Topic Archive: New Products on The Fresh Daily

From now through Sunday (4/29/10 – 5/2/10), 13 of our most popular gemstones are on sale for 15% – 20% off! The stones are:

• Amazonite
• Blue pearl
• Muscovite
• Picture jasper
• Yellow turquoise
• Porcelain jasper
• Olive jade
• Seraphinite
• Smoky quartz
• Apple jasper
• Imperial jasper
• Mookaite
• and Leopardskin jasper

Don’t miss your chance to get these beauties at a discount! Please note that inventory on some of these items is a bit low and we’re unable to offer rain checks if any of them sell out. At midnight on Sunday May 2nd, prices of these items will go back to regular price, which will be reflected in your shopping cart.

New Gemstone Beads

We’ve also added some incredible gemstone beads to the shop this week. The pink shell is fabulous for summer and the cuts of ametrine, hessonite, and yellow smoky quartz are simply stunning.

Check them out!

Yesterday, we officially announced our exclusive line of Handmade Chain. It’s a collection of big, funky chain styles that will be available in several metals (starting with antique copper). It’s awesome in person, and we know that sometimes it’s hard to get a feel for a product when you’re just looking at pictures online. So, I wanted to tell you about 2 things that we’re doing that we hope will make this experience better and more enjoyable!

1. We’re going to start showing all chain using wide pictures that let you see the pattern better. Right now, all the Handmade Chain pictures are like this, and we’re going to be transitioning all our chain pictures shortly to this new format. We think it’s going to be a whole lot easier to get an idea of what the chain will look like in your hands (or on your neck!)

2. We’ve added a cool zoom feature that allows you to get a close-up on the chain when you’re shopping. Just move your mouse over the Handmade Chain pictures and you’ll get a close-up that moves along with your mouse. Right now, this is only available for the Handmade Chain, but will soon be available for the other chain, too!

That’s it! We hope these small things making shopping a whole lot better. Check it out, and let us know your feedback in the comments!

Today, we’re back to adding new gemstone beads AND we’ve continued to expand our chain and findings sections!

Huge Rainbow Fluorite

“HUGE” seems to be the theme of the gemstones Ali has chosen to add this week. There are quite a few large rondelles and rounds. There’s also some good focal material like new jade carved pendants, lapis off-center donuts, and a yellow turquoise carved oval pendant. If you’re looking for an inexpensive accent bead, we’ve also added a couple of rounds in the $3 range that should do the trick!

16mm etched jump rings

If you’re lucky enough to have been on vacation for the past two weeks, you’ve missed the biggest expansion in Lima Beads history. For the first time ever, we added chain, findings, and a huge selection of metal beads to our site. This week, we’ve continued the expansion with new styles of chain, crimp beads, and some cool jump rings (check out the 16mm etched ones!).

We’ve got more to come! Between now and the end of 2009, you’ll be seeing new gemstone beads almost every week, lots of new chain (especially sterling), more metal beads, more findings, and…. wire!   Stay tuned

If you’re an avid Lima Beads fan, you know that we’ve been talking about adding chain, findings, wire, and more metal beads for years!

As far back as I, Ali, or Steve can remember, we’ve always spent the majority of our time focusing on our line of gemstone beads. We wanted to build a line of stones we could be proud of and we all feel really good about what we’ve done so far, but it is time to expand. We wanted to expand much sooner, but as many of you know we just moved into a new building and our old office space made it impossible to add new products lines.

Lima Beads has chain!

We’ve spent over a year researching and quality testing chain, wire, findings, and metal bead lines. We’ve chosen a lineup that we know we can be proud of and that we feel will be a great addition to the Lima Beads family.

In the coming weeks, you’ll be seeing thousands of new items, including:

• Over 100 styles of chain in 5 different metals
• 1000’s of metal beads
• Findings, such as: earwires, headpins, eyepins, leverbacks, clasps, links/connectors, bails, lobster clasps, etc. in sterling, copper, and gold-filled.
• A full line of TierraCast beads and findings
• Wire
• A wide variety of metal beads and charms

But, is Lima Beads still going to be focused on gemstone beads and its other product lines?

