13 Shopping Days Left!

Did you realize there are only 13 shopping days left?! No, not til Christmas, but until Magpie Gemstones closes for over NINE weeks while they make their cross-country move! Make your last minute purchases now while these gorgeous eudialyte and AA grade serphanite cabochons are still there!

Or maybe it's the beautiful clear blue of the new apatite that your current designs need? They sure would look great paired with a Swedish Blue cabochon! Can you beleive the Swedish Blue cabochons are created from a glass by-product of Swedish foundries, dating back as far as 500 years ago?


Personally, I'm saving my pennies, nickels and dimes and the hope that nobody snaps up my birthstone and favorite: the gorgeous sapphires-nearly seven feet of them! Stunning color and and an incredible price for these beauties, and only ONE available!

While you're shopping the New Items, don't forget to check out the Super Sale page-no limit!! Snap up as many of these great deals as you while, while supplies last, before April 26th for a great deal! And for good measure, the Sale page still has many marked down close out items to choose from. The more you buy, the better the deal. Discounts still kick in and will further stretch your dollar.

On behalf of Magpie Gemstones, Happy Friday and have a great weekend!
Heather Otto
Mama's Craft Room

Close Out Sale and Beads of the Week!

As just about everyone knows, Magpie Gemstones has been having a major close out sale. Hundreds of categories have already completely sold out. In the Super Sale section, there are still 65 items left, but now at 50% off, they won't last long!! And check out the Sale section where you will find even more items, now marked down to 30% off! Don't think this is the picked over lot that's left-everything on sale is just as great a quality as the new items that just went in!






Speaking of New items, some of my favorite stones were added this week-charoite, kyanite, malachite and garnets just to name a few. Varying grades make the new beads affordable without compromising the excellent quality and beauty. AA grade malachite beads and kyanite cabochons, lush charoite rondelles, sweet little hessonite garnets and pyrite in great faceted shapes as well as donuts and hearts! Natural yellow African opal,  mookaite, amazonite and AA grade rhodocrosite look so gemmy and lush, they belong in a candy bowl! Stock is not unlimited, and it's hard to find both great quality and fantastic prices, so don't wait and get them while you can. Remember, Magpie Gemstones will be closed from April 26th through July 1st. Have a great, bead-filled weekend!

On behalf of Magpie Gemstones,
Heather Otto
Mama's Craft Room

Sale

What have you snagged during the annual Magpie Gemstones New Year's Sale? I've enjoyed reading online about what various designers have gotten with the 20% off on everything sale. Many have posted photos of what they made with their Magpie Gemstones. Wow - you should see them! I purchased a number of strands of this amazonite is various shapes and sizes.

Here's the deal. During this sale, which is still gong on, 20% off is automatically figured on your cart and there's not a magic dollar amount you need to reach to get the discount. Normally, you would need to purchase $200 to get this level of discount.

Even if you have already purchased during this sale, it would behoove you to keep watching since Szarka keeps adding new beads all the time. I really enjoy seeing what they unearths from the warehouse and offer to customers. If you see something you like; however, it's a good idea to grab it before it is gone. As you know, Magpie Gemstones, purchases a limited amount of each bead and when they are gone . . . they're really gone and we don't usually see them again.

I probably should remind you about free shipping, which is also a great reason to buy from Magpie. We get free shipping on any order that is a minimum of $39. Let's see, 20% off and free shipping on my $39 or over order. It sounds good to me. How about you?

Saling for you, we are Magpie Gemstones.
Karen Meador, PhD
Dreamcatcher Designs
www.dreamcatcherranch.net/designs

JMBL GIVEAWAY

Our Jewelry Makers and Bead Lovers Group has reached 2000 members. To celebrate we are giving away a strand of Labradorite.

How to win? First you must be a member of the group, then choose a number between 1 and 1000 and leave it in a comment below. Only one guess per person!

The closest number will win and the winner will be announced in the Weekly Newsletter from Magpie Gemstones on January 19th 2013.  Be sure you are signed up to see if you won!

Our Jewelry Makers and Bead Lovers Group was created to have a place for Magpie Gemstones clients to explore their jewelry making skills, discuss questions about selling, SEO, social networking in relation to jewelry making and selling.

We also go through free tutorials created for Magpie Clients to grow our jewelry making skills. Feel free to join us!

Free for Thee!

This is just a short note to be sure you've heard the news. Magpie Gemstones is giving us one free strand of Indian Cut Beads with every order.  http://www.magpiegemstones.com/super_sale.html

These are sweet little beads that would brighten most any design and you can't beat this deal. Have you snagged yours yet?


You need to hurry because this deal is over after next Tuesday, December 17. Ho, Ho, Ho!

Giving to our customers, we are Magpie Gemstones.
Karen Meador, PhD
Dreamcatcher Designs

Calling All Fans

I really like the fact that Magpie Gemstones spends money on us, the customers, instead of on advertising. I guess they know who's important! Their frequent giveaways make it clear to me that they value my business and want me as a customer.

