Author Archive: Kevin on The Blog

Halloween is almost here, which means that Scream Week will be starting soon at Lima Beads. As usual, we’ll have some fun & spooky things planned, but we need your help! We want to showcase Halloween themed designs and fresh picks and maybe even have a little contest…

We need your designs!

When you’re ready, upload your Halloween-themed jewelry designs to the Design Gallery and/or create your spooky Fresh Picks. Be sure to select “Halloween 2012″ during the process so we know to include it in the Scream Week festivities If you’ve never done this before, don’t worry–it’s super easy. You can make sure your Fresh Pick is part of the “Halloween 2012″ promo right from the My Fresh Picks page. And for designs in the Design Gallery, you’ll see that choice right on the form you fill out to upload your design.

I’ll leave you with a picture of a few spooky designs and picks from last year… and get ready for another fun week!

We have additions to 3 product lines this week.

Nunn Design

Today, we’re adding 80 items to our collection of great Nunn Design pieces. These items include everything from bead caps to ornate bezels, links, and bracelets. I love the bangle bracelets. I know it won’t be long before Ali comes in with a bracelet made of several bangles tied together with ribbon and who knows what else woven into the mix. There are a lot of good pieces here and the quality of Nunn Design stuff is awesome.

New Gemstones

There’s really no theme to this week’s gemstone additions. There’s something for everyone with stones like sunstone, green garnet, amazonite, and tourmaline in the mix. You could get big and funky with a 16mm faceted round or stay small and subtle with an amethyst briolette. See all the gemstones now.

More Irish Waxed Linen

We’ve expanded this line to include a thicker option (7 ply) and some new colors! These items have turned out to be super popular for good reason–the colors are awesome!

I have 3 things for you to shop this week:

1. We’ve added to our selection of designer Czech glass in a big way.
2. There are new metal beads and findings to see and the prices are great!
3. Heather at Humble Beads sent us some amazing designs she’s been working on.

New Designer Czech Glass

The Czech glass additions include lots of fire polished rondelles, nuggets, flowers, and more. Each time we receive a shipment of new Czech glass, I just want to get on a plane and go to the Czech Republic. They seem to have a never-ending supply of awesome colors and I’d love to see how they do it! Kadie and Ali obviously had some fun this week with color names like: bisque, artichoke fire, spicy tuna, and grasshopper pie. See them all.

More Metal Basics

We’re covering the basics this week with metal beads and findings that are a great value. You’ll find staples like silver plated round 4,6,8, and 10mm as well as awesome stuff like the large stainless steel carabiner style clasp. We’ve also added to our selection of cord ends (finally). See all of the metal beads and findings additions now.

New Humble Beads

Heather has been busy! Today, we’re adding a handful of designs that just came in. Heather Powers, owner and artist at Humble Beads, creates enchanting beads and pendants with polymer clay. Her inspirations stem from her childhood home on the shores of Lake Michigan and in the woods of her sleepy hometown. Birds, tree branches, leaves, flowers and sundries from the sea reflect the beauty of nature that inspires all of her polymer clay creations. See the entire line of Humble Beads now.

Last, but not Least…

Don’t forget to check the Back in Stock page for some of your favorites that just arrived back at the shop this week… TierraCast, TOHO, Nunn Design, and more!

Today, we’re adding to 3 of our most popular lines: Lillypilly metal discs, Green Girl Studios artist beads, and Vintaj brass and arte metal components.

New Vintaj

This Vintaj addition is full of goodies. You’ll find versatile decorivets, large brass sheet metal, blanks, bead caps, lobster clasps, and more! Ali had fun with some of the new components in the Armored Cuff design she posted today. Check out all the new Vintaj!

New Lillypilly

You’ve got to check out the patterns and colors on these new anodized aluminum Lillypilly discs. I don’t know how they come up with all of this stuff, but I love it! The possibilities are endless. The looks range from vintage to funky and they’re all handmade in the USA.

