Ruby Lane's Creative Hands Newsletter for July 2006

IN THIS ISSUE:

• SHOP SPOTLIGHT: Welcome To Bead Chic!
  
• Share Creative Hands With A Friend
  

SHOP SPOTLIGHT: WELCOME TO BEAD CHIC!

Bead Chic started four years ago, when a friend of mine had a designer beaded bracelet that I just thought was gorgeous. I absolutely loved all of the beads! I started looking for beads so that I could create my own design. I was so hooked that I asked my wonderful friend Kim if she would be interested in going into business with me, and Bead Chic was born. Kim and I have similar taste in jewelry style, but it is fun to see what kind of designs each of us come up with separately. Locally we do several boutiques and shows, which we really enjoy, as well as home parties. We also do a lot of custom jewelry design, which is fun.

The favorite design for us right now is our charm bracelets. We love to experiment on endless designs and colors, beautifully dangling and sparkling from all variety of chain. They not only look fabulous, but they are so fun to wear! In our jewelry pieces we use a variety of components, these being sterling silver, Thai and Balinese silver, Semi-precious stones, Swarovski crystals, freshwater pearls and more. Most of our pieces are designed with more of a random pattern instead of a repeating pattern. I really enjoy this look because you get a larger variety of beads on a piece of jewelry~ it's like eye candy that you can look at for hours. Another favorite are earrings with clusters full of jewels cascading down to a brilliant briolette.

My father is very artistic; he is a talented professional sculptor. I would always wonder why I didn't seem to have inherited this talent. When I finally started making jewelry, I realized I had found my artistic niche. The designs have become more complex over the years keeping things fun and interesting. Making jewelry professionally has been an amazing experience. The most fulfilling part for me is having a customer find a piece of jewelry that they love. The customers have been so amazing to deal with, especially here on Ruby Lane.

What inspires me mostly is just shopping for materials. I can really get creative when I have just purchased new gemstones or silver or whatever it may be. That is the time I just want to sit and play with all of my new elements. There is nothing like a new box or bag of endless possibilities. I especially love clear, sparkling gemstones, though I usually can't afford to purchase as many of these as I would like - it is a gradual process. Some of my favorites at the moment, are tourmaline (especially pink), aquamarine, white topaz, apatite and prasiolite. The favorites change all of the time.

We have just passed our 1st Anniversary here on Ruby Lane. It has been fun seeing Bead Chic grow. Being on Ruby Lane has been a great experience and is a perfect fit for us. I can't believe we didn't do it sooner. We have enjoyed being here with so many talented artists. It is wonderful to be able to have the exposure that the Internet brings. The Web has opened up opportunities for customers to see and purchase our work that never would otherwise. Our goal as a company is to continue to make high quality, chic jewelry that can be enjoyed by customers for many years to come. We are also committed to providing great customer service; we want you to have an enjoyable shopping experience.

We hope you will stop by and see us at Bead Chic! If you mention that you read about us in this Creative Hands newsletter, you will receive 10% off any order of $50 or more in our shop through August 15th 2006.

We invite you to visit Tammy's shop: Bead Chic

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