The R&T Extra!   March 2009

2009 BeadTour: A Slice of Bead Heaven

Do you want unique gemstones and beads that will help your designs stand out in a crowd? Do you want them without having to travel hundreds of miles to get them? Then, let us come to you! Visit a Rings & Things BeadTour show in your area this year. Our 2009 tour is starting now!

It works like this: Our road crew pulls into town, fills a large hotel banquet room with thousands of specially-priced bead strands, and invites you in. Components you'll find at these R&T-exclusive shows include:

• gemstones in unusual shapes, sizes and colors
• unique & interesting glass, crystal and natural-material beads
• a variety of trade beads

But don't just take our word for it! A person in the Bead & Button Forum says "If you're strictly looking to buy beads, I think the Rings and Things Trunk Show is the best. It's nothing flashy, but very organized ..." A blogger on Artful Adventures adds "if you ever have the chance to go to a show put on by [R&T]—go! It was well organized and the staff was great, friendly and with smiles on their faces at all times. Now on to the beads: there was such a good, varied selection ... most of them screaming to go home with me!" And the Always Sunny blog exclaims "Holy cow! I had no idea there was such a heaven. I now know what Nathan goes through at a comic convention: shortness of breath, numb limbs, slight pain in the chest cavity ... I want more."

Our employees like to work the shows, too! R&T search-engine marketer and show staffer, Dave, enjoys the fact that every show is different. He loves meeting customers, including the bead-society people he's been in touch with via email. He also loves seeing different flora and fauna (like walking out of his hotel room right into a gecko perched on a palm tree), eating what the locals eat ("Shout out for Twang beer salt!") and discovering other aspects of U.S. geography (okay, so getting altitude sickness after loading the truck in Denver, CO, wasn't fun, but it was certainly memorable).

R&T corporate-sales manager and show staffer, Laurae, also has stories from working the shows, including the time she and two other staffers got stuck driving in the tail end of a hurricane. "Sheets of water were coming down. Trucks had pulled off the road it was so bad. We stopped at a rest stop for a while, but then had to drive so we wouldn't miss our flight. Kim [R&T general manager and show staffer] does a great job of driving in bad conditions! I just had to close my eyes or look down at my feet!"

Despite the scary moments, our road-show staff keeps going back on the road for more! A lot of their joy comes from meeting you and seeing your faces beaming over trays full of exciting beads. Read more stories from the road, look at pictures of a typical road show, view our recent road-show blog entry and check out our road-show FAQ for more information.

Check out our BeadTour map or text list of shows to find the show nearest you. There is no admission fee to our shows, but we do ask that you please bring your show invitation AND your tax resale number. If you're not already on our invitation mailing list and you'd like to receive an invitation, simply fill out this bead show invitation request. We hope you can make it to a show near you. See you soon!

Findings That Give More Bang for Your Buck

How will your designs survive the changing market? In these tough times, many of us are struggling with tight budgets, banks that won't lend and customers who are less able or willing to buy. That's why now is a good time to re-strategize supply needs and, in some cases, designs. One way to do this is by designing with economical and versatile findings that provide you with multiple functions, less labor and/or a bigger mark-up.

Take, for example RT-exclusive tube-top bails, available in sterling silver, silver plate and copper. This glue-pad drop bail allows you to complete your designs with less labor (simply glue on your focal), and allows for a big mark up while still keeping prices economical for your customers (the base-metal bails only cost you $0.50-0.70/each). Finished pendants will still be attractive to bargain buyers at $10-$15 each. Add a choker cable (about $1.50) and you've got a finished handmade necklace that you can sell for under $20 and still make a profit! Better yet, these bails offer versatility, also functioning as loops for handmade connectors: simply glue one to each end of a focal, as in our "El Diablo" design. What third creative function can you come up with for your leftover tube-top bails?

In a constricting market where people are buying fewer clothes, accessories such as inexpensive pendants, jewelry and hair decoration can be a great way for people to stay fashionable while spending less. Don't be afraid to point this out to your customers! Another great finding that provides you less labor and a good mark up is our glue-pad bobby pin. At less than $0.50/pair, you glue on your art focal (upcycled found objects, fabric arts, beaded focals, glass cabochons or whatever it is you do) and have a finished set that can sell for $10-12. The price is right for your arts & crafts customers without having to undercut your labor or supply costs!

Magnetic-clasp choker blanks are also smart findings for tough times! They can be macraméd, beaded, strung with a single pendant or sold as-is to the end user, which means they're versatile both creatively and economically! Unfinished-end choker blanks provide even more options, allowing for materials with smaller holes to be strung directly onto the cable.

We all know that much of the cost for handmade goods comes from the labor-intensive process of craft production. Ask yourself if you're spending too much time on your designs. Are you having to charge too little and swallow the loss? Or, are you charging appropriate to your labor and costs, but customers aren't buying? Now is a great time to consider which components and designs will get you the most bang for your business!

