Archive for the ‘Our website’ Category
Friday, October 16th, 2009
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…
Tags: crystal bead colors, crystal beads, crystal colors, CRYSTALLIZED - Swarovski Elements, search by color, search crystals by color, swarovski bead colors, Swarovski beads, swarovski colors
Posted in About Rings & Things, Featured Bead, Our website, Rings & Things products, beads | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Over 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!
DON’T MISS OUR June-July giveaway:
* in our online store, find a fave product & review it there, then…
* …leave a comment about it at the contest article in our blog
* On August 3, five winners will receive coveted Rings & Things gift certificates!
* Enter often & see if you win!
Tags: amazonite & bead bar, awareness jewelry designs, beach jewelry designs, beadable designs, beadables, beer bottle opener, bottle opener designs, cause jewelry designs, design gallery, earring designs, free jewelry designs, guys' jewelry designs, jewelry designs, men's jewelry designs, metal stamping designs, necklace designs, resin designs, resin jewelry designs, shark week necklace
Posted in About Rings & Things, Our website | 4 Comments »
Friday, June 19th, 2009
We’d like to send you into the weekend with some fun reading material!
Our "Facebook" earrings. Epoxy resin tips can help you make these & more!
Rings & Things has added a page of tips for epoxy resin!
Now the basics are at your fingertips, so bookmark that page. Learn how to:
- Prevent image “bleed”
- Stop “floating” images
- Keep resin projects from sticking to your work surface
And much more, all in a handy single .PDF sheet. (Perfect for printing out and tacking up in your workshop!)
PS — Soon, you can look for a new Resin projects area in our Design Gallery!
Do you have a helpful resin hint that you’ve learned the hard way? You can share it here, by leaving a comment!
Tags: epoxy resin hints, epoxy resin instructions, epoxy resin tips, resin hints, resin instructions, resin tips
Posted in Our website, Trendspotting | 5 Comments »
Monday, June 8th, 2009
You asked, we listened: A feature that you’ve been asking for is to have a Gift Registry for your personal wish list of Rings & Things products…
You'll be charmed by our gift registry!
An improved gift registry: This feature provides a great way to let your friends and family know what you want for Christmas, birthdays and other special events. (Just make sure they know about our $25 minimum order, and $4 small-order fee for orders between $25
& $50).
The gift registry feature is not just for requesting gifts, though! Bead societies can use it to create project parts lists,
businesses can use it to share upcoming order info between employees, and anyone can use it like a wish list of things to buy
in the future. In fact, the gift registry has an advantage over the wish list feature of our store, in that it allows you to save desired quantities!
Here’s how you set up your own Gift Registry:
Now just fill in some blanks:
- Specify the Event Type — the “occasion” for people to buy you R&T items. (Birthday? Wedding?)
- Give it a name. (”Dave’s 29th birthday”?)
- And a date. (You don’t mind folks knowing when your birthday is, do you?)
- Specify what kind of shipping address the items should go to. (”My address” goes right to you; “Customer’s address” goes to your generous friend.)
- :Look at the other few options that display, and check any that matter to you. Now click Continue.
From here, it’s easy to shop for products to add to your Gift Registry. You know which ones you’ve had your eye on!
Have you thought of other features you wish were in our online store? Suggest them here in a comment!
Tags: gift registry, online store
Posted in About Rings & Things, Our website | 1 Comment »
Friday, March 20th, 2009
Are you a member of a bead society yet? (Or a polymer-clay or metal-clay guild, or another craft group?) Rings & Things always encourages you to share knowledge and fun with like-minded souls in your area…
"We're here to help you": join a bead society & meet some new faces!
There are lots of reasons to join a local group of beaders or other craft/jewelry artists.
- Socializing with people who have similar interests
- Learning new techniques & tricks that’ll help you “grow your business”
- Donating your skills for a cause: editing a newsletter, scheduling workshops and field trips, organizing charitable fundraisers or educational workshops in local schools…
- Membership is usually very inexpensive or free!
