Posts Tagged ‘Dawno’

Big contest, lots of winners!

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

Announcing the lucky winners of our ‘Review a Product’ contest…

Pick. Buy. Review!

Pick. Buy. Review!

  • Mara Nesbitt-Aldrich
  • Maneki
  • Christy Minnis
  • Jody Blackwell
  • Dawno

Congratulations!  Each of you was randomly selected to win a $50 Rings & Things gift certificate. Just get in touch with me (Dave) on Twitter or Facebook to claim your prize.

Thanks to the dozens of you who entered, and be sure to keep reviewing items in our online store. Did you know?…according to a Nielsen poll, most people trust product reviews as the most reliable source of information about an item they’re thinking of buying online.

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Posted in contest | 7 Comments »

Thank-you Friday

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Thanks to a number of kind people who talked about Rings & Things in the last week…

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Bead Origami has already made some splendid beaded beads she shows in her blog, that use amethyst just bought at our trunk show.

In other tour-related blogging, KJ at the Silver Parrot tantalized us with a promise to show off her discoveries at our latest bead show.  AJ at Erthefae managed a mini-vacation to our BeadTour show and to the Bead Museum in Arizona…lucky!  SoftFlex Girl Sara also managed to visit us at the Phoenix show, and blogged about it.

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Heather at Humblebeads paired some Rings & Things brown lava beads with some cool, lustrous-toned beads and a striking handmade wing pendant in her Earth Angel necklace.

Heather also posted a nice-looking “Luna Flor” (Moon Flower) bracelet design at the Art Bead Scene blog.  Dawno at Dawno’s Beaded Badge Lanyards devoted one day’s post to interviewing me.  I’m humbled…  She also wrote up an informative review of Rings & Things’ black rattail cord!

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Tish over at JustATish wrote up a nice project using some of our hammered-oval gunmetal chain for a necklace and matching earrings!

Margot Potter put up a fun design of her own, the Peekaboo mixed-media necklace, at her Impatient Crafter blog.

A discussion over at Etsy about “what free gift do you include in your sent-out orders?” mentioned our candy in a positive light.  The conversation generated a huge amount of response, by the way, and is really worth reading to get your marketing gears turning.

Thanks so much to everyone who found us worth talking about this week!

May giveaway:
* You enter by leaving comments this month
* At the end of May, 2 winners will receive coveted Rings & Things goodie packs!
*So read the blog regularly, to enter a lot & to see if you won!

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Posted in As seen in | 3 Comments »

“As seen in” — thankful Friday

Friday, May 8th, 2009

We like to end the week on an up note, by thanking people who are good to us.

This week, the BeadStyle blog discussed a favorite find of emerald slices at a past Rings & Things show.

This week, the BeadStyle blog discussed a favorite find of emerald slice beads at a past Rings & Things show.

And AsetMekti was kind enough to suggest people visit our BeadTour bead shows.  Fab Fibers shared the excitement of preparing for our trunk show to come to town, and some bead finds when we showed up.  The Lampwork Art blog was nice enough to publicize our Louisville, KY show.

The Little Bead Shop showed off the awesome competition winners' creations in our 2009 "Your Designs Rock!" contest.

The Little Bead Shop showed off the awesome competition winners' creations in our 2009 "Your Designs Rock!" contest.

Meanwhile, Dawno generously steered her readers to our contests, even though the more entries, the lower her chances of winning are!

CraftGossip.com gave some handy tips on Finding Jewelry Artists Through Twitter, using us as an example.  (Okay, this was back in April, but we just became aware of it!)

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Wendy at Craft Dinner recommended stone cold stone lovers to check out our popular Gemstone Beads Index.  Another recommendation of the “Gem Index” appeared at Winged Heart Studio.

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In an excellent tutorial on how to dabble in mixed media with porcelain blanks, The Rabbit Muse kindly gave a shout-out to us as a good supplier for bails to hang them on.

In other design news, Margot Potter recommend Melanie’s (of Earthenwood Studio) designs using our lava-rock beads.

Thanks so much to all of you in the blogs and on Twitter for your nice words about Rings & Things.  We appreciate you!

May giveaway:
* You enter by leaving comments this month
* At the end of May, 2 winners will receive coveted Rings & Things goodie packs!
*So read the blog regularly, to enter a lot & to see if you won!

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Posted in As seen in | 7 Comments »

“As seen in” (or, thanks for mentioning R&T!)

Friday, May 1st, 2009

There’s a nice custom over at Twitter called #followfriday.  It’s all about recognizing people who are important to you online.  In that spirit, R&T thanks some people who wrote nice things about us in the last week.  Here’s what they talked about…

Tammy Powley discusses the hows and whys of lava beads.

Cyndi Lavin's award-winning design from the 2009 Rings & Things "Your Designs Rock!" contest

Cyndi Lavin wins a "Polly's Picks" award in the 2009 Rings & Things "Your Designs Rock!" contest.

Robyn at the Gem Shows blog included us in her go-to list.

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Meanwhile, back at Earthenwood....Melanie conjures an uplifting color scheme involving our Dark Indigo crystal beads.

Dawno has mentioned us too!  Here’s the very latest of her frequent, informative posts.

Mentioning Rings & Things or our products in your blog?  Leave a link in the comments here!  We’re glad to send you some readers.

May giveaway:
* You enter by leaving comments this month
* At the end of May, 2 winners will receive coveted Rings & Things goodie packs!
*So read the blog regularly, to enter a lot & to see if you won!

