The R&T Extra!   May 2009

Your Designs Rock! The Results Are In

Blow the horns and beat the drums ... our judges have spoken and the winners are stepping up to claim their prizes. We love seeing all the designs sent in to our Your Designs Rock! Contest and wish we could reward everyone for their hard work and spirit. A big thanks to all of you who entered, from across the United States and around the world.

We're proud to announce that the grand-prize winner of Rings & Things' 2009 Your Designs Rock! Contest is Lisa Pavelka of Las Vegas, NV, for her metal-clay creation "Far East." Her design was chosen as the grand prize out of all five first-place winners. For her extraordinary design, Lisa has received $1,000 in R&T credit! She says of her design, "I wanted it to incorporate several of the processes that make metal clay so versatile, including: hand forming, molding, stamping, filigree work and engraving." Read more here.

We've awarded four other first-place prizes and 11 honorable-mention prizes for 2009. See all winning designs plus "Polly's Picks" (noteworthy non-winning designs) in the 2009 Design Contest Winners section of our online Design Gallery. Congratulations winners!

Beadable Findings Make Perfect Gifts

Beadable and creatable findings (also called interchangeables and add-a-bead components) allow you to create wonderful handmade gifts with minimal effort—whether you're creating finished designs for resale or gifting friends, relatives or yourself! They fit a wide range of large-hole beads for a variety of finished looks. Better still, Rings & Things has expanded its offering of beadable findings with several new components, great for Mother's Day, graduation gifts and Father's Day:

"Buffet Beauties" Gift Set Mother's Day is                       May 10, 2009     ... Say I Love You

"The Grads" Gift Set Say congratulations!         Class of 2009

"Hard Rock" Desk Set               Father's Day is June 21, 2009             Say thank you ...

Swarovski is now CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements

The high-quality refraction and shimmer of the world's premiere crystal pedigree hasn't changed—but the name has! To keep in line with a new branding policy passed down from Swarovski, Rings & Things now labels the majority of its Swarovski products CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements.

In our online store, you'll now find Swarovski beads, pendants, buttons, rhinestones, links, charms and more under CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements. We've moved other crystal offerings to different locations in our online store: #8000-series Swarovski® crystal prisms can now be found with charms & pendants, and economical China-made Cosmic Crystal™ can now be found with beads.

While CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements have a new look in our store, the high-quality sparkle and refraction remain the same. Enjoy them as you always have, and have a sparkling CRYSTALLIZED™ summer.

The Bead Museum of Arizona Needs Our Help

The Bead Museum of Arizona is in trouble! A period without an acting director has left the facility without grant funds for 2009—and this during an economic downturn. They will most likely have to close later this year if relief from us is not swift. The Bead Museum of D.C. has already shuttered its doors, and the endangered Bead Museum of Arizona is the only major facility left in the United States that promotes the historical, cultural and artistic significance of beads, adornment, and related artifacts from ancient, ethnic and contemporary cultures. It is vital for bead history to keep this research collection safe and intact!

Rings & Things and other bead sellers have already contributed to the efforts. Please join us in saving this wonderful institution. There are four easy ways you can donate to the Bead Museum now:

• Go to the museum's website, click the "donate" button (on the left) and follow the PayPal prompts.
• Email Kelly Norton (current acting director) at director@beadmuseumaz.org to arrange a donation.
• Mail a donation to: The Bead Museum, 5754 West Glenn Drive, Glendale, Arizona 85301
• Become a Bead Museum member at the "Turquoise Level" or above (includes free museum admission, free subscription to the Bead Museum Quarterly, museum store discounts and more).

Newsletter Apology, Gemstone Index & Online Store Upgrade

Many of you received 2-3 copies of recent R&T newsletters, and we apologize! We know you don't like getting spam (we don't like it either). After encountering a problem when sending our April showroom newsletter, we thought we'd fixed the issue. But, alas, it happened again when we sent our April issue of the R&T Extra. We hope we have now permanently fixed the problem, and we thank you for your patience during our goofs last month!

