with the classic shapes of geometry for a look that’s pure modern! Sale mother of pearl beads come in stylish, flat and puffed shapes that pep up any design. (SALE1C2-20) |
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10% Off: Hemp Twine Get durable results with hemp twine! Choose from polished Romanian hemp in water-safe colors, organic fair-trade hemp in natural shades, and Hemptiqueâ„¢ spools colored with ecologically-friendly dyes. (SALE1C2-10) |
Click here for free projects that feature sale items! |