…but the simplest reason to join is for FUN! ☻☺
Do you realize how incredibly many of these groups exist? Check these constantly-updated resources to find a group near you:
There seems to be quite an upswing of interest in forming local groups lately. If you don’t find a group near you, will you be the founder of a new one?
Rings & Things wants to hear from YOU about any more bead societies and art guilds that haven’t made it onto our lists yet. Leave us a comment here with information!
By the way, Rings & Things doesn’t track the meeting times & places of all of these groups. (We’ve found that these may change.) But you can announce your bead society’s latest meetup schedule right here — so just leave a comment below to plug your group.
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!
Tags: bead societies, bead society list, craft business tips, craft guilds, metal clay guild list, metal clay guilds, polymer clay guild list, polymer clay guilds
Posted in Fun, Grow your business, Our website | 2 Comments »
Thursday, March 5th, 2009
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:
Every design is illustrated by a great big beautiful picture of the finished piece. The Design Contest Winners come with the artist’s statement. All the others are accompanied by 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 for making each design. The PDFs come in two flavors, faster-loading or higher-resolution. Hard to choose, right?
Subscribe to our Design Gallery RSS / Google Desktop / My Yahoo feed to keep updated! Whenever we upload a new design, we’ll send a blip right to your desktop or browser window, whichever you choose.
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 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!
Tags: art clay silver designs, bracelet designs, design contest, design gallery, earring designs, free jewelry designs, free jewelry projects, glue-on jewelry designs, holiday jewelry designs, ID badge designs, jewelry contest, jewelry designs, jewelry projects, metal stamping, necklace designs, rings & things catalog, watch designs, Your Designs Rock
Posted in About Rings & Things, Our website, designing | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
Now you can afford to make jewelry with that coveted turquoise look!
You’re probably aware that gemstones are a non-renewable resource (we’ll take up that idea later this week). Turquoise is one of the most desired gemstones, so it’s been getting “mined out” over the last several years — leading to steep price increases.
What’s a blue-and-green-loving designer to do? Substitute Turquoise Magnesite beads, now in 32 new styles at Rings & Things!
As always, we work to label our gemstone beads as honestly and clearly as possible. (We’ve gone so far as to create a very popular Gemstone Beads Index that gives as much background information as possible on these stones.) So let us stress that these beads are made, not of turquoise, but of magnesite enhanced with dyes in the appropriate colors. With their surface “crazing” of black or brown lines, Turquoise Magnesite beads often resemble the real thing so closely that it takes an expert to tell which is which.
Our new Turquoise Magnesite beads include classic turquoise shapes. There are cushiony-looking puffed ovals:
Puffed oval Turquoise Magnesite beads
And glittering faceted rounds:
Faceted round beads of Turquoise Magnesite
As well as wheel-like rondelles:
Rondelle beads of Turquoise Magnesite
And smooth oval nuggets:
Smooth oval nugget beads of Turquoise Magnesite
These are just a sampling. Grab a cup of tea and look through all of the Turquoise Magnesite beads in our online store!
Tags: beads, chalk turquoise, gemstone beads index, magnesite, magnesite beads, turquoise magnesite, turquoise substitutes
Posted in New products, Our website | No Comments »
Friday, October 24th, 2008
(With apologies to Stephen Colbert, LOL.)
If you have ever bought stuff from Rings & Things — I want you to do this to become Internet-famous:
You can rate every product we sell:
- From 1 to 5 stars
- With a title that shows your true feelings
- Share details about how you like to use the product
We show your review as you intended it–whether it’s one star or five.
Here’s a quick example of a review as it displays in our online store:
| “A very nice pendant”Jenny Schumaker on Monday, July 07, 2008 6:25:55 PM |
| Comments: I bought this and I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do with it, but decided to use copper metal and findings and make it into a pendulum. It’s a nice size and very earthy. I would buy it againin fact I might need to if this piece sells! |
| Rating: |
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Your name will be all over the internet, showing what a jewelry expert you are. So send your fellow bead-shop-a-holics in the right direction. Review stuff now!
Tags: product reviews
Posted in Our website | No Comments »
