Rings & Things - Wholesale Supplier of Jewelry Findings and Beads for Professional Craftspeople  


  

The R&T Extra!   September 2008

Rings & Things' newsletter

Subscribe/unsubscribe to this e-mail newsletter

Newsletter home

In this issue:

Rings & Things' Beady Newsboy

Hungry For Bead News? Try R&T's News Feeds!

When it comes to the latest juicy tidbits about beads, we deliver. Rings & Things has added a popular buffet of RSS feeds straight from our site to your screen. What's an RSS feed? Well, "RSS" stands for "Really Simple Syndication"—syndication meaning the distribution of news. A "feed" is how your computer receives these distributed updates (in the form of XML files). What you'll see in our news feeds are small amounts of content that link to products and/or more info on our website. You don't have to subscribe to a feed to browse its index of links. But, when you do subscribe to one or more feeds, each feed sends alerts directly to your computer every time new info is available! R&T now offers several feeds, so you can receive updates about new gemstones, road shows, free projects and more (full menu listed below).

Here's how to serve yourself. On any page that shows these icons ...

Click this icon to browse a web-page's news and/or subscribe to its RSS feed.     Click this icon to add an RSS feed to your iGoogle homepage.     Click this icon to add an RSS feed to your Yahoo! homepage.

click on the square orange icon to get to the feed associated with that particular page. (To open links without losing the feed, right click on the link and choose either "Open Link in New Window" or "Open Link in New Tab"). Keep browsing as long as you'd like. To subscribe to a feed, simply fill in the info at the top of the feed. Subscribing means you'll receive notices on your internet browser's toolbar whenever there's new information to check out. Subscribing to news feeds is a great way to quickly find out about road-show updates, new products and more!


You can also install a news feed on your Google or Yahoo! homepage using the other two icons shown above.

Any way you choose to subscribe, each feed you subscribe to will instantly send a small appetizer of information right to your computer every time we add info to the web page associated with that feed. Here's an example of what feeds will look like on your browser's toolbar. (This shows dozens of feed subscriptions, so they spill from the top toolbar down the side):

Example of what several RSS news-feed subscriptions will look like on your computer screen.

This is what an iGoogle homepage looks like with our news feeds on it (a Yahoo! homepage with our feeds looks similar):

Example of what RSS news feeds look like on your iGoogle homepage.

Here's the full menu of feeds Rings & Things is currently serving (each page links you to a distinct feed associated with that page). Receive the latest "dish" about our:

  • Design Gallery (find out about our newest free projects)
  • Gemstone Beads Index (receive updates on our latest gemstone research)
  • Forum (get the latest buzz on a wide variety of jewelry-related topics)
  • Home page (keep informed about our new featured items, sales and more)
  • BeadTour road shows (find out about upcoming road shows—click on your city for a geographically customized feed!)

Autumn Adventures: Stylish New Focals

Click here to go straight to these great new pendants! Prepare your work space for a trip to hip with exciting pendants from Rings & Things! First, let us present you with our new jumbo natural-material pendants. Made in the Philippines, these earthy focals offer an array of attractive motifs from mosaic work and inlay to natural grain patterns and prints. Available in donuts, go-gos and other fun shapes, these are easy to hang from nylon pendant cords and other choker blanks. They also look great with macramé, chain or beaded strands. Let your imagination take you somewhere adventurous.

Also new this fall are stunning electroplated leaves and pinecones. These shimmering pendants are created from real foliage that is dried, treated, painted with copper, electroplated and then given a final color finish. The result is batches of surprisingly sturdy pendants despite their delicate, lacy appearance. Choose different platings and shapes to create different moods!

Be sure to also check out our autumn components for a large array of leaf-shaped components, plus autumn color mixes, back to school beads & charms, fun spooky Halloween parts and charms for harvest thanks.

For more new items, check out the PDF of our latest New Item Flyer. To view this PDF file, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can download Adobe Acrobat for free here.

Debit-Card Solution—Online Store Update

If purchasing online with a debit/checking card, be sure to specify 'debit card' (NOT credit card) as your method of payment. In last month's R&T Extra, we included an article about complications with debit-card (checking-card) orders. We're happy to announce that we've already implemented a solution to this problem! Our online store now processes debit cards separately from credit cards. This means that you can now order online using your debit card without having to worry about secondary holds on your bank account.

