A post for fun today:
Find your “beady name”. (Thanks to the Beadwright blog.)
Enjoy!
–Delica “Del” Turquoise
What’s your beady name? Are we related? Tell all by leaving a comment!
More uses for choker forms
March 17, 2009In the spirit of multipurposing that our “grow your business” project often mentions, we’d like to report on some great uses people have recently invented for Rings & Things’ chokers.
We’ve been seeing some brilliant applications of wire-wrapping to our choker forms. A number of ideas involve wrapping part or all of the form itself. This turquoisey design is from Tish:
Another take by Tish on the wrapped-choker idea:
Dawno combined an inspiration from abstract artist Piet Mondrian with choker wrapping:
Melanie at Earthenwood Studios found our choker blank provided a good structure to express her ongoing steampunk inspiration:
At her “A Bead A Day” blog, Lisa wrapped the entire choker form and added a pendant and coordinating bead accents:
In a similar vein, Tish went for a softer feel, designing a loosely ribbon-wrapped choker:
(Tish provides a full, excellent tutorial on making this one!)
How about wrapping wire on some other element of your design? Dawno beaded the choker form itself, but wrapped the great dangles in this design:
And Lisa made a stunning wire-wrapped focal piece in this choker design:
Another wire-wrapping idea for a focal is this stunning bit of sculpture by Dawno:
Somewhat more minimal wire work is involved in the hammered tendrils dangling from this “Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright” choker by Margot Potter, a.k.a. The Impatient Crafter:
What’s your inpiration for using choker forms? Share a comment–or even a picture!
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!
5 things you didn't know about our bead shows
March 13, 2009In honor of our “on the road” season, starting today in Houston and going till some time in November…
Russ the Bead, perched high atop the Rings & Things bead truck
5 things you didn’t know about Rings & Things’ BeadTour:
- “Our trunk shows grew out of doing a hotel room show nearby a trade show. In that case it was an order-only glass or ceramic craft show. We couldn’t sell any stock and had lots of one of a kind strands that sold best at delivery shows. We had a booth at the show and invited our customers to walk a block to the hotel and see our delivery goods there. It worked. [General manager] Kim said “Ah HAH!” and the R&T trunk shows were born.” — our owner Russ
- Our crew packed up one show & immediately left town to avoid AM rush hour next day in another city. But busy small-town streets ate up their head start… Then, at our hotel, no one could find any of the boxes of stock that we’d had shipped to us. We spent an hour and a half tracking the shipment, watching video surveillance tapes and finally, finding them in the restaurant storage. One box (of 16 boxes) was marked “Plated Chain” so the hotel had put it all with Plates and China in the kitchen!! Our general manager Kim was disappointed that our crew’s lunch was not served on “plated chain.”
(We maintain a whole web page of more funny things that’ve happened at our shows!) - We’ve done about 600 shows in dozens of cities in 36 states, selling [secret number deleted 🙂 ] tons of beads every year.
- Our bead shows are a great way to personally meet a bunch of the Rings & Things people you deal with by phone, email, and Internet. So you can come say hi and pick our brains about nearly any subject!
- If you really really look, you might see Russ the Bead (above) at our shows!
Have a favorite “R&T” bead show story? Any questions about our shows? Comment below…and be automatically entered in our drawing!
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!
Argentium™ is excellentium!
March 12, 2009
Argentium™ sterling silver makes great, tarnish-resistant jewelry components!
Rings & Things was one of the first places to have findings made in Argentium™. We have a good selection and a lot of information about this product. (Thank you to those who’ve complimented us for this!) Here’s a bit about why Argentium is so great for your jewelry:
What is it? Argentium is sterling silver with a small amount of germanium used in the alloy. This unprecedented, patented material is redefining the jewelry industry. Argentium sterling silver has dramatically better tarnish resistance than standard sterling silver and is much more durable. While it still contains the 92.5% fine silver legally required for sterling, Argentium replaces about 1% of the normal copper content in sterling with germanium, significantly altering the alloy’s properties.
