...or $75, or $50...
…with Rings & Things gift certificates.
The holidays are coming.
Drop hints to your loved ones now 
Archive for the ‘About Rings & Things’ Category
$100 could be yours (to give)
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009It’s voting season. Vote for Rita!
Monday, November 9th, 2009Our colleague Rita submitted a design to the Soft Flex Trios beading contest, and it has been nominated as a possible winner.
Vote for Rita Hutchinson
It’s voting season, so why not vote for the design: “Mystical Trios: Magical Butterfly Necklace”, by Rita Hutchinson?
Thanks a GR!
(Bead-supplier talk, for “thanks a million”!)
10 tips to top designs
Thursday, October 29th, 2009You might be expecting a top-10 list of craft tips. This is a 10-in-1…
Subscribe to the “feed” from the Design Gallery. You’ll have 10 new design ideas at a time delivered to your desktop.
- Home delivery!
How? Click the orange RSS link, the iGoogle link, or the MyYahoo! link. You’ll get a constantly updated list of our 10 latest jewelry projects.
Just like that! We’ve had plenty of people say that they turn to us first when they have a new project idea. Let us return the favor with some jewelry inspirations.
Enjoy!
Rings & Things is a “Bicycle Friendly Business”
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009Thanks for the recognition!
My other car is a *real* bike!
The League of American Bicyclists recently announced 45 new Bicycle-Friendly Business (BFB) award winners, including Rings & Things. This was the third time BFB winners have been announced since the program’s inception in 2008, when the League announced the first 13 designees; it puts us in the ranks of businesses like Rodale Publishing, REI stores, and the World Bank.
BFB businesses make bicycle-friendliness a core element in the workplace, and use innovative tools to promote bicycling as an easy and fun option for transportation and recreation.
The BFB program recognizes socially responsible businesses that promote healthy, happy, and green workplaces, and provides a road map to become even more bike-friendly in the years to come.
BFB winners provide amenities such as secure bike parking and shower facilities, and motivations such as incentives to commute by bike and bike to Work Week promotions. When bicycling is infused in a company’s culture, great things happen: reduced health care costs; more productive employees; improved worker and customer satisfaction; smaller carbon footprint; and increased corporate social responsibility. It’s also fun to bike
Applying as a BFB is easy and free. Applicants receive technical assistance from the League staff as well as tools to evaluate and assess their bicycle friendliness through the application process. Rings & Things encourages other businesses to make a difference by supporting employee bicycling.
What are all those stacked-up beads?
Monday, October 19th, 2009Something you might see at Rings & Things bead shows…
Stacks of bead “shopping trays” spontaneously appear at our shows. (These are action photos taken by cell phone…)
Mysterious bead stacks...
Been to our bead shows? Know what these are all about?
...made by aliens?
If you have a theory, we’d be interested to hear it…leave a comment!
Featured beads: Swarovski “by color”
Friday, October 16th, 2009In which we yank the shroud aside…
Introducing “Search by Color” for crystal beads in our CRYSTALLIZED™ -
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…)
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…
Happy alabaster anniverary, Rings & Things
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009I found a website that says your 37th is your alabaster anniversary…
Happy anniversary to Rings & Things! We celebrated our 37th “birthday” this last weekend. It was a big, fun bash. I wanted to share a couple quick photos!
A Wubbers & wire (wrapping) demo with the EuroTool ladies
Visitors took in lots of demos: wire-wrapping, SoftFlex stringing with Sara, and metal-stamping “make & takes”.
Finding fun Czech beads was as easy as shooting fish in a barrel...
We had absolutely piles of great new beads that you haven’t seen in our catalog!
Dyed composite magnesite beads were an attention-getter!
For another fun perspective on Rings & Things’ big event, read SoftFlexGirl Sara’s blog…and mark your calendar for 2010 for our tourmaline anniversary. (I think we can provide some special anniversary beads for that one!)
…Got a jones to check our shows? If you live near Rochester, Boston, New Haven, northern New Jersey or Philadelphia, put in your name to be our Guest Bead Helper the last week of September!
Love our bead shows? Win a ‘Guest Bead Helper’ job!
Monday, August 10th, 2009If you live in the Northeast USA and can attend one of our late September bead shows, you could be a winner!