Green Girl Studios

Green Girl Studios was the first artist we added to our shop. That was about 5 years ago and the line is still growing. We’re only adding a handful of new pieces today, but if you’ve never taken the time to browse the entire Green Girl line, I’d highly recommend it. Cynthia’s many designs are drawn from a wide range of subject matter and are sure to pull you in

I’m excited about the great selection of stuff we’re adding today! We have pewter beads that start at just 20 cents each, some very beautiful gemstone strands, and a ton of new artist lampwork glass.

Pewter Beads

This line of lead-free pewter beads is fantastic! They come in everything from small spacer beads to larger focal beads, they’re lightweight, and they won’t tarnish over time. Most are available by the piece, so you can buy exactly what you need. Large hole beads are available, which is good because these look fantastic with leather cord. I love the color of this pewter. It’s lighter than the other pewter beads we sell. It almost looks more like silver than pewter. See the entire line now!

Gemstone Beads

If you’re looking to add some WOW factor to your summer designs, you’ll want to check out these gemstones. We’re adding the good stuff — stones like: apatite, kunzite, kyanite, the nicest lapis I’ve ever seen, malachite, pink opal, and more. These are all high-grade strands and the value is great.

Grace Lampwork Glass

We’re doubling the size of our Grace Lampwork selection. Self-taught lampworker Grace Ma made her first lampwork glass beads in October 2002. She insists on high-quality materials and consistency in her line of glass beads, and considers learning a “life-term job.” Grace Lampwork glass beads are annealed overnight for increased strength, and have wonderful character in the smallest details. Check out the new additions!

For all of our US based customers, I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July. It was over 100 degrees here in Michigan yesterday. Ali and I, for some reason, decided to take the kids to the zoo. It was a recipe for disaster, but turned out to be a great time!

If you’re feeling crafty - You’ll love the selections of new bezels, paper, stamps, buttons, and a huge line of glitter that we just added to the shop!

Not feeling crafty? That’s OK, because we’ve also added a great selection of gemstone beads at amazing prices.

Getting Crafty

The divisions between beading and other crafty things like scrapbooking just keep disappearing. Three years ago, I never imagined that we’d be selling things like paper, punches and glitter, but today we’re adding all of them. This new line of glitter is huge. There are a lot of colors and a lot of awesome, organic textures. With these new additions, you’ll have endless fun with your crafty jewelry projects. If you work with resin, or have been wanting to get started with it, check out the bracelet Ali made using the new glitter and paper with our LimaStudios crystal clear resin.

Gemstone Beads

This week’s additions are super colorful. We’re adding to the always popular impression jasper with bold colors like denim blue, midnight blue, and dark teal. We also have new shapes in the natural color impression jasper. One of the things I’m most excited about is our new pendant sets. They come on small strands that have one large pendant and two smaller pendants — perfect for a necklace & earrings combo. They’re available in midnight blue impression jasper, red creek jasper, and ruby impression jasper. We also have a few new freshwater pearls and some other stones – see them all now.

Craft on!

Summer has arrived and the A/C is pumping! It’s a good thing too, because here at Lima Beads, we’ve been inside counting and shelving loads of new stringing materials this week. Thread, Elastic, Nylon Cord, Leather, Silk Ribbon, WireLace, Irish Waxed Linen–you name it and we’re adding it to the shop today.

Here are some highlights from the big batch of beading thread, cord, and ribbon added this week. There are a ton of new items to see!

Beading Cord: a multitude of colors and sizes in Griffin, C-Lon, and Elasticity cord.

Leather Cord: more leather cord styles, including some awesome metallic colors.

Beading Thread: 100 thread styles in Amiet, DandyLine, C-Lon, and WildFire.

Silk Ribbon: new hand-dyed silk ribbon colors.

Irish Waxed Linen: 2-ply and 4-ply in a variety of colors.

WireLace: 2.5mm, 12mm, and 20mm styles to add to our selection.

Have fun stringing–and enjoy the first week of summer!

