Posts Tagged ‘gemstone beads index’

“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 »

A jumble of June birth gems

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

We took a look ahead to find out the what June’s birthstones are.  There’s a jumble of gems to work with!

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Pearl is one of the most widely recognized June stones.  It’s nice that recent years have brought countless new styles and shapes of affordable freshwater pearls, including the ones you see here.  Have fun picking out a pearl that fits the personality of your June baby (or client!).

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Agate is the other commonly used birthstone for June.  It’s also the birthstone for Gemini, May 21 through June 20.  Are you aware of the huge variety of agate beads available?  This is another great browsing opportunity.

For a more unique touch, we’ve also found these stones used for June:

  • Emerald (also the Spring gemstone, and Cancer’s birthstone, June 21 to July 22) — a popular color of glass beads
  • Ruby (which is the Summer gemstone too, i.e. June 21 onwards) — there are lots of ruby-colored glass beads as well!
  • Moonstone (also famous for going so great with a basic black dress!)
  • Alexandrite — remember you can use glass beads in this color too
  • Beryl (St. Thomas)

You can learn about the physical & metaphysical properties of gemstones like these in the new edition of our popular Gemstone Beads Index!

Have you seen other great birthday-jewelry ideas for June?  Post them here in the Comments!

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 birthstones | 4 Comments »

Ready for May birthstones?

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

Plan ahead for May birthstones!

There’s one main birthstone for May, emerald.  This is also the seasonal birthstone for Spring, so it’s doubly appropriate.  For an economical emerald look, think about glass beads.  Anything from these metal-core Calypso™ (“Pandora”-style) lampwork beads…

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…to the ever-popular, economical Cosmic Crystal™ bicone…

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…can be an evocative way to play on the emerald theme.  Just search our online store for “emerald”!  Or for “sapphire”, which some consider a birthstone for Taurus.  Now that’s multi-purposing your components!

Speaking of zodiac signs, Gemini’s birthstone is agate.  We always seem to have dozens of varieties of it at Rings & Things’ BeadTour bead shows, and you can always find agate beads in our online store.  A couple of favorites are Botswana agate, like these faceted rounds…

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…and blue lace agate, like this bib:

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Less well-known May gemstones, according to various traditions, are chrysolite, carbuncle, and chalcedony.  For reliable, honest background information, you can look these and many more up in our popular Gemstone Beads Index!

What’s your favorite May birthstone, or birthday jewelry?  Share it in a comment below.  You can even link to pictures of your own creations!

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 birthstones, multipurposing | 2 Comments »

For that turquoise look: Turquoise Magnesite

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

Puffed oval Turquoise Magnesite beads

And glittering faceted rounds:

Faceted round beads of Turquoise Magnesite from Rings & Things

Faceted round beads of Turquoise Magnesite

As well as wheel-like rondelles:

Rondelle beads of Turquoise Magnesite

Rondelle beads of Turquoise Magnesite

And smooth oval nuggets:

Smooth oval nugget beads of Turquoise Magnesite

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!

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Posted in New products, Our website | No Comments »