The R&T Extra!   December 2008

Season's Greetings from Rings & Things!

We hope you're having a good warm-up to the holidays. To help keep things bright, here's a heads up on what's happening at our warehouse. For holiday planning, keep Rings & Things holiday closures in mind:

• We will be closed Wednesday through Saturday, December 24-27, so our employees can enjoy the holiday season.
• We will close early (at 4pm) on Wednesday, December 31, for New Year's Eve.
• We will be closed Thursday, January 1, for New Year's Day.
• Our Spokane, WA, showroom will be closed Saturday, January 10, for our employee holiday party.

Also, make sure to save up some holiday energy for our Showroom Red-Tag Sale, Monday & Tuesday, December 29-30. You'll find great bargains, including overstocks priced to move, reductions on limited-stock components, closeout items slashed even more and significant price reductions on gemstones and other strands! The sale will be held in our Spokane, WA, showroom (click for directions). Visit from out of town and take advantage of hotel discounts for R&T customers.

Those of you who can't make it to Spokane in December can still take advantage of our month-long African Art sale. Get 20% off wall hangings, carvings, figurines, pendants, finished jewelry and more through the month of December!

Another treat to look forward to is our new 2009-2010 Rings & Things Wholesale Catalog! This upcoming volume will feature 400 full-color pages of stock items and over 100 example jewelry pieces, plus introductions to each product section with explanations about colors, materials and sizes! Watch for it starting in early February. And happy holidays.

New Online-Store Search Possibilities

Ready for an early present? Our online search function just gained a new capability! Now you can refine online-store searches by using a negative sign (the dash on your keyboard). Those of you who remember our old store might already be familiar with this method of searching. But, for those of you new to this, the idea is that you can put a negative sign in front of words you want excluded from your search results. Here's an example:

• A search for snowflake brings up both a lot snowflake shapes and a lot of snowflake obsidian gemstones. But, you just wanted snowflake shapes. SO ...
• You can now do a search for snowflake -obsidian, and you'll get cleaner results that are easier to browse and more focused towards what you want.

Great Finds for Last-Minute Gifts

Give handmade gifts this holiday season. Even if you've waited till the last minute, it's quick and easy with these parts from Rings & Things:

• We offer a large variety of attractive shell, coral & sterling pendants, most complete with bails. These beauties can be easily strung onto choker blanks for a quick and streamlined look, or incorporated into more intricate designs.
• Make the ultimate stocking stuffers with our beadable ball-point pens, beadable magnifying glass & beadable bookmarks. Bookmark design ideas.
• Plus, we have a brand new adjustable finger-ring blanks with square cup, designed especially for fun resin inclusions and/or gluing. Resin and glued designs are both quick, easy and can include found objects, collage work and more.

2009 Contest: Inspiration & General Tips

Do you want an excuse to get started on a new project? Perhaps you're looking for a good reason to expand your skills. Maybe you have an ambitious idea that needs a push to be executed. And maybe you've got a winning idea inside you that's just waiting to exist in the physical world! Whatever your motivations, your wait is over, because your excuse for action is here: the Rings & Things' 2009 Your Designs Rock! Contest. Entries don't have to be jewelry. They can be anything that includes R&T components. Jewelry, purses, wall hangings, light-switch plates, you name it! Plus, you can submit up to three entries.

If you want to enter, but need help brainstorming ideas, it can be useful to browse the contest categories, which are based on materials. Don't feel you need to choose a category first, though! As long as most materials used are things we sell, it can work equally well to finish a design and then figure out which category it best fits. Because most creations include several types of parts, it's okay for an entry to include some parts not representative of the category you choose. To choose which category best fits a design, base your decision on one or more of these three questions:

• What material(s) is the majority of your piece made from?
• What materials used are Rings & Things parts?
• What material(s) is the focal point of the design made from?

