The R&T Extra!   January 2009

Welcome 2009! Here's What's New at Rings & Things

Our 2009-2010 Rings & Things Wholesale Catalog will soon be on its way! This upcoming volume is good for the next two years and features:

• 400 full-color pages of stock items, most pictured actual size
• Over 175 finished example jewelry pieces to inspire you
• Informative section introductions with explanations about components, colors, materials and sizes
• Exciting new items including more Beadalon® stringing cable, more styles of antiqued chain & antiqued clasps, base-metal crimp covers, new Czech glass beads and new Calypso™ sterling-silver-lined lampwork glass beads!

As mentioned above, the new catalog contains over 175 example jewelry pieces to inspire you. This means we also have a large variety of new Designer Tip Sheets ready for you to play with! Most Designer Tip Sheets come with full parts lists, full instructions and a color photo of the finished design. To browse new tip sheets, simply go to the projects section of our website.

Another change reflected in our new catalog is that we now use Toho's seed bead color numbers in our stock numbers. This means no more messy conversions for translating Toho color numbers to R&T color numbers. Of course, for those of you well versed in the translation process, this streamlining change might take a bit of getting used to. To help out, we've set up our online store so that when you type an old Toho stock number into a search, the new number will automatically come up as well. If you like charts, you can print a PDF chart showing both new (Toho) numbers and R&T's old/obsolete numbers to help you with this transition. To view PDF files, you need Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can download Adobe Acrobat for free here.

Happy New Year from Rings & Things, and happy jewelry making!

Organize Your Year, From Jump Rings to Profits

Most of us make new resolutions in good faith around the first of the year. And often we find our resolutions dead from neglect by the end of spring. This tendency is human nature, but it doesn't have to be your story! Make this year different with help from Rings & Things.

First, improve the efficiency of your work space with a variety of storage vials, organizers and work stations. For shows and other travel, try one of our travel cases and take your studio with you wherever you go.

Next, stop yourself from making that wild resolution that promises the world! Instead ask yourself "what are some small, realistic goals that can actually be implemented in the next 12 months?" You might not be able to answer that question immediately, which is why many of us tend towards the grandiose. But just a little bit of self education can go a long way! These books about the business of jewelry crafts might be just what you need to help set realistic goals for your hobby and/or business this year:

• Marketing and Selling Your Handmade Jewelry: The Complete Guide to Turning Your Passion into Profit: This practical guide is an R&T staff favorite! Author Viki Lareau is both a store owner & jewelry maker, so she understands both sides of the business. Her compact, 94-page volume concisely covers a large amount of specific material including advice on building your reputation, pricing your work and keeping things growing.
• Business and Legal Forms for Crafts: Getting things down in ink really can prevent problems in the long run, and this book helps you do just that. Written and compiled by arts lawyer Tad Crawford, it contains both printed and CD-ROM versions of documents you'll use for everything from copyrighting your creations, to leasing space, to setting up agreements to sell through a distributor … it's all here! Every document is customizable to your needs, making it easier to run your business.
• Jewelry Making & Beading for Dummies: Don't take the title personally! This best-selling book, written by veteran crafters Heather Dismore and Tammy Powley, is part of the respected "For Dummies" series. It's a great choice for those of you just beginning your career or hobby because it offers both jewelry-making instructions and chapters on jewelry-making parties, turning your hobby into a business and making money.

• Craft Show Listings: If you plan on selling your wares at fairs & festivals this year, then check these websites for listings and reviews of arts-&-crafts shows you can apply to.
• Bead Societies & Art Guilds: Expand your network using our extensive listing of local, regional, U.S., British, international and other bead societies and art guilds from all over the world.
• The Crafts Report: We recommend this arts-&-crafts business magazine to a wide spectrum of people, including professionals looking for fresh tips; hobbyists interested in becoming professionals; contest & jury entrants; gallery owners; craft-show promoters; those who complain about craft-show promoters; and anyone who's burned out and needs a different perspective.

2009 Contest: Photography Tips

Your Designs Rock! It's true. Now, you just need to make sure the photographs of your designs rock too! If you haven't yet heard about our 2009 Your Designs Rock! Contest, it's not too late. Entries are accepted through the month of February, and they don't have to be jewelry—they can be anything that uses Rings & Things components. For inspiration and general tips, check out our December 2008 contest article.

Then make sure to give yourself ample time to compile all the required parts of your entry! Once you have a completed piece to enter, you still need to provide professional-quality digital images of that piece with your entry form. This is an extremely important part of the entry process because if an image doesn't sufficiently display an artwork's quality, our judges won't see how great it is. That's why submitting good-quality digital images is vital to your chances of winning.

Don't be scared off by this fact of contest life! Creating good digital images doesn't have to be daunting. In fact, since our judges view printed images rather than slides projected on a screen, we have simpler image requirements than many juries and contests. Just make sure you have access to a camera with a minimum 3.2 megapixel capacity, or a scanner that can accommodate 300 dots per inch (dpi). Then, follow the requirements and suggestions in our complete image guidelines.

A small amount of time spent reviewing magazine articles and online tips can go a long way towards learning the best techniques and tricks for photographing jewelry and other arts-&-crafts objects. The Crafts Report magazine offers photography tips in almost every issue. An afternoon browsing back issues at your local library can give you a wealth of information. Some articles are even available on The Crafts Report's website, including the article "Take Control of Your Digital Camera" by Steve Meltzer. See our Free Photography How-To Resources for links to that article and more. Make sure to also take advantage of our summary of common image problems to avoid.

If you still feel daunted by the prospect of messing with a digital camera, consider hiring a professional photographer to take pictures of your work. You'll not only have professional-quality images for the contest, but also for future show juries and for your own promotions, advertising and records.

Read our full contest guidelines and frequently asked questions to make sure your entries fit our criteria and make it through to judging. Most importantly, have fun getting in touch with your creativity and sharing that creativity with the world! ... Remember that whatever the contest outcome, your designs really do rock.

January's Free Jewelry Project

Chinese New Year starts January 29, and heralds the year of the Ox. Celebrate with our "Trip Through Chinatown" necklace featuring festive red cinnabar beads and jet gemstones. In Chinese culture, the color red symbolizes courage, loyalty, honor, success and good fortune. During New Year celebrations, money and other gifts are wrapped in red paper. The Ox symbolizes prosperity through hard work and fortitude, an uplifting thought as we all work through current global economic difficulties!

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 "Trip Through Chinatown" necklace design today.

For other designs with Asian flair, take advantage of all our Chinese New Year components, including red color assortments, red bamboo coral gemstones, Asian-themed charms and more! Plus, get ready for romance with our wide selection of Valentine's Day components.

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: January 2009 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:

• 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.
• Friday thru Monday, January 16-19: Art Clay™ Silver Senior 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 thru Monday, January 17-19: Art Clay™ Silver Level-One 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 photography tips. Plus, check out last month's article on general tips 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!
• Sunday, March 1: Our 2009 BeadTour kicks off in our hometown with the Spokane Bead Frenzy. Visit from out of town and get hotel discounts for R&T customers.
• During the month of March, our BeadTour will also be in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah and Idaho. Find out when we'll be near you!

Thanks!

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