August 2009
28 posts
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Economical Gemstone Beads for Jewelry
If you like to use gemstones in your jewelry designs and also like a more “organic” look, give gemstone chips a try. Gemstone chips are the by-product of the manufacturing process for other shapes of gemstone beads. The excess “chips” are then polished, drilled and temporarily strung. The resulting strands are much less expensive than round, faceted or shaped beads from the...
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Gorgeous Copper Keishi Pearls
We always keep an eye out for exceptional Keishi pearls as our customer’s seem to scoop them up very quickly. We found these huge and wonderful Copper Keishi Pearls last month. These are some of the largest ones we’ve ever seen and have great color! They are spendy, but worth it if you have the right design.
We also have some new, large White Keishi’s. Not quite as large as the...
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Sale on Solid Copper Jewelry Findings!
We continue to see steady growth in the use of copper by our customer base. We keep finding new solid copper products and you keep buying us out. Since many solid copper beads and findings are handmade in India, it can be very difficult for us to find replacement items 3-6 months later. So, if you see something you really like, its best to buy a bunch now!
To make that an easier decision,...
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Hard to Find Findings
When we decided to add Karat Gold Beads and Findings, we did some research to find out what buyers were looking for. In particular, we wanted to know the items that they were having trouble finding at a price they could actually afford.
The three items that were most classified as “hard to find in solid gold” were crimp covers, wire guard findings and exchangeble loop leverback...
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In, Out, In, Out......
One of the tedious things about running wholesale/retail business is that you always are running out of things, then replenishing, and always looking for new products. Actually, looking for new products is fun, but buying them and doing all the things necessary to add them to our stores is tedious.
The good news is that It’s the fall season of “adding” new stuff again....
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Necklace Project?
Beautiful here in Boulder on a Saturday afternoon. Heading outside to play for the rest of the day, but thought you might need some inspiration for a new fall necklace. Here’s a tutuorial for this lovely and unusual Prehnite Necklace! Instructions as well as links to all the parts are included!
Happy Saturday!
Prehnite and Copper Necklace Tutorial
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Back to School Sale!
Save 15% on more than 160 selected necklace components during our Back to School Sale at abeadstore.com. You’ll find gemstone and glass beads, clasps & findings in all finishes, stringing materials, focal beads and much more!
We know many of our customers really start their beading projects once school starts at the end of August. We put our daughter in high school this week and our son...
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What's On Your Fall Wish List?
It’s time for us to stock up for the fall and holiday season again. It’s been a tough year to add new products - both because we need to watch our cash flow and budget and because its been hard to predict what our customers are buying.
We’ve posted our Fall Wish List Survey. You can help us out by taking the time to participate and telling us how you will be spending your money...
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Save on Links & Connectors!
Today’s jewelry designs utilize stylish components for linking and connecting design elements and pieces together. It’s handy to have a wide variety of styles and materials available to drop into a design and see how it works!
Through August 26, you can save 12% on all our Links, Spacer Bars, Decorative Rings & Connectors at ChoiceJewelrySupplies.com.
Handmade Solid Copper...
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New Gemstone Pendants
My son and I took a couple of dying pine trees down in our yard this week, so these Tree Agate Pendants we added yesterday to our website struck me as a bit ironic. Nothing organic in these stone pendants by the standard living thing definition, but they are very unusual and have a lot of “organic” character by jewelry making standards.
Our inventory of larger pendant beads was...
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Beaded Impressions Beading Contest Winners!
The votes are in! Thanks to all of you for voting. We had a tremendous response to our 57 designs that were entered. The winning designs are posted below.
We found the necklace and earring entries to be both inspirational and original. Make sure to check out all the entries. All types of materials imaginable were entered. We’ll definately make this a more regular thing!
1st Place Price...
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When Only 14KT Will Do!
Most of our jewerly artist customers prefer to use either Sterling Silver or Gold Filled components in their jewelry because of the wide variety of items available and because of the price of Solid Gold components. But, there are many consumers who buy finished jewelry who will only purchase karat gold (solid gold) jewelry. So, they make their purchases in expensive jewelry stores who sell...
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Sterling Silver Bead Sale!
Even with the economy as poor as it has been over the last 12 months, Sterling Silver beads and findings just keep selling at a steady pace. Why? Sterling Silver is a great material for jewelry. It wears well (albeit some tarnishing that is easily cleaned up), it is easy to form into wonderful designs, and the price is affordable relative to gold components. Not to mention, there are more choices...
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Pearl Sale!
In the flurry of encouraging votes for our Beading Contest, we neglected to talk about our semi-annual Freshwater Pearl Sale. All our pearls are on sale at abeadstore.com for 20% off the list price at all price breaks.
This is a great opportunity to stock up on pearls of all shapes, colors and sizes. Make sure to buy what you might need for a project, as pearls are hard to match between lots.
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Problems with Beading Contest Voting....
Our service provider for the tool used to collect votes for the Beading Contest had some issues this afternoon. As a result, some of you may have encountered difficultly accessing the voting questionnaire or simply received a message that you had already voted.
Sorry for the inconvenience. We have set up a new URL for the survey which they assure me should not have the same problems. Please Vote...
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We Need Your Vote!!!!
All the entries into our Beaded Impressions Beading Contest are posted. Now, we need your vote to narrow down the field.
Thanks to the 57 artists who submitted their Necklace and Earring Designs! We love the variety, creativity and workmanship displayed in the pieces.
If you vote, you will receive a coupon for a 10% discount on your next purchase at abeadstore.com. Please take 10 or 15 minutes...
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Base Metal & Pewter Plated Beads on Sale!
Jewelry designers have used a lot more base metal plated beads over the last year or so to save some money in their designs. Hopefully, the price of gold and silver will go down before the busy holiday season, but just in case it doesn’t we have been beefing up our selection of plated beads.
If your design calls for larger metal beads, you definately want to look at going with plated beads....
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Silver Anti-Tarnish Finishes
We get frequent questions about what an anti-tarnish finish is for Sterling Silver. As many of you know, Sterling Silver will tarnish over time with exposure to skin and other elements. You can clean Sterling Silver items, but it does take time as well as the proper cleaning materials.
To get around that hassle, two common anti-tarnish finishes for silver are rhodium and Fine Silver. Rhodium is a...
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Snacky Donut Necklaces!
I was pondering a project to post here today when I wandered off to look at the many new entries to our Beading Contest that have not yet been posted. The complexity of many of the pieces that have been submitted makes the ones we currently have posted in our Projects & Tutorials section look fairly simple to make. That’s actually a good thing, since we are providing them largely for...