Yes! Have no fear, we have big plans for our other lines as well. A huge load of new gemstone beads is on the way here as I’m writing this. Ali tells me that we also have some crazy cool new designs on the way from Green Girl Studios.

With that, we all take a big, deep breath (ahhhhhhhh) now that we’ve gotten the ball rolling on these lines.

Let us know what you think as we continue to add items!

Click to Enlarge

We’ve recently received the most delicious looking product sample ever — Murano glass beads. If you’ve ever shopped for a glass anything, you’ve surely heard of Murano.

The island of Murano is located just off the coast of Venice. Since the 13th century, some of the most beautiful glass in the world has been produced there. Most of the beads are still manufactured using the lampworking technique, which was invented by a Murano glass master in the 1700s.

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For the next 2 weeks, we’ll be adding awesome India-cut stones to our shop. Some of you will know exactly what to expect when I say India-cut, because there are specific stones that are typically cut in India and they are cut in a distinctive way. For those of you that aren’t familiar with these stones, I wanted to write a bit about them, because we love stones cut in India!

The Gemstones

multi-color moonstone

India factories cut many gemstones, but the ones you see most often are the “premium stones” — stones like: labradorite, peridot, ruby, garnet, emerald, moonstone, fluorite, opal, iolite, and tanzanite. These factories cut these stones to give them an awesome, unique look that you just can’t get anywhere else.

labradorite faceted rondelle

The Cuts

Many of the premium stones above are now being cut in China as well, but you can always tell when a strand has come from India. The factories there have a distinctive cutting style. Many of the stones are hand-cut rather than machine cut. This results in varying shapes and sizes rather than a perfectly uniform strand of beads. If you ask us, it adds a little character to the beads

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A few weeks ago, I announced that Lima Beads would soon be carrying gemstone cabochons. I started receiving emails about a week later saying “Hey! Where are the Cabs???” Beaders have no patience! I can say this for sure because I’m married to one.

I’m happy to say that we have added gemstone cabochons to our shop today! We’re starting off with shapes in some of our most popular stones and we’ll be growing the line from there.

We have standard cabochon sizes to wire-wrap or set:

Oval Cabochons

We have these standard sizes in:

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I love dogtooth amethyst. Lima Beads first started carrying this stone a couple of months ago, but we were only able to get 2 shapes to start. This week, we’ve added a full line of it and I’m so excited. I must admit, I already took out a few strands for myself

Amethyst with Calcite

When we initially added it to our shop, it wasn’t as popular as I thought it would be. I think the fact that we only had 2 shapes to offer made it more difficult for all of you to use. I think it’s going to turn into one of our most popular stones. It’s a natural purple stone that isn’t very expensive and that’s not an easy combination to find. It has the same gorgeous purple tones of amethyst that we all love, but also introduces white banding. This white banding is caused by a growth of calcite on the amethyst. This is commonly referred to as “dogtooth calcite” — which is where the name for this stone comes from.

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Staying stocked!

Hi beaders! I just wanted to make sure you had your fingers on our pulse at Lima Beads for the Fall season… Here’s a quick list of the autumn happenings here at Lima.

New Fall Beads

We’ve been busy adding new beads during our Fall Bead Harvest (see the stack of boxes on the right!):

• Week 1: Variscite, Vintaj, and more…
• Week 2: Fluorite, fluorite, and more fluorite!
• Week 3: Copper Green Opal, Mystic Blue Feldspath & more
• Week 4: Brandy Opal, Impression Jasper, Labradorite…

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Fall colors, popping patterns, and old favorites: that sums up the new gemstone beads we just added to our store–a total of 24 brand new beads! You can see them all (with photos) on the new beads page. I’ll cherry-pick a few of my favorites and tell you about them below. Read on (and don’t miss Kevin’s post about last week’s fall beads)….

