Archive: July ’10 on The Blog

It’s that time of year again — we just did inventory. Every bead, finding, cabochon, pearl, and foot of chain has been counted.

Cathy and her team did an awesome job getting it all counted. They even uncovered some items that weren’t already for sale at Lima Beads. We’re calling them “Cathy’s Collection” in honor of all their hard work during this year’s inventory. We’re also putting them on sale for 20% off for a limited time (see below for details).

They found some great stuff. There are a lot of gemstone strands that range from boulder opal to ruby crazy lace agate. They also found some awesome midnight blue and sky blue freshwater pearls!

See all of Cathy’s Collection now!

Things to remember…

The sale ends on Sunday night at midnight (August 1, 2010). We can’t offer any rain checks, so make sure to place your order by that time in order to get the sale prices! Start saving now!

In between all of the busy work it takes to put up new beads on our web site every week (not to mention ship out all the orders!), we make sure to keep a close eye on all of the inspiring work being done in the Design Gallery. Our customers really have amazing talent! One of those designers that caught our eye recently is Lynn G. Have you seen her PMC pendants? They’re awesome! Check out all her designs.

Some of Lynn's PMC Pendants

I corresponded with Lynn over e-mail to ask a few questions about her experience & inspiration with her work in PMC and beyond. I hope you enjoy some great information she was able to share.

Getting Started with PMC

Lynn says: “It all started when I wanted to add something different to my jewelry, and I started checking out books from the library, and came across PMC. I read them and I decided to go for it. I purchased a kiln and some other supplies. I started practicing, I think that’s the best way to learn.”

Planning...

Advice for Beginners

Lynn had some good advice for those who haven’t worked with PMC: “I recommend reading books like I did. I can suggest a very good one: Metal Clay for Beaders by Irena Meich. If you can’t afford a kiln you can torch some things, but you are limited, or some local bead stores have kilns and will fire for you.” Here’s another great nugget of advice from Lynn: “You have to have an idea ready, because the clay dries out fast!”

Inspiration

Lynn has always been clear that nature is a huge inspiration to her. You can see this in her Owl in Flight, Sea Shell pendants, Strawberry Fields Forever, and even in the leafy adornments she uses in her photographs.

Get inspired!

I love nature, too, but I wondered how people would get inspired if they lived in a big city and couldn’t go for a quick walk in nature. Lynn advises: “You can make just about anything with a good imagination. If you don’t live by nature, you can use many things around the home: old buttons, lace, perchaced molds and stamps with texture, houseplants, and so much more.”

Final word

I thought Lynn’s final piece of advice was simple and inspiring. She says simply, “if you dream it, you can do it.” Lynn wanted to let everyone know that she’d be happy to answer questions from anyone getting started. You can send her a message from her profile page in The Garden. Thanks again, Lynn, for your time and all your great work!

We have our winners for the How Many Feet of Chain contest! jewel in NP has just won the $100 Lima Beads gift certificate! The correct number of feet was actually 2549, but she was the closest to that (without going over) with 2525.

The winner of the cool geode is Color Us Purple with 2454! After just the 8th guess of the entire contest, she had us thinking it wasn’t going to last very long.

We always have a blast creating these contests and watching the guesses come flying in! Thanks so much to everyone who participated and congratulations to our winners.

Update: We have our winners!

If you guess how many feet of chain are on this table, we’ll give you a $100 Lima Beads Gift Certificate!

The rules are simple:

• You have until 2pm EDT on Monday, July 12th 2010 to make your guess(es).
• Guesses can only be submitted in the comments of this post.
• The winner will be the closest guess (without going over).
• If there’s a tie, the earliest entry will be the winner.
• You can guess up to once per day. At the end of the contest, only your most recent guess will be considered.
• If someone guesses the exact amount, we will announce it immediately. That person will automatically be the winner and the contest will end.

The Prize

The winner will receive a Lima Beads $100 gift certificate. The gift certificate can be used for absolutely anything in the Lima Beads shop and must be redeemed within 1 year. The winner will also be announced on the blog, so the whole beading world will know how incredibly awesome you are!

The "Cool Geode"

The first person to guess within 100 feet of the actual amount will receive a cool geode, so hurry and start guessing, but remember — you only get 1 guess per day!

Helpful Hints

You’ll find a couple of helpful facts about the chain below. Depending on how things are going, we may or may not be giving you another hint tomorrow afternoon.

• 7/8 – There are a total of 34 spools on the table
• 7/8 – Depending on link sizes, one of the larger spools will contain up to 400 feet
• 7/9 – Someone has already won the cool geode!
• 7/9 – The length of chain is shorter than a mile
• 7/12 – The correct guess is a prime number

Looking for today’s new beads?

Check the out on out New Additions page

What do you remember about celebrating the 4th of July as a child? I remember that I had just gotten out of school for the summer (reason enough to celebrate!), family and friends came over, the hot dogs were HOT, and the soda was cold. It was a great time. And then, at night, my dad would break out the sparklers. Something about sparklers makes people happy.

Know what else makes people happy? An awesome SALE on beads. We’re having one for the next 5 days and we’re calling it The Sparkler Sale because, well, we think it’s THAT good

What’s On Sale?

Red, White, and Blue gemstone beads – 15% off

All Vintaj & Stampt Metal – 25% off

All TierraCast & Chain – 20% off

Sale Ends Monday Night, July 5th

The only bad thing about sparklers is that they run out–and so does this sale. Be sure to place your orders by monday night at midnight (July 5th, 2010) to get the sale prices. We can’t offer rain checks on these items, so make sure to grab them while they’re hot!