With a show of hands, does anyone like color? Yes? OK, read on… you won’t want to miss over 200 new Lillypilly pieces and a handful of gemstones.

New Colorful Lillypilly

We just can’t get enough of the colorful creations of Lillypilly Designs. Today, we’re adding over 200 anodized aluminum sheets and discs. The patterns are exquisite! Choose from a variety of bold colors in different styles. My favorite? The zebra, hands down. Check them all out, and have a peek at our tips for using Lillypilly!

A Helping of Gems

I couldn’t pass up a week without telling you about at least SOME of the gemstones that just arrived at our shop. There’s truly a variety here–no two shapes from the same stone! From 2mm to 40mm, I love them all. See all the new gems.

More Supplies, too…

Rounding out this week’s additions, we have the functional items (they never get as much love as the pretty items above). We now have a Scoop ‘n Pour, assorted beading needles, and a jar of Tool Magic to soften the tips of your metal tools. Enjoy!

This week, we’re adding 70 selections in Lillypilly metal and over 50 selections in hemp. Also, we found some more African paper beads, but they’re a special buy, so act fast if you want some!

Lillypilly

I must say that Ali and Cathy went a little crazy on our latest shipment from Lillypilly. Today we’re adding a bunch and it’s only 1/2 of the shipment! If you’re not familiar with Lillypilly sheet metal, you have to check it out. The new colors and patterns are fantastic. They offer full lines of both anodized aluminum and copper sheets and discs in a variety of colors and funky patterns. Some of the sheets are so thin, you can cut them into any shape you’d like. There is a huge variety of uses for these sheets. See all of the new Lillypilly now.

Special Buy: African Beads

We found more! Last year, we got our hands on these for the first time and they sold out in record time. We found more quantity this time, but there still aren’t many, so you can find them in the special buy section. That means — when they’re gone, they’re gone! There’s a great story behind paper beads too — learn more.

Hemp

We’ve just added quite a bit of hemp to the shop. There are some great colors and even new packaging. You can buy packages that have 2 small spools, which saves you from having to purchase the large spools if you don’t need so much. See it all now.

We have three product additions this week: Ezel Findings, a new raku artist, and some sparkly high quality gemstone beads.

Beautiful Sparkly Gemstones

We just received a shipment of India-cut gemstone beads. Most of these are hand-cut from high quality material with great color. I think the golden pyrite is my favorite addition — here are 5 sparkly little shapes! We’ve also added hessonite, labradorite, pink opal, tanzanite, tourmaline, and more. The labradorite freeform slab is the nicest labradorite we’ve ever had in the shop — it glows. See all of the gemstone bead additions now.

New Ezel Findings

Today, we’re expanding our line of Ezel Findings. The additions are full of links, pendants, and bead caps. Ezel Findings manufactures high quality metal components. They are always releasing innovative new designs in fantastic metal tones. See all of the additions.

Amy Mealey Raku Beads

We’ve been looking for a great raku artist for almost 2 years. We were pleased to find Amy. She has intricate pieces as well as simple accent pieces. Amy created pottery for 10 years before moving into raku. If you’re not familiar with raku beads, you have to check them out. The colors and textures are so beautiful!

It’s a huge week today at Lima Beads. Did you expect us to say something different? Haha. In all seriousness, we have 160 new products including designer Czech Glass, gemstones, and new freshwater pearls.

New Czech Glass

Our line of designer Czech Glass has been so popular that we couldn’t help from expanding it. Back on March 15, we added about 100 shapes. And today, we’re adding another hundred. They’re absolutely awesome! We have some new shapes, too… my favorite is the ammonite fossil. There are also some tiny little teardrops, daisies, ovals, and even a few owls. Check out all the new Czech!

Gemstone Bead Additions

We added a smorgasbord of gemstone shapes & sizes to the site today. There are 30 total, and they range from small rounds to big drops in a variety of stones. Many of the stones bring back the memories from almost 10 years ago when we first started selling gemstones online–mookaite, bronzite, carnelian, tiger eye, and more. There’s also a little titanium druzy nugget that caught our eye–love it! Check out the pics for all the new gemstones.