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Posted in About Rings & Things, Community | 4 Comments »

More uses for: Glueables (bracelets, pendants)

Monday, April 6th, 2009

You know Rings & Things is all about the “grow your business” tips.  One of the most inspiring kinds of tips we’ve found in the craft jewelry world are ways to multipurpose the parts you use and the designs you make.  Here’s another way of getting that extra mileage…out of bracelet blanks and frame charms/pendant blanks:

cindy_rtcolorexplosionwebInstead of gluing onto them, “paint” pretty designs on the flat pads with rubber-stamping inks.  Cindy Gimbrone shows off this great inspiration in her wonderfully titled blog post, “Glue is Not My BFF”.

cindy_rtcoprbraceletwebCindy also came up with the idea of adding texture and design elements by hammering a bracelet blank.  This way, you wind up with a personalized piece of jewelry with no need to spend much on embellishments!

cindy_rtwatchpropellerswebAnother unglued inspiration from Cindy is this Deconstructed Watch on our brass square frame.  This project can be done for under $10!

Here’s one of Lisa’s ideas from her A Bead A Day blog:

lisa_brace5multi-stranding by adding a couple strands of chainmaille-type link work on either side of the bracelet blank.

lisa_flower-funlong1In another great burst of inspiration, Lisa also created not just a bejeweled pendant, but also an amazing bracelet centerpiece, from our glue-on pendant frames.

Lisa says that this third design– lisa_round_p_earl_31–is easy to do, but I think it’s so impressive that you’d think it took a jewelry master’s touch.

The always-productive Lisa also came up with this cool approach,  lisa_black_and_white6which she titled “Jewelry Making w/Scrapbooking Supplies”.

Tish (quite brilliantly I think) documented her first experiment with bracelet blanks, “in case it was brilliant.”   She wasn’t satisfied with the results of the bracelet, but wound up with a great tutorial on what to look out for when combining polymer clay with bracelet forms!

tish_img_8994More “Glueable Challenge” pieces by Tish included the poly clay design above…

dawno_gluablewip1_1braceletDawno deconstructed a bracelet blank in a nice tutorial at her blog…

…and invented a cool new technique–

dawno_asian-woman-pendant–that I want to call faux cloisonné!

Melanie of Earthenwood Studios had multiple ideas too.  Interestingly she also took apart a bracelet blank,

melanie_025this time to make a necklace.

She also combined her unique “cog” and “face” ceramic creations with our frame charms:

melanie_013We hope these neat creations by our Blog Partners give you some ideas that you’ll run with and make your own!

Have more ideas for using glueable frame charms & bracelet blanks?  Talk about them in a comment below!

April giveaway: “DIY Display Ideas”:
* You enter by leaving comments under the March 31 giveaway announcement
* At the end of April, 2 winners will receive coveted Rings & Things goodie packs!
*So read the blog regularly to see if you won!

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Posted in About Rings & Things, Grow your business | 2 Comments »

Multi-purposing frame charms: Inchies

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

Quick post today!

A trend we’ve noticed in the scrapbooking world is “inchies”.  These are like little challenges to yourself: Create a nice collage in the space of a square inch (ergo the name).  What about wearable inchies?

Can you say "inchies"?!

Can you say "inchies"?!

Check out our item #49-441-0, 30mm square brass picture-frame charm!  The usable surface inside the frame is almost exactly a square inch.  This finding is perfect for gluing things onto.  You could even follow Dawno’s idea and incorporate some brass wire into your collage, for a neat faux cloisonné look.

Thanks to Amy M for this idea.  PS: a 2″x2″ collage is called a twinchie!

More mini-collage ideas?  Share ‘em here in a comment!

April giveaway: “DIY Display Ideas”:
* You enter by leaving comments under the March 31 giveaway announcement
* At the end of April, 2 winners will receive coveted Rings & Things goodie packs!
*So read the blog regularly to see if you won!

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Posted in Grow your business, multipurposing | 5 Comments »

More uses for choker forms

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

In 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:

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Another take by Tish on the wrapped-choker idea:

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Dawno combined an inspiration from abstract artist Piet Mondrian with choker wrapping:

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Melanie at Earthenwood Studios found our choker blank provided a good structure to express her ongoing steampunk inspiration:

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At her “A Bead A Day” blog, Lisa wrapped the entire choker form and added a pendant and coordinating bead accents:

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In a similar vein, Tish went for a softer feel, designing a loosely ribbon-wrapped choker:

justatish_img_8742 (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:

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And Lisa made a stunning wire-wrapped focal piece in this choker design:

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Another wire-wrapping idea for a focal is this stunning bit of sculpture by Dawno:

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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:

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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!

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Posted in Grow your business, Trendspotting | 6 Comments »

Timeless gunmetal

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

There aren’t many jewelry findings that are available in basic black.  And that’s probably a good thing.  But in the craft jewelry world, we have our own timelessly classy color: gunmetal.

Thanks to a post over at Dawno’s blog, we can see why this dark, glossy metal plating is such a perennial bestseller.  Take a peek at the elegant necklace she created along with grey freshwater pearls and mother of pearl, to go with her suits at business presentations:

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We think you’ll agree this is a versatile, even dignified, color.

Inspired?  Browse all the gunmetal components you could hope to buy, in our online store!

*Necklace image used by permission of Dawno.  Here’s her followup post about making the gunmetal necklace.

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Posted in Trendspotting | No Comments »