This also means that when you purchase from our online store using a debit (checking) card, you need to choose "debit card" as your method of payment. If you choose "credit card" while checking out, but actually use a debit or checking card, you will still run into the complication discussed in our August newsletter article.

If you have any questions or any trouble ordering online, don't hesitate to give our friendly sales staff a call.

Search Tips for Our New Online Store

Our new online-store's search engine is a great improvement over the old store's engine. But, like all things technological, it has quirks too! Here are some tricks to help you maximize the quality of your search results.

One search quirk is that, in order to keep search time manageable, an online-store search only pulls up the top 200 results, even if more results exist. This might mean that what you meant to pull up does not appear (we have over 18,000 items in our store!). The good news is that you can easily alter the search results by using the "sort by" menu, found on the right side of every results page. This menu allows you to list (organize) results by stock number, description or price. Each option offers a different combination of 200 items, which makes the "sort by" function an easy way to expand your search.

Using these basic tips will greatly improve the quality of your search results. Expanding your search is also useful when you're not getting enough (or any) results. Try these methods to get a broader selection of items:

  • If you started with several search terms, take away one or more search words to see more results.
  • Search without plurals (for example, type in jump ring instead of jump rings). Our old store automatically added "s" to the end of words, so a search for "beads" pulled up the same results as a search for "bead." The new store does not do this. We are working to ensure that our items are searchable by plurals, but until we've got it perfect, searching for a singular might give you more results.
  • Do not use quotation marks. Our old store brought up exact phrases when you put words in quotation marks, but our new store does not work the same way. You will get no results for searches typed inside quotation marks. To search for exact phrases in our new store, use the "more search options" function.
  • Change punctuation if you're not finding what you're searching for. Our old store ignored most punctuation – including the hyphens found in stock numbers – but the new store actually recognizes hyphens and most other punctuation.

But what if you don't want to slog through 200 results, and you want to decrease the number of items in your results? Then, here are two great ways to narrow your search:

  • Add more words to your search. A simple-sounding search like bead is not likely to be effective (we have over 11,000 beads in our store!). A search for specific shapes, colors, materials and/or sizes will often provide more useful results. Blue bicone bead is a good start. 6mm glass blue bicone bead might be even more helpful.
  • Use the "more search options" function. Inside this advanced search, you can search by brand name, color, country of origin and more in combination with keywords. "More search options" also allows you to search for exact phrases.
We are working on adding a "not" function, to tell the engine what to exclude from a search. This is not in place yet, but we hope it will be soon.

You can also shop by browsing our products by category (simply click on images or names to see a category or sub-category of products). If you have any difficulties with our new online store, we encourage you to call our friendly sales staff. You can easily place an order over the phone, plus let us know of any online difficulties you're having. Enjoy our new store and keep in touch with your questions and concerns. Happy shopping!

September's Free Jewelry Project

Poppy jasper is a great gemstone for autumn designs. The warmth of its reddish swirls reminds us of the beautiful turning leaves to come. That's why this month we couldn't resist sharing the "Branched Jasper" earring design, with it's cascade of poppy jasper tumbling down sleek metal findings. Inspired by a project in the book Contemporary Bead and Wire Jewelry, the design features a simple yet innovative use of eye pins and the use of crimp beads to "suspend" the focal beads.

Click here for the quick-loading PDF of this sleek autumn earring 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 this "Branched Jasper" earring design today.

For other fall projects, check out our autumn components, including a large array of leaf-shaped components, autumn color mixes, back to school beads & charms, fun spooky Halloween parts and charms for harvest thanks.

To browse all of our free Designer Tip Sheets (most with full instructions included), go to the projects section of our website. If you don't want to download and print PDFs from your computer, you can also request a Designer Tip Sheet print out be sent with your next order (simply call our sales staff or add a comment during online checkout).

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

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

Coming up in October:

Thanks!

Russ, Kim and the whole Rings & Things crew
P.O. Box 450
Spokane, WA 99210-0450 USA
Phone (509) 252-2900
Fax 509 838 2602
Order toll free 1 (800) 366-2156
Website: http://www.rings-things.com

You can subscribe/unsubscribe to our free newsletter and/or our e-mail sale flyers in seconds!

If you've moved, please help us get our next catalog supplement to you. Just fill out this form: www.rings-things.com/addressform.htm

To let us know about just an email-address change, you can use this shorter form: http://www.rings-things.com/SECURE/newemail.html

Newsletter Home

Our Products   |   Home Page   |   Site Search