New Freshwater Pearls

It’s been a while since we’ve been able to tell you that we added over 20 freshwater pearls. So we’re happy to do it today! The freshwater pearl additions include 8 pearly white shapes, a few peacock shapes, and some brand new colors.

TOHO 11/0 Round Seed Beads

We’re continuing to grow our TOHO seed bead selection, and we’ve got almost a hundred new 11/0 rounds for you to see. There are tons of bright colors and fun finishes. Check out all the pics.

New Gemstones

We have some new brightly-colored agate, druzy pieces, cool drops & some old favorites. See all the new additions.

Glass Garden Additions

Now if these aren’t the coolest embellishments, I don’t know what are! These bottle caps and glass pieces from Glass Garden remind me of summer–and are extra cool because they’re recycled materials. See if you recognize anything from the list of additions. I knew a few, but didn’t recognize them all!

We have 3 big product additions this week: Czech glass 2 hole tile beads, incredible Patricia Healey copper, and a huge expansion of our Soft Flex line.

Czech 2 Hole Tile Beads

We’ve added about 50 colors of these 6mm tiles. 2 hole tile beads have been very popular lately. Because they’re flat and square, they’re perfect for joining two strands together. They can also be stitched together on a loom or by using a variety of different stitches. The possibilities are endless!

Patricia Healey Spring Collection

Patricia has really outdone herself this time. We’re in love with this collection of beads, charms, pendants, findings, and even CHAIN. It’s all in her ultra colorful copper finish and the designs are so much fun. If you like the look, shop the entire line of Patricia Healey copper.

Soft Flex Expansion

We’ve added about 40 new items to our Soft Flex line. You’ll find lots of fun colors and finishes. Many of the new styles are meant to match gemstone colors. These include: tanzanite, red jasper, turquoise, emerald, and more. They’re beautiful.

Vintaj called us early this year and asked us to be their April online bead partner. They wrote a nice blog post about us and posted some photos of Ali’s work. You can see it here:

Spring Rain Online Bead Partner – Lima Beads

This was exciting! We’re really enjoyed working with Vintaj on the Spring Rain promotion this month. They’re a talented group of people!

There’s a bunch of crystal and shell pearls that just got added to the special buy section. Special buys happen at Lima Beads for a number of reasons. In this case, some of the items in a shipment didn’t match the colors of our previous stock. We’re very picky about the color consistency of our crystal and shell pearls. So, if it arrives here and doesn’t match perfectly with the color we’ve sold you before, we won’t sell it as the same color — we make it a special buy. If you like the colors you see, you can pick them up at a discount, but you may never be able to get them from us again. When they’re gone – they’re gone! See all special buys now.

The 2012 Easter egg hunt is here! This is the fourth annual hunt! If this will be your first Lima Beads Easter Egg Hunt, it’s simple. We’ve hidden Easter eggs (a lot of Easter eggs) on our web site. Find them and win beads, supplies, coupons and even gift certificates.

This year’s hunt is very similar to last year’s with two exceptions:

1. We’ve tried to make the hunt a bit easier by not hiding eggs in any blog posts, designs or fresh picks that were created before 2012. So, you don’t need to go digging through thousands of blog posts, fresh picks and designs…
2. Second, there’s a BIG twist this year. We’ve just launched a completely new web site. We’ve been working day and night to get it ready for the hunt, which is why the hunt launched a few days later than normal We hope you love it. We set out to make it as easy as possible to find what you’re looking for… Unless you’re looking for eggs. We hid those really well!

100 Easter Eggs

That’s right, there are 100 eggs hidden on the web site RIGHT NOW (plus an additional 3 special GOLDEN eggs). They’re scattered all over the Lima Beads web site. The only pages where you won’t find eggs is on blog posts, designs or fresh picks that were created before 2012. As you find eggs, you’ll see this status bar:

We don’t want anyone to go crazy, so we should tell you up front: finding all the Easter eggs will be difficult. Some of them are very well hidden. It’s not really about finding ALL of the eggs this year, it’s about finding the most and getting to the top of the leaderboard!

