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.

Current Beading Project

Here's a shot of one of the projects I'm currently working on. Sorry for the poor photo quality, I really need a good camera. It's an unfinished project I started last year on Bead Cruise. Anyone recognize it?

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. :-)

White Flowers Beaded Purse

I completed several beadwork projects (and began several more) during the year I took off from blogging. Here's the first of many I have to show you, the White Flowers Purse. I'd already blogged about the two panels that make up the body of the purse. The strap is made of hematite beads and Delicas in some of the colors from the panels. I had added fringe but decided it drew the eye away from the flower panels. Since I wanted the flowers to be the focal point, the fringe came back off. What do you think?