Why is it so great? Argentium is:
- Tarnish resistant: A light dusting or occasional wipe with a soft cloth is all you need to keep its shine. The resistance actually increases over time (the germanium atoms migrate to the surface, which allows the protective germanium oxide layer to regenerate).
- Resistant to dents, scratches and abrasion.
- Better for the environment because it doesn’t develop firescale (a reddish patina) when heated, which eliminates processes that use hazardous materials needed to strip firescale from standard sterling materials.
- Laser weldable, opening new design possibilities.
- Can be hardened (through thermal conditioning) to be almost twice as tough as standard sterling.
Also, both sterling silver and Argentium sterling silver should be equally unlikely to bother the ears of most people.
What Argentium findings can you get? Rings & Things makes many Argentium findings:
We also carry Argentium wire.
Check out our great selection of jewelry parts in this neat new alloy. We think you’ll love it! Enjoy browsing our free Design Gallery for all kinds of jewelry designs using Argentium, like this “Pearls of Wisdom” necklace:
Do you have a favorite Argentium component? Looking for more? Drop a note below!
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!
Pearls Before Swine
March 10, 2009
Dave,
Of course I want to say “ham, bacon, sausage, ham hock….” But, instead I used the following R&T’s parts for the “Pearls before Swine” Necklace (this is from memory since Val has the necklace):
Qty Stock Description
1 Found Item Plastic pink pig (couple inches long?) (sub other plastic critters at will)
2 #44-150-7 Filigree, Harvest, AC
16″ #40-099-08-7 Chain, Ftage, Curb, 2.8mm, AC
9 #37-136-7 Jump Ring, Round, Medium, AC
1 #37-422-7 Head Pin, 2″, Standard, AC
3 #37-722-7 Eye Pin, 2″, Standard, AC
1 #39-343-7 Clasp, Lobster, 12mm, Brass, AC
4 #05-810-08-201 Crystal, Bead, Round, Pearl, LtCrmRose
Happy blogging!
Mollie
PS: This is Sondra’s pig–I pignapped him for the necklace; just a little jewelry surprise for her–she has no idea he is even gone.
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!
Looking ahead to April birthstones
March 10, 2009Regular readers will know that I try to write about each upcoming month’s birthstones. For April, it’s more of a challenge to match the birthstones with Rings & Things stock. Which is great, because I love having gantlets thrown down in front of me. 🙂
I want to dig right in with Diamond. We don’t sell many diamonds here, if you mean that carbon-based life form that telepathically makes people act weird. What we have (at the moment I’m writing) are “cash & carry” fancy strands of rough diamond beads, at our bead shows only. (Which start this Friday, March 13th!) Here’s a peek at them:
But for a great diamond-y look, spend a moment checking out clear Swarovski crystal beads! 
They’re faceted, and they’re as brilliant as many gems are. Clear rock crystal quartz beads 
can be mighty nice-looking, too…And don’t forget the countless diamond-shaped gemstone beads you can find through our store’s “Search by Shape” feature!
Sapphire is another April birthstone. It’s also a little “precious” for us, since we specialize in semiprecious gemstones. But again, great color matches are on hand. Try 
sapphire crystals and 
sapphire glass beads.
Carnelian is the third traditional birthstone of March. Browse our selection to see all the great shapes of beads made of this stone in our store. (Pictured above: 12mm faceted rondelles.)
To match any of these stones, you can always come to Rings & Things’ “BeadTour” shows near you! The new season starts this Friday, March 13, with our Houston show…We specialize in great-priced gemstone beads at our road shows, so it should be well worth your while.
Have more birthstone substitutes to suggest? Talk about them by leaving a comment!
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!
Mix it up with… new assortments from R&T!
March 6, 2009Some bead companies have “assortability”. Rings & Things saves you a step: introducing “assorted”. 🙂
A whole bunch of pre-made assortments from Rings & Things let you explore variations on a favorite finding. Need I mention, you’ll save a bunch of money this way too, because you won’t have to buy “one pack” of this and “one pack” of that.
