Posts Tagged ‘design contest’

There’s a contest going on. I read it in a blog, so it must be true!

Friday, February 5th, 2010

The blogs say there’s a contest going on.  Must be true!

That’d be this year’s R&T design contest, of course.

design_contest_ribbons

Have you gotten your entry ready?  You’ve got until the end of this month!

How do I know all this?  I read the blogs :)

Maneki says,

“Rings & Things tar emot bidrag till tidigare omnämnda tävlingen Your Designs Rock t o m 28 februari. Imorgon, 5 februari, är sista dagen att lämna in om du vill vara med i deras Early bird-drawing med chans att vinna goodiebags. Observera att de numer inte längre skjuter fram sista inlämningsdatum utan siste februari står fast.”

Not to be outdone, Tammy Powley at About.com notes,

“Rings & Things’ Your Designs Rock competition is taking entries, and the deadline is coming up at the end of the month.”

And as if to prove her right, Adalea’s Designs has shared a super-fun necklace design that’s going to be entered in this year’s contest.

Join the blogroll!  Send your entry!  Blog about it!

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Posted in contest | 5 Comments »

It’s voting season. Vote for Rita!

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Our 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 :)

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”!) :)

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Posted in About Rings & Things, As seen in, Community, Events, contest, designing | 2 Comments »

Heads up: plan for Rings & Things’ 2010 design contest!

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

“Your Designs Rock!” is not just an encouragement.  YDR is also the name of our popular design contest of creations made from Rings & Things products.  The 2010 edition is coming soon.

Here’s a first announcement…  We invite craft jewelry makers to prepare their favorite handmade designs for the contest.  (Entries need not be jewelry—they can be any kind of design.)

Do you have designs?

Got designs? Rock our contest!

The Grand Prize in the 2010 Your Designs Rock contest will be a $750 Rings & Things credit.  First prizes will be awarded in each of five categories, each bringing a $250 Rings & Things credit.  Honorable mentions carrying $75 credits will be bestowed on additional entries singled out by the judges.  In addition, winning entries (with credit to the designer) could be featured in Rings & Things’ catalog and promotions, providing exposure to an estimated million people per year worldwide.

The 2010 design-contest categories are

  • Glass & Crystal
  • Gemstones & Pearls
  • Mostly Metal
  • Metal Clay
  • Found Objects/Miscellaneous

Rings & Things is introducing a number of new features to the YDR contest this time around, making the competition more exciting than ever:

  • New-entrant drawing: First-time entrants will be automatically entered into a drawing to win a goodie package.
  • Early-bird drawing: Those who submit completed entries (up to 3) by early February  will be automatically entered into a drawing to win a goodie package!
  • Expanded entry period: Entries will be accepted through January and February, 2010.

Anyone can enter, but a majority of parts in each design must be items that are available from Rings & Things.  (That includes things you buy at our BeadTour bead shows this Fall!)  Full contest guidelines are available online.

For prompt notification of 2010 contest details, interested designers can subscribe to Rings & Things’ e-newsletter as well as checking our blog.  YDR winners will be announced the first week of June.

Start planning now!  You can submit up to 3 designs!

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Posted in contest | 5 Comments »

Dapping tools and why you need them

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Do you use metal clay?  (Like Art Clay Silver and Gold.)  Or metal sheet?

dapping tool set

If you do metalwork, making a smooth finished product is a major goal.  Dapping punches with their ball-shaped ends are a huge help.  They’re used to “dome” metal.  (So some call them “doming punches”.)  Think of adding depth to pendants…or making each half of your own unique bead!

“Dappling” punches (as we’ve also seen them called) are usually used in an affordable set with another dapping tool…

dapping block

Dapping blocks are a block of wood or steel with domes (half-spheres) of various sizes indented into the sides.

You just place the metal, or metal clay, against one of the dimples in the dapping block.  Then you work it smooth, rounding it by “dapping” at it with the punch.

Dapping blocks are also wonderful for forming a domed filigree, as Mara Marlow did in her “Eglantyne” necklace for the Rings & Things Your Designs Rock design contest:

Domed filigrees made with a dapping block

Domed filigrees made with a dapping block

Share dapping ideas — leave a comment!

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Posted in New products, Rings & Things products | 2 Comments »

Our Design Gallery expands

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…

gallery_logo

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!

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Posted in About Rings & Things, Our website, designing | 3 Comments »

“Creative earning” indeed

Monday, January 26th, 2009

We thought the title of a blog post by Akaiya was perfect.  She called entering jewelry / design contests Creative Earning.  That really conveys the benefits you can get out of Rings & Things’ “Your Designs Rock!” contest (entries accepted Feb. 1-28)…

The obvious payoff is that you win prizes that are worth money.  The least you could win in our design contest is $75 of Rings & Things credits, and you could win as much as $750 of credits!

But don’t forget, you’ll also get lots of publicity.  Like Lynn Kvigne, who created the Owl’s Eyes bracelet, you could find your design featured in Rings & Things’ catalog.  Along with your name.  ☻☺  That means exposure to literally millions of eyeballs.  You can figure out how valuable that is!

And as we like to say, you can turn right around and use that publicity in your own marketing.  Zoya Gutina recently did this when she created a wonderful slideshow about how she created the Mermaid’s Garden necklace.

This was her first-prize winning seed bead design in our 2008 contest.  Now Zoya is building on the interest in her necklace by turning it into a tutorial on her blog.  The possibilities go on from there…how about touting your accomplishments in your own advertising?  “As seen in Rings & Things’ catalog” might make a powerful tagline.

So pick out your best design, take a good photo of it and enter Your Designs Rock! 2009.  We’re looking forward to a great crop of creations this year!

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Posted in Events, Grow your business | No Comments »