The Leaderboard

Just like last year, there’s a leaderboard that shows the top 100 hunters. See the Leaderboard.

Prizes

The more eggs you find, the more prizes you get. When you reach 10, 25, 35, 50, and 75 eggs a new set of prizes will be unlocked. You can choose from a variety of FREE beads and even a collection of coupons worth 15% – 20% off various items. There are also prizes associated with the Leaderboard. At the end of the Easter Egg Hunt, the top 10 people on the leaderboard will be entered to win The Grand Prize, a $250 Lima Beads Gift Certificate. Everyone else on the leaderboard will be entered to win second prize, a $100 Lima Beads gift certificate. See all the prizes.

The Golden Eggs

This year, we’re also hiding 3 special golden eggs (in addition to the 100 eggs, making a grand total of 103)… If you’re the very first one to find a golden egg, you’ll win a $25 Gift Certificate to our store! If the same person finds multiple golden eggs, that lucky beader will win one $25 gift certificate for each golden egg they find. Yowza! The golden eggs don’t count towards your leaderboard total, and you can keep an eye on who’s found the golden eggs on the leaderboard.

Rules

• The contest ends at 11:59pm on April 8, 2012 (Easter). This means you need to make sure and do the following by this time:
  • Collect all the eggs you can find.
  • If you unlocked any prizes, add them to your shopping bag and place your order—all prizes (except the discount code explained below) must be redeemed by the end of the contest. Normal shipping rates will apply.
  • If you unlocked the coupon prize, write down your coupon code (you can use it any time until the end of 2012)
  • Watch the blog for an announcement about the $250 drawing
• There are a total of 100 Easter eggs plus an additional 3 “golden” eggs that we’ve hidden for you to collect. Those are the only ones that count toward the prizes, and you must click on them to collect them. You might see some picture of eggs in promotional materials (like the ones in the grass at the top of this page)… those don’t count toward your total.
• We can’t offer rain checks on the prizes, so make sure to place your order when you’ve unlocked the prizes, because they’re only available while supplies last!
• We think we have enough free beads to go around… but in case we run short, we reserve the right to substitute a product of equal value as your prize (hey, it’s free, right?) . We can’t offer rain checks on unavailable prizes. We also reserve the right to update this list of rules if it needs clarification later.
• Normal shipping rates apply. As much as we’d like to, we just can’t afford to give away free beads AND ship them for free too. If you add your prizes to an order over $40, you’ll get the same free shipping you always get (inside the USA). If your order is under $40, normal shipping rates will apply to it.
• Please don’t share the locations of the eggs. This ruins the fun for everyone Also, you must find the eggs yourself–you can’t have a robot (or a computer) do it for you. Location sharers and robots will be disqualified from winning prizes! Gotta keep it fair for the rest of us!
• The most important rule: have fun!

We’re sorry for the delay on the Easter Egg Hunt, it’ll be live shortly. We’re working on something big…

We have some beautiful gemstone additions this week. There are over 40 different gemstone strands AND 20 styles of gemstone bead chain.

Fine Gemstones

This week’s additions are cut from some of the most sought after gemstones on the market. My two favorites are beryl morganite and kunzite. Their light, happy natural coloring couldn’t be better for spring. We’ve been looking for a good factory for these and we finally found one. The price and quality are outstanding. Not to be outdone, the new kyanite has a deep blue color that makes me want to dive right in. There are over 40 total additions. Other stones include: apatite, sunstone, black onyx, golden pyrite, labradorite, spinel, rhodochrosite, and more. See them all now.