Also important is how thoroughly developed your design becomes. Another of our judges says, "I assume that every detail of your design is something you decided belongs there. In other words, ask yourself: is the piece 100% the way I want it?" Our judges base their decisions on three equally-weighted criteria: originality, craftsmanship and aesthetics.

Feel inspired yet? Read the full contest guidelines, to make sure your entries will fit our criteria and will make it through to judging. Browse the contest's frequently asked questions to gain a fuller understanding of what designs qualify.

Entries are accepted throughout the month of February, but don't wait until then to get started! Once you have a completed piece to enter, you will still need to provide professional-quality digital images of the piece with your entry form. To help your entries shine, we'll bring you photo tips in the January issue of the R&T Extra. In the meantime, you can check our 2009 image guidelines and common image problems to avoid at any time.

Of course, before you worry about pictures, you'll need a physical design to photograph. So, keep the above tips in mind and visit our contest pages as often as you like. First and foremost, have fun creating!

December's Free Jewelry Project

Celebrate the beauty of winter with our "Let it Snow" stamped necklace design. Metal stamping is all the rage right now, and it's an easy way to make unique gifts! Make versions for yourself and for all your friends. This Designer Tip Sheet comes with both general metal-stamping instructions and the parts list/instructions for this particular design.

To view this Designer Tip Sheet (a PDF file), you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can download Adobe Acrobat for free here. Then, simply print the quick-loading or high resolution version of our "Let it Snow" stamped necklace design today.

For other seasonal projects, check out our winter components, including beads and charms for Hanukah, Christmas, Happy New Year, snowflakes, snowmen, winter sports and more!

To browse all of our free Designer Tip Sheets, go to the projects section of our website. You can also check out a PDF version of our latest new item flyer. If you don't want to download and print PDFs from your computer, you can also request that a Designer Tip Sheet printout be sent with your next order (either call our sales staff or add a comment during online checkout). New item flyers are automatically sent out with orders.

R&T's String of Events: December 2008 Calendar

Between road shows, purchasing trips and more, there's typically a lot going on at Rings & Things! Here's what's happening this month:

• Wednesday thru Saturday December 24-27: Rings & Things will be closed for Christmas.
• Monday & Tuesday, December 29-30: Find great bargains at our Annual Red-Tag Showroom Sale: overstocks priced to move, reductions on limited-stock components, closeout sale prices and significant price reductions on gemstones and other strands! Held in our Spokane, WA, showroom (click for directions). Visit from out of town and take advantage of hotel discounts for R&T customers.
• Wednesday, December 31: Rings & Things will close at 4pm, for New Year's Eve.

• Thursday, January 1: Rings & Things will be closed for New Year's Day.
• Saturday, January, 10: R&T's Spokane, WA, showroom will be closed for our employee holiday party.
• Saturday thru Monday, January 17-19: Art Clay™ Silver Certification Class in our Spokane, WA, warehouse (click for directions). Out-of-town enrollees can take advantage of hotel discounts for R&T customers.
• Saturday, January 31: Basic Art Clay™ Silver Class in our Spokane, WA, warehouse (click for directions). Out-of-town enrollees can take advantage of hotel discounts for R&T customers.
• Early February: Rings & Things' 2009-2010 Wholesale Catalog is expected to start arriving in mailboxes. Our new catalog features 400 full-color pages of stock items, plus over 100 example jewelry pieces and introductions to each product section with explanations about colors, materials and sizes. Watch for it!
• February 1-28: Rings & Things will be accepting entries for our 2009 Your Designs Rock! Contest. See the above article for more information and inspiration.
• Thursday thru Friday, February 5-13: Join Rings & Things at the Tucson Gem and Lapidary Wholesalers Show. Every February, Tucson, AZ, hosts one of the largest conglomerations of gem and bead shows in the world. If you don't already have your reservations, now is the time to check for last-minute options! We'll be in the Holidome, booths 631 and 633. For more info and links to helpful sites, check out last year's 2007 Tucson news article. See you there for the experience of a lifetime!

Thanks for a great 2008!

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