Labradorite facets = sparkly

First, we’re adding 8 (!!!) new labradorite shapes, including freeform drops, a horse eye, rondelles, and some ultra-sparkly faceted shapes. It’s hard to capture the wonderful blue “flash” with a camera–but these cuts really show it when you’re holding them (or wearing them!). The faceted labradorite shapes have more facets than normal, which means more sparkle!

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Here at Lima Beads, we’ve been getting a lot of requests lately to carry sterling silver. This is something we’ve been considering for a long time, but we need your help!

What kind of silver would you like to see at Lima Beads?  We’re thinking of carrying the following:

• Head pins
• Wire
• Chain
• Clasps
• Ear wires

What are we missing? We would like to start of with a full line of standard items in standard sizes and branch out from there. Our goal is to allow our customers to get as much as they can in one place to save on shipping and time!

We’re especially excited about the wire — it will go nicely with our upcoming line of Cabochons.

Please let me know what you think.  If you’d like to see a certain item in sterling or even a specific brand of silver, tell me in the comments.

We want to do this soon!

Mystic Blue Feldspath

We’re adding 20 new gemstone beads to the Lima Beads shop today. These beads are great for fall – they range from bold reds to earthy browns and greens. You can find them all on the new beads page. 

The first addition is to mystic blue feldspath. We’ve added a standard 20×15mm thin pillow and 3 funky shapes: a cool little pendant, large 18×13mm rice and an awesome little 10×8mm barrel.

Copper Green Opal

Next, we’ve added 10 new beads to copper green opal. There couldn’t be a more perfect stone for fall. It’s extremely popular and we’ve been waiting forever to get more shapes in stock. Today, we’ve added a teardrop, puff coins, rice, rondelles, rounds and one very cool tumbled nugget.

My favorite addition this week is the red jasper. The boldness of its red coloring is absolutely gorgeous! There is just enough pattern to keep it interesting without taking away from the color. We’ve added an oval, a rice, a thin pillow and a large puff square (30mm!).

Red Jasper

You can also find a small apatite tumbled nugget and a citrine freeform slab in the new beads. The apatite tumbled nugget is a great little accent bead.

Let us know what you think!

Kevin

Larimar Blue Crazy Lace Agate

Wire wrappers rejoice – Lima Beads has a full line of cabochons coming soon! We’re very excited about this line. We’ve taken some of our most popular stones and had them cut into cabs by a marvelous factory. The cut and polish are unbelievable!

Matt & Steve are currently designing and building a new section of our web site for the cabs. You’ll be able to shop them by stone or size. Most of them will be a standard oval cut with one flat side, but a few of the stones will have really funky cuts! We’ve only received about half of the shipment thus far, but I know that some of the stones are:

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Matt hauling a box of beads up the stairs

Each year about this time, our fall lineup of beads starts to trickle in. Don the UPS guy pulls up in his truck and beeps the horn. We all run down to help him unload the boxes. In the past week, we’ve unloaded about 50 boxes that average 60 pounds each. Steve, Matt, and I carry all the boxes up the stairs (22 stairs to be exact!) and line them up in the hallway.

Once the boxes are upstairs, we can’t wait to tear them open and see all the new stones! This fall is going to be awesome. We’ve got a lot of gorgeous new beads that are brand new to the market. We also have additions to some popular stones, including high quality fluorite, labradorite, garnet, rhodochrosite and more.

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“Could you check your spelling on Stampt? Should it be Stamped?”

Copper Connector

I received that email from a customer shortly after we unveiled the new line of Stampt metal. To clear up any confusion – Stampt is the correct spelling. It is actually the brand name of this gorgeous new line of beads. If you follow the beading industry, you’re surely aware of the immense growth and popularity of brass beads and stampings over the past couple of years.

Gold Pendant

Stampt has taken these marvelous items and plated them in high quality metals. The stamping and plating are both done by small companies in the U.S. that have been doing this work since before I was born! The quality is impressive.

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