Gemstone Bead Chain

This isn’t your average metal chain — it has premium gemstones wire wrapped into it! You’ll find silver and gold chain with stones like tourmaline, labradorite, green onyx, moonstone, and pink sapphire. All of the styles are very light and elegant. The silver chains are all sterling silver, the gold ones are gold plated over sterling silver. The manufacturer selects a high grade of stones when making these chains and it shows. See the gemstone chain now.

UPDATE: The contest winners have been chosen, and will be announced on April 18th! Stay tuned to the blog for the results!

A few weeks ago, the designers at Vintaj picked out some of our beads to use in their “Spring Rain” theme. They made some fantastic pieces using a combination of their own items and the beads we sent. The color scheme they chose was so beautiful and their designs turned out so well, that we thought it’d be fun to turn their Spring Rain theme into a Lima Beads design contest!

We’ve packaged these items into kits that you can purchase below. Here’s how it works: purchase a kit, design some jewelry, and add it to the Lima Beads design gallery and be sure to select “Spring Rain 2012” from the seasonal options at the bottom. The people with the 3 most popular designs will each win a Lima Beads gift certificate. Full details are available below. Happy designing!

Embellish your design

As you’ll see in the pieces Vintaj designed (below), they chose to use patinas to color the piece of Arte Metal from the kit. They also chose to use ribbon in their bracelet. For the contest, it’s OK to make these sorts of additions, as long as the majority of your piece is composed of items from the kit. For example, you could use leather cord or chain in place of ribbon. You could color your metal with gilders paste, acryllic paint, or just leave it alone. It’s up to you!

Designs

Here are a couple of designs from Vintaj that were inspired by the “Spring Rain” theme. See all Spring Rain designs as they’re uploaded.

Spring Rain Bracelet by Jess Italia Lincoln from Vintaj

Spring Rain Earrings by Jess Italia Lincoln from Vintaj

Official Contest Rules

1. To enter your design in the contest, you must start with one of the two kits above. We have a limited quantity available… when they’re gone, they’re gone!
2. You can make anything you want–a necklace, bracelet, earrings, or anything else. Just make sure that about 75% of your design is made up from the items in the kit.
3. To submit your design to win, you need to add it to our Design Gallery. Make sure to choose “Spring Rain 2012″ from the seasonal options when you upload your design–that’s important! When you’re finished, your design should show up with all the other Spring Rain designs.
4. There will be three winners. First prize is a $100 Lima Beads gift certificate. Second prize is a $50 gift certificate. Third prize (you guessed it) is a $25 gift certificate.
5. Winners will be chosen based on a combination of how many times their design was viewed and favorited–the most popular designs win!
6. All designs must be submitted to the gallery by 11:59pm on April 15th. The winners will be announced a week later.
7. The MOST IMPORTANT rule is this: Be yourself, get inspired, and have fun!

Shell pearls are an alternative to cultured and glass pearls. They look and feel more genuine than glass pearls and offer the consistency of size and color that can be difficult to achieve with cultured pearls. Shell pearls exhibit the weight and feel of a natural South Sea pearl. They’re available in an array of beautiful colors.

How they’re made

The production process for shell pearls is similar to the process that crystal companies use to make glass pearls. The major difference is that glass pearls have glass in the center and shell pearls have a solid carving of real seashell at their core. Stone cutters cut and polish pieces of this giant shell until they have a perfect shape (10mm round for example). Once the piece of shell is finished, they’re ready to coat it. The coating, which is made in the USA, contains genuine mother of pearl that has been ground into a fine powder. This mother of pearl content is what gives shell pearls their deep luster. The coating process is what differentiates some shell pearls. All Lima Beads shell pearls have a thick multi-layer coating that ensures durability and high luster.

Great things about shell pearls

The core of a shell pearl

Genuine look and feel: Because they have a real seashell at their core, shell pearls look & feel more genuine than glass pearls.

Resilience: Shell pearls are more resistant to sweat, perfume, and other contaminants that commonly affect cultured pearls.

Availability: The controlled manufacturing process ensures that we can continuously restock items in the same shapes and colors.

Shop our Shell Pearls >