Archive for November, 2010

When bead shows are…different

Saturday, November 6th, 2010

Sometimes, bead shows can surprise you.  Sometimes, they even surprise us

After one long day of driving, running a bead-show, and more driving, our crew decided to just have dinner at the hotel.  But when they went to the restaurant, they weren’t able to have dinner there — Because the tables had been taken down to set up for our show!  Yep… our setup was in the usual bar / restaurant of the hotel.  The checkout stations were set up around the bar, 2 per side, with cabinets of liquor behind them and coolers full of beer between them.  Unfortunately(?), the cabinets and coolers were all locked.  Hard to say how much some customers would spend otherwise…

Bead show in the bar

This one was the first bead show we’d ever seen with bench seating:

Bench seating at the bead show

One hotel in California where we did a show charged a small fee for parking.  Some customers commented on that…but most of them were used to paying for parking.  According to at least one customer, “The only place you can park for free in LA is the freeway!”

Thanks to everyone for the bead-show memories!  We’ll be back “on the road” starting in early spring!

Chinese turquoise

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Chinese turquoise:

This is a gemstone bead that ranges over a swath of spectrum from blue through green (“grue”, anyone?)…  When you find beads called Chinese turquoise, you can figure they’re genuine turquoise, usually stabilized.  The stabilization of Chinese turquoise beads is often done in any of a variety of ways:

  • wax treatment (formerly more common)
  • resin stabilization (now more usual)
  • and/or dye to improve the naturally soft stone’s wearability

Most of Rings & Things’ Chinese turquoise beads come from the province of Hubei, China, but we also have Ma’anshan turquoise from the province of Anhui (which more closely resembles the well-known blue turquoise from mines in the US Southwest.

Chinese turquoise "Nested" necklace

Did you know?  The free Design Gallery at Rings & Things is a good resource for Chinese turquoise jewelry inspirations.  Just plug those two words into the Search box…and you’ll find necklaces, pendants, and many more designs!

Chinese turquoise used in the "Secret Garden" necklace design

Tip: Some of Rings & Things’ Chinese turquoise beads don’t carry our standard gemstone stock numbers.  Some have stock numbers beginning with 20-4 (not our usual 21-x numbers).  These are usually less regular in size and appearance, so if you need an exact size, please let us know so when you order.  We’ll make an extra effort to match your needs!