Rings & Things Wins a Green Business Award

Rings & Things has long been my favorite place to buy gemstones. I'm proud to say in the past week they were granted an award by the City of Spokane, Washington for their for their implementation of green and sustainable management practices.

The SMART (Sustainable Management of Assets, Resources and Technology) Business Recognition Program recognizes businesses at either a “participant” or “certified” level in a variety of categories, including energy efficiency, waste reduction and recycling, renewable energy, water conservation, green building, transportation/commute trip reduction, and pollution prevention. Rings & Things was awarded certification in the categories of Waste Reduction and of Transportation.

You can read more about this and about their other green awards at the Rings & Things site.
Their SMART award
An award for their Green Transportation practices
Details of their Transportation plan (includes a link to see the amount of miles and carbon dioxide reduced)

Environmentally Friendly Beading Wire and a contest

It's so exciting to see the beading world become environmentally friendly. This week I've discovered that Soft Flex has become the worlds first wire manufacturer to go green. I like their green page better than Fire Mountain Gems.

• It talks about their new Extreme Flex Eco Friendly Beading Wire.


• It tells us how to recycle the packaging and spools the wire comes on.


• It tells us where we can send in your wire scraps and spools so they can be recycled.


• It tells about their green practices, like one third of their employees telecommuting. (Hey I'm in the market for a job, maybe they can hire me to telecommute!)


• It's got lots of tips on many ways we can all be more green.

There's currently a contest on Bead & Button with several spools of Soft Flex as the prize including the new Extreme Flex. The contest ends on March 31st. Good Luck.

Keep watching, I've got a couple more posts on green beading in the works.

Fire Mountain Gems is Green

This is great news! Fire Mountain Gems is doing their part to reduce packaging and also uses recycled materials to produce their packaging. They even provide a page on their site with tips on how to reuse their packaging and further reduce waste!

Their boxes are made of recycled materials and can be reused to package gifts or as storage. I even used one once to send a care package to kid at summer camp, it was the perfect size.

The tissue paper in their packaging is also made of recycled materials can be reused as gift wrap. I've used it to make little packages for the jewelry I've sold and also in decoupage and scrapbooking projects.

For the baggies that the beads come in, their stickers are designed to be easily removed from the plastic bags. This allows you to reuse the labels and identify your products by item number for easy stocking and re-ordering. If you are a bead seller, you can also remove their label and place your own there (no need for re-packaging). I've removed labels and reused the baggies for packaging when I sell earings, rings and other small items. You can also store your beads and supplies in them.

Their catalogs are also printed on recycled paper. They are great for inspiration and I haven't met a beader yet that has thrown one of those out. :-)

Joan Painter is Open For Business Again

Joan has got things up and running again since the drunk driver crashed into her home/store. In addition to all the great beads she sold before she also has some delica size 11 bead soup for sale at 20 grams for $1.00. Just click the title of this post to get to her website.

Update on Joan Painter

Things are looking up! She is now accepting orders paying with MONEY ORDERS ONLY. She will be fully functional by September 3rd. She wants to thank everyone for the patience and understanding and all the well wishes.

Painters Art Gallery Accident

I receive an email from my friend Joan Painter. She runs a store from her home where many of us purchase our beads and supplies. A drunk driver drove strait into her house! The driver happened to hit the office/store section of the house. The truck totaled her car, wiped out part of her inventory and took out her ability to process orders. So if you've placed an order with her recently it may be a bit delayed. She has gotten her email back up and running. If you've placed orders I'm sure she'll be in contact with you soon if she hasn't been already.

Troll Bead

Went shopping at the Rings and Things show in Novi yesterday. As always, saw tons of high quality beads at very low prices. This is still the best bead show I have ever been to. Got some nice cabs to bead around, and lots of black beads - tourmaline and onyx (my stock in black was low). I picked up a few other strands that looked like they'd be fun to play with too, and wished I could afford to get a whole lot more.

Maybe some of you have heard of or seen the Russ Troll bead? His employees like him so much they had his likeness made into a troll shaped bead. I was surprised not to see any of those at the show. Well, when I was checking out they asked me how I'd heard of Rings and Things. I told him I am in an online forum with the owner Russ. That's when they handed me one of those beads. They were giving them out to whomever drops Russ' name at the show. The one I got has on red socks, green shorts and a polka dot shirt. I'm not sure what I'll use it for, but it's kind of cool having a bead of someone I know. Thanks Russ.