New Closeouts, Commute Award & Contest

If you thought our basement bargains went away with our year-end red-tag sale, think again! Rings & Things is happy to announce hundreds of newly-discounted items in our online store's closeouts section, including Swarovski® crystal, Italian hand-blown glass, precious-metal findings, cell-phone lariats, nylon choker pendant cords and more! Once these goodies are gone, they're gone for good, so get them while you can!

In other news, Rings & Things has won the 2009 Pinnacle Award from Spokane County, WA, for outstanding employee participation in commute alternatives! U.S. Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers thanked Rings & Things for playing an important role in reducing traffic congestion and supporting alternatives to solo work commutes (we were pretty excited to get a letter with an official U.S. House of Representatives seal on it!). A whopping 95% of Rings & Things' employees get to work by walking, carpooling, bicycling, taking the bus or working compressed weeks at least part of the time. It's our way of improving our local air quality. What programs exist in your community that you can take part in?

A final bit of news for March is that the deadline has now passed for entering our 2009 Your Designs Rock! Contest. A big thanks to all of you who entered! We know you're all anxiously awaiting the results. Our contest coordinator is busy coordinating and our judges will soon be busy judging. Results will be announced in early May. For those who aren't ready to sit back and relax until then, check out the ugly necklace contest, deadline March 15, 2009.

US Lead Law: Metal Testing Starts March 20

Most of you have already heard about the US Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and its new federal limits for lead content in children's products, including children's jewelry (the law does NOT affect adult jewelry). Rings & Things apologizes for any confusion we caused when we sent out not quite the right information in a late-breaking email update recently. We were correct that a proposed delay on enforcing lead-content limits had been rescinded, but we did not understand that the stay on testing requirements was still in place. Testing of children's metal jewelry WILL be required as of March 20, 2009, according to a CPSIA timetable. For general information on the federal law – including information about jewelry components that do NOT need to be tested – check R&T's CPSIA lead-law web page. Or, go directly to the CPSIA website.

Because Rings & Things' components are not intended for children's jewelry, these new testing requirements will not effect R&T's product lead classifications, which are based on California's lead law for adult jewelry. Our classification system does provide specific information about any lead content in our products.

March's Free Jewelry Project

Prepare for warmer weather in style with cool "Bubbles" earrings. The long sweeper look is perfect for both short hair and hair worn up. The hip "bubbly" chain and Swarovski® twisted-coin beads fit right in with this season's styles, and the aquamarine crystals work perfectly for March birthdays and other March gifts! For less "sweep," simply use shorter lengths of chain.

Get ready for St. Patrick's Day, Easter, gardening season, Earth Day, Mother's Day and school graduations with our wide array of Spring components.

To browse all of our free jewelry designs, visit our online Design Gallery and/or our projects index. 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 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: March 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:

March's birthstones are aquamarine, bloodstone and jasper. Read care tips and history, plus physical and metaphysical attributes in our Gemstone Beads Index.

• 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.
• March 1: The R&T blog March raffle begins. To enter, simply post a comment on any of our March, 2009, blog topics. At the end of the month, all commentators go into a random drawing to win a surprise goodie pack!
• March 13: BeadTour show in Houston, TX
• March 14: Basic Art Clay Silver Class in our Spokane ,WA warehouse (click for directions). Attend from out of town and get hotel discounts for R&T customers.
• March 14: BeadTour show in San Antonio, TX
• March 15: BeadTour show in Austin, TX
• March 17: BeadTour show in Dallas, TX
• March 18: BeadTour show in Oklahoma City, OK
• March 20: BeadTour show in St. Louis, MO
• March 21: BeadTour show in Kansas City, KS
• March 22: BeadTour show in Des Moines (West), IA
• March 23: BeadTour show in Omaha, NE
• March 25: BeadTour show in Denver (Golden), CO
• March 27: BeadTour show in Salt Lake City (Sandy), UT
• March 29: BeadTour show in Boise, ID

• April 1: The R&T blog April raffle begins (no fooling!). To enter, simply post a comment on any of our April, 2009, blog topics. At the end of the month, all commentators go into a random drawing to win a surprise goodie pack!
• April 4: BeadTour show in Mt. Vernon, WA.
• April 5: BeadTour show in Seattle, WA.
• April 11: BeadTour show in Missoula, MT.
• April 18: BeadTour show in Bellevue, WA.
• April 19: BeadTour show in Portland area, OR.
• April 26: BeadTour show in Minneapolis, MN.
• April 28: BeadTour show in Green Bay, WI.
• April 29: BeadTour show in Milwaukee, WI.
• April 30: BeadTour show in Chicago, IL.

Thanks!

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