We’re scouting for our first-ever Guest Bead Helper! You could be an honorary BeadTour bead-show worker, with all the fame and glory that come with that honor.
Who set that table so nicely?
For our first foray into roadie recruiting, we’re looking for someone who can say “Yes” to all of these questions:
- Can you leave a comment below, to enter?
- Can you attend one of these bead shows?
- Rochester on Sept. 24
- Boston on Sept. 26
- New Haven on Sept. 27
- East Hanover NJ on Sept. 29
- Philadelphia on Sept. 30
- Can you “set tables” with trays of beads?
- Will you let us buy you lunch and give you a goodie tote?
Other perks of the “job” include meeting our friendly crew and getting a behind-the-scenes look at how bead shows are put together — not to mention getting to start bead shopping before we open the doors to the public!
PS: It’s a bonus if you’re an active Facebook-er, Twitter-er or blogger. We’d love it if you talked online about your roadie experience!
We’ll announce our winner on Wednesday, September 16th. Good luck to everyone who enters the drawing!
So enter by leaving a note below…mention which city you’d like to help us in!
R&T follows the Yellow Brick Road
Friday, August 7th, 2009Also known as Garland Street (in Spokane)!
Two Rings & Things artisans are featured in an art show celebrating the 70th anniversary of “The Wizard of Oz”. Appropriately held at the stalwart Tinman Gallery in Spokane, this OzVitational exhibit showcases artists’ unique takes on the legacy of Dorothy and friends.
Sondra Barrington, our Sales manager by day, mixed found objects with quality vintage-feel findings for a steampunk bracelet titled “Flying Monkeys”. Like a wearable video clip (from the scariest part of the film!), this piece sports stills from the classic movie transferred onto copper stamping blanks.
When monkeys fly out of film onto charms!
Some R&T stock used in the bracelet:
- 37-189-9 gunmetal jump ring
- 40-377-9 gunmetal disk & loop
- 44-780-07 rectangle copper stamping blank
- 44-780-21 round copper stamping blank
- 37-145-00 assorted jump rings
- 86-910 image transfer solution (a really amazing product!)
- 86-343 Win-Ox
- 46-700-11 copper wire
- 37-422-7 copper head pins
- 49-993-06-AS zig zag edge beads *
- 69-299 metal stamping kit
…and some Tim Holtz Idea-Ology items, plus a “cash & carry” strand of smoky quartz nuggets as sold at Rings & Things road shows and in our showroom.
Kurt (Metalman) Madison is our Art Clay Silver certified expert. He and partner Margot Casstevens created a collaborative print/sculpture/jewelry piece that the Inlander newspaper called
“one-of-a-kind pendants — ruby slippers, a yellow brick road, the heart so sought after by Tinman himself — hang[ing] from inside their gray weathered box. A knothole in the wood becomes the “O” for Oz and the wood itself is said to be from Dorothy’s Kansas farmhouse…if you let yourself drift to where childlike wonder lives, you can almost believe.”
The exterior of Kurt & Margot's "OZ BOX"
Many other gifted artists are in the show, too. So if you’re in Spokane any time this month, head to the Garland District for a visual treat!
Setting a record?
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009Over the last week, Rings & Things has uploaded a kazillion new entries to our free Design Gallery. I think we set a record, and I want to share some highlights…
Great Southwestern-influenced earrings to introduce you to a really handy jewelry finding, the bead bar…
Our bead bars show off pretty amazonite beads...
Seasonally appropriate shark charms & rad surfboard pendants make this one a perfect guy / beachwear item… (update on August 13: I’m wearing this one to Rings & Things’ anniversary sale this weekend, so come see it in person):
A midsummer day's inspiration! The Shark Week necklace.
Here’s another finding we sell that will find an appreciative audience this time of year…
A fun, customized bottle opener for your thirsty customers! (Read the lettering)
So get yourself to the shade of a beach umbrella in a place that has wi-fi, pour some iced tea, and browse the dozens of fun new designs in our Gallery! Did I mention we’ve added several whole new design categories? Resin designs, beadables (great gift ideas), metal stamping, causes & awareness, and more…
Have a fun summery design idea? Share it in a quick note below!