In other news, we're proud to announce that a new edition of our Gemstone Beads Index is now available in print! For an economical $12, this approximately 70-page volume provides insight into the origins, chemical composition, uses and care instructions for more than 325 gemstones. The book is easy on the eyes with an attractive color image chart of the stones. It makes a great addition to your artist guild or bead society library, and is a good read for individuals too. If you own a shop or booth, display it with your gemstone beads or finished creations as a point of sale—give your customers instant information about stones that interest them. Don't want to them to discover your gemstone source? This book is designed to accommodate! The cover pages are removable, and our name is not mentioned on the information pages. Get a free preview by checking out our online Gemstone Beads Index.

More good news is that we're adding an upgrade to our online store! The upgrade should fix some issues reported by users, plus speed up searches. In order to complete the upgrade, our online store will be down from approximately 6 pm to midnight Pacific Time, Tuesday, May 5.

May's Free Jewelry Project

The sun has returned to the Northern Hemisphere! What better way to celebrate than with Evette Rana's stunning Golden Goddess necklace design. This simple yet innovative piece uses wire mesh tubing to connect sparkling copper-colored crystals from CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements. The striking "rock" pendant combines classic crystal sparkle with a unique, matte top edge that resembles sea glass.

Get ready for more fun in the sun with our wide array of summer-themed components, including beach, sports and picnic themes.

To browse more free designs, check out our online Design Gallery and/or 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: May 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:

May's birthstones is the emerald. For economical options, check out emerald CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements and emerald glass beads. A great semi-precious gemstone option for May is agate, the gemstone associated with the Gemini zodiac sign. Read about care tips plus geological and metaphysical attributes in our agate Gemstone Beads Index entry.

• May 1: The monthly R&T blog giveaway begins. To enter, simply post a comment! At the end of the month, all commentators go into a random drawing for two surprise goodie packs.
• May 2: BeadTour show in Grand Rapids, MI.
• May 3: BeadTour show in Detroit (Livonia), MI.
• May 5: BeadTour show in Louisville, KY.
• May 5: Rings & Things' online store will be down from approximately 6 pm to midnight Pacific Time for an upgrade.
• May 9: Basic Art Clay™ Silver Class at our Spokane, WA, warehouse (click for directions). Attend from out of town and get hotel discounts for R&T customers.
• May 13: BeadTour show in Sacramento (McClellan), CA.
• May 14: BeadTour show in San Mateo, CA.
• May 16: BeadTour show in Orange County, CA.
• May 17: BeadTour show in San Bernardino, CA.
• May 19: BeadTour show in Phoenix, AZ.
• May 25: Rings & Things will be closed to observe Memorial Day.

• June 1: The monthly R&T blog giveaway begins. To enter, simply post a comment! At the end of the month, all commentators go into a random drawing for two surprise goodie packs.
• June 4-7: Join Rings & Things at the annual Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee, WI. We'll be in booth #544 at the Midwest Airlines Center, 400 W. Wisconsin Avenue. See you there!
• June 7: BeadTour show in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
• June 9: BeadTour show in Tampa Bay, FL.
• June 10: BeadTour show in Orlando (Altamonte Springs), FL.
• June 11: BeadTour show in Jacksonville, FL.
• June 13: BeadTour show in Atlanta (Norcross), GA.
• June 14: BeadTour show in Charlotte, NC.
• June 15: BeadTour show in Raleigh, NC.
• June 16: BeadTour show in Richmond, VA.
• June 17: BeadTour show in McLean, VA.
• June 18: BeadTour show in Baltimore (White Marsh), MD.
• June 20: BeadTour show in Philadelphia (Trevose), PA.
• June 21: BeadTour show in East Hanover, NJ.
• June 22: BeadTour show in New Haven (North Haven), CT.
• June 23: BeadTour show in Boston (Burlington), MA.
• June 25: BeadTour show in Rochester, NY.

Thanks!

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