A.k.a. “Shellies”…
...maximize the shine per penny...
…with shell pearls…
...perfectly round every time!
I’ve challenged myself – - write 5 great things about shell pearls – - in 25 words or less 
Does my nerdy enthusiasm for shell pearls shine through? I hope so! Get ‘em in lots of colors & sizes from…well, you know where
This week’s featured beads, just in time for the holiday season, are crystal snowflakes.
Bright stuff coming down!
These crystal pendants are the classic Swarovski #6704 style, perennially popular for the way they gently glisten.
Make your list now, and check it twice! You have enough time to stock up some great styles for Christmas and Hanukkah shoppers.
Like real snowflakes, these come in many forms. Sizes are 20mm, 25mm, 30mm and 35mm — in other words, from nearly an inch to an inch-and-a-half. Choose from “pure” crystal, crystal AB (aurora borealis coating), and crystal/moonlight (also coated).
Crystal snowflakes fit for a princess
PS: You can also get new snowflake beads in raku, as well as other styles. Merry browsing!
Rings & Things has added a bunch of Christmas lampwork beads this year…so that’s the featured bead this week.
For jolly happy souls!
Add goofy grins to the festivities with the snowman-head beads above — or with the fun snowmen, Xmas trees and Santa beads below!
Making spirits bright...and helping mittened fingers zip jackets!
(There’s also a really fun bubble wand in our Design Gallery, featuring these same three beads.)
Besides these designs, check out such festive baubles as lampwork Christmas stockings…
Stocking stuff!
…and many more!
Have holiday plans involing beads? Share the inspiration here!
In 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…
Get to know a multi-faceted, many-faced bead!
The telling of the beads
Reddish-brown rudraksha or rudraksh beads are the seed of the fruit of the rudraksha tree, from India. (This tree, genus Elaeocarpus, also grows in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, New Guinea, some Pacific Islands and Australia.)
Numbers are often mentioned in connection with these beads. Rudraksha beads commonly have 5 mukhs or mukhis (faces of the bead), but you’ll find various numbers of faces on them. There are 108 beads per strand traditionally in a Hindu mala or prayer garland. Malas are used like rosaries in meditative prayer, as well as in traditional Indian medicine.
Go ahead, stare 'em in the face
Rudraksha beads show a great deal of versatility. Because they’re a natural material, they work extremely well with your more organic designs. Because they’re exotic here in North America, they lend a funky, ethnic flair to jewelry. And because of their texture, rudrakshas can pair up in interesting ways with the more unusual beads, like lava, wood or nut beads.
Ever handled rudraksh beads? How would you describe them in 25 words or less? Leave a comment!
What’s true of clothing is true of beads: basic black never goes out of style.
With jewelry making, “basic” means black glass beads. I want to show you 5 reasons why everyone loves black beads…
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Roll with these!
#1: roller beads
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Cry fire in a crowded jewelry shop, so you can buy up all of these
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Not a UFO, but doubles as a neato spacer
#3: disk beads
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The basic-est of the basics
#4: rounds
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Beadie babies?
#5: E beads
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You know we have scads more black beads. I challenge you to take 10 minutes to search our site for “black beads”, come back here, and post a comment on your favorite new find!
“Hollow” means a lot of different things when you talk about beads and findings. Let’s look at hollow sterling beads…
Hollow sterling silver beads all have one thing in common — they’re light in weight and they’re more affordable than solid silver beads.
Hollow...
...toroidal...
...concave
If you really think about it, “hollow” could mean even more things…how about those deeply pockmarked lava beads? Leave a comment to suggest more ideas about hollow beads!
I wrote the title of this post to purposely make you ask “What?????” Got your attention! Now read on about one of the coolest beads I know, and why it’s so…
So what is a “dash 3″? Rings & Things geeks like me use that name for anything silver-plated. And I wanted to talk for a minute about the basic, but not plain, silver-plated round bead.
What are the great points of round silver-plated beads? Off the top of my head, here are 5:
Silver-plated bead wonderfulness #1
2nd: silver-plated bead supremacy
3rd silver-plated bead thing
4th silver-plated bead feature
), this is one of the easiest ‘colors’ to work into all of your designs.
5th 'dash-3' fabness
Dash-3’s have lots more going for them. Do you have a testimonial for silver-plated beads? Write it in a comment below!
The humble but endlessly useful spacer bead comes into the spotlight this time…
4mm flower spacer beads
What would you do without these? Spacer beads are the unsung heroes of jewelry making. While other beads are the focus of attention and the center of your designs, spacers hold them in place. Spacers help make your beads and your stringing material match up in length. Flower spacers, like these, pretty up the corners just enough to maintain a certain visual feel throughout the jewelry piece.
In the understated spirit of flower spacers, I’m showing you just two examples, both in demure multi-purpose antiqued silver finish. Both are Bali-style spacers, made by the reliable TierraCast company, with holes large enough to work with most cords.
6mm flower spacers
Whatever color of metal they are, whatever size they are, and whatever pattern adorns them, we salute the flower spacers of the world! Stock up on a good selection and you’l be able to make any design inspiration come to life.
Have a favorite spacer, or a personal tip for using them? Leave a comment!
Bezel cups -- findings for resin jewelry making!
Rings & Things is introducing cool new bezel cups in its line of wholesale findings. You’ll have a lot of fun using these to make resin jewelry that expresses your creative personality!
They’re made of solid raw brass, and basically look like teeny tiny saucepans (1/8″ deep) — only they have a loop or two loops, instead of a handle. You just pour resin or epoxy right into them.
Turn one-loop bezel cups into nifty custom pendants; make the two-loopers into connectors. Both styles come in either round or oval shape, and either of two sizes. (Broadly speaking, they’re in the neighborhood of an inch.)
Down in the lab, Rings & Things has discovered quite a few fun things that “resinate” nicely into EasyCast or other resin, in bezel cups. We’ve implanted tiny toys, glitter, candy sprinkles, and little cutouts from photos or other images. (For these, cut out right-sized images using our free template.)
We’re bringing in a full range of great epoxy resin supplies, like Castin’Craft items, to go along with these bezel cups. You can rig out your resin workspace with molding equipment, a resin how-to book, pigments, mixing supplies, and more.
You can also capitalize on Rings & Things’ line of TierraCast® frame charms and square-cup rings to explore even more resin-casting possibilities. Additional resources include our free .PDF “Tips for Epoxy Resin” sheet and the growing roster of resin jewelry in the Design Gallery.
Have a great resin jewelry-making tip? Share, share! Leave a comment below…