Complimenting a long tradition of offering assorted beads, drawstring bags, and more…we’ve created assortments of the items pictured above:
- Filigree (all sizes of: brass; white)
- Jump rings (round) (all colors of: large / medium) (all sizes of: white / yellow / silver plate / copper plate / gunmetal)
(also — oval jump rings — all sizes of: silver plate) - Lobster clasps (all colors of: largest / large / medium / small) (all sizes of: white / gold plate / antiqued pewter plate / antiqued bronze / antiqued copper / copper plate / gunmetal)
Plus we’ve introduced assortments of our big-selling cable chokers:
And there’s this great new assortment of cell-phone lariat attachments!
So mix it up in your designs, with Rings & Things’ hot new economical assortments! More are on the way, so check our online store often.
Wishing for other assortments? Drop a comment right here & I’ll pass it on to our ace purchasing team!
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!
Our Design Gallery expands
March 5, 2009[ ~ 2018 Update: We’ve upgraded our design gallery (again!), and expanded some of the sections – so links below are updated. Also, we no longer produce a printed catalog; we’re just online (plus we have a Showroom in Spokane, Washington — it’s open to the public, so come visit us if you’re in Eastern Washington state!) ~ ]
You’ve received our new 2009-2010 catalog, haven’t you? We’re very happy with it. One reason is all the fun jewelry designs it features. Now…
Rings & Things has uploaded dozens and dozens of these new entries to our Design Gallery! (Finally done. I see the light at the end of the carpal tunnel.) ☻☺ At last count we had something like 668 designs up. We group this free inspirational material into some useful categories:
- Earrings
- Necklaces
- Wrist Wear (bracelets)
- Baubles and More, including ID badges, metal stamping, glue-on designs, and many more ideas
- Holiday Jewelry Design Ideas – now divided into:
Every design is illustrated by a great big beautiful picture of the finished piece and a parts list, complete with links to our online store if you’re going to buy the components.
You’ll also find links to free downloadable PDFs with full instructions to extra steps for making each design. (For example, we don’t re-write how to properly open and close jump rings, or make good head pin loops in each tutorial — we have a link to a PDF of jewelry basics. And for how to torch-enamel jewelry, we link back to our blog article where this is lots of room for good photos.)
Have a favorite Design Gallery item? Ever been inspired by one of our designs? Saw your contest entry on our site? Leave a comment to talk about it!!
March 2009 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!
We have 2 winners: our first monthly blog drawing
March 4, 2009We 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!
Brand your jewelry: custom metal tags
March 3, 2009Rena Klingenberg mentioned a great idea in her “Jewelry Business Blog” (link removed 2019 because the original site no longer exists and now goes somewhere bad). Here’s a pretty artistic way to grow your business:
There’s more than one way to use metal stamping!
Brand your jewelry! Now, Rings & Things is in the western USA. But I’m no iron-brandishing cowboy. I’m talking about a kinder, gentler way of making a lasting impression on your customers.
Mark your jewelry with small custom metal tags. They’re durable, they show that you care about the quality of the items you make, and they can coordinate with your designs.
- There are companies who will sell you pre-made tags in the shape you like: hearts, ovals, diamonds and more.
By shopping around, you can find these in sterling, gold fill, copper or other metals. - Just add your business name or logo to the tag — you can also get a metal stamp (die) custom-made with your design.
- You can personalize the tags even more. How about enameling the stamped design? Or a quick bit of antiquing solution?
If you get tags in some quantity, you should be able to do all this for several cents to a dollar per tag. But there’s a way to lower the cost even more! Consider using metal-stamping tools, for a very quick and simple “logo”. Why not overlap stamped letters on each other for a monogram (or cattle-brand) look? And most metal stamp sets include one more more dies for symbols like &, @, or ?… With a bit of your creativity, you’ll have a memorable logo in no time at all. (Just think how recognizable the Calvin Klein “cK” logo is.)
Attach your snazzy metal tag to each jewelry item with a matching jump ring. You’ll be amazed how sharp and professional the results can look!
A side benefit: metal stamping jewelry keeps growing in popularity. You can use the same tools to create focal pendants and more…
Have you discovered other useful ways to “brand” your line of jewelry? Share them in a comment!