The latest giveaway has me drooling a bit. Have you seen it? Just look at the gorgeous boulder opal horsehead in the photo. It will go to a lucky newsletter subscriber when Magpie Gemstones reaches 9000 subscribers. That seem like a humongous number, but I know they have already passed 8500.

So here's the question . . . if you are receiving this post directly from Magpie, then you may already be a subscriber. How does that help get us to 9000 so that someone can win the boulder opal? I guess we each need to spread the word to our beady friends and let them know that they can also receive the newsletter and be in the running for the prize. Just refer them to this link: http://www.magpiegemstones.com/news.html and they can sign up. If you haven't done this too, please hop to it. Someone out there really wants this horsehead!

Appreciating our customers, we are Magpie Gemstones.
Karen Meador, PhD
Dreamcatcher Designs
www.dreamcatcherranch.net/designs

Another Client in the News

In the last post, I wrote about a Magpie Gemstones client whose work was recently published. When I (Karen, both an employee and client) finished writing that entry, I realized that we had not shared my recently published piece with you. Shame on me! If you don't blow your own horn, who is going to do it? Actually, this is more about sharing than about blowing. You might enjoy the tutorial that I wrote for the magazine.

The October-November 2012 edition of Step by Step Wire Jewelry contains a Tri-Loop Necklace that I designed earlier this year. It evolved from one of those serendipitous moments when I was goofing around with coiled wire. The tri-loops are not made on a jig, but rather constructed from a three-loop coil. The hardest part for me was remembering how I made the first one. Does that every happen to you?

The sterling silver piece that appears in the publication features some lovely amethyst gemstones from Magpie Gemstones. The second photo shows you the copper version with Magpie Gemstones' carnelian and turquoise. I finished both pieces with handmade chain and clasp.

I try not to be upset when someone compliments one of these pieces or any of my other designs by saying, "that's a nice designs, but I really like those beautiful beads!" It looks like I just need to continue getting them from Magpie Gemstones.

Blowing the horn for our wonderful clients, we are Magpie Gemstones.

Karen Meador, PhD
www.dreamcatcherranch.net/designs

Clients In the News

Look what Cindy made! Congratulations to Cindy Cima Edwards whose marvelously creative necklace in published in the October 2012 edition of Bead Trends. You can see other photos of this piece and the tutorial for it on her blog at http://www.cindycima.com/published-2012/


Magpie Gemstones was especially excited to see that she used flourite beads that came from our store. As a thank you, we're sending her a gift of the beads shown below. It makes us smile when artists mention they got beads from us and we hope she likes her gift.



Cindy markets her jewelry through Zimaj (http://www.zimaj.com/) and we think you would enjoy seeing her creations. Check it out.


We love it when our customers share successes.


Clapping for Cindy, we are Magpie Gemstones.



Karen Meador, PhD
www.dreamcatcherranch.net/designs

Free Fun

The two words in the title are not always put together, but if you love making jewelry, Magpie Gemstones can help you join them by providing free fun. We're hoping you have already joined our Facebook group, Jewelry Makers and Beads Lovers. Actually, 1000+ people have done just that and so we gave away this great pendant.

I know, you're probably wishing that you had won it. Dar Miller from Dartsmouth, Nova Scotia was the lucky winner. She markets her jewelry through Sun, Stars and Sea Jewelry Design and contributes comments, etc. to our Facebook group.

This is the group where we share the free tutorials and discuss how to improve our work. You can get many ideas from this amicable group of jewelry makers and there's no advertising done in the group. If you haven't joined us, now would be a good time. You just never know when we might give away something else. It's definitely Free Fun!

Working to benefit you, we are Magpie Gemstones.
Karen Meador, PhD
www.dreamcatcherranch.net/designs

Serving It Up

We hope you have noticed that our new website is up and running, serving up good things for you. Customer comments indicate that you are pleased with its look and enjoy being able to put things in your cart and return to them at another time. Remember how they used to disappear at the old site? We're pretty proud of how gorgeous Gibby's photos of the beads look and hope you appreciate the clarity. I wish I thought he could make me look that good in a photo!




Now that the new site is complete, we can serve up new articles and free tutorials again. We have numerous things in the works for you and hope you will be pleased with the offerings. If you haven't previously perused our library please take a moment to see what you can find in our resources. Our new tutorials are announced through the Jewelry Makers and Bead Lovers Facebook page too.







BEAD SOUP BLOG PARTY

The last blog entry told you about Bead Soup, a nice adventure put together by Lori Anderson that enabled duos of designers to share beads. Today, the first group, including Szarka, share the creations made from bead soup contents.

Others who are revealing their finished products today can be found at   http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com/2012/06/participants-of-6th-bead-soup-blog.html .



Don't forget to check mine out, too! I think you will be pleased to see what the designers simmered and served from their bead soup contents.


Szarka's soup partner, Tammy Jones, who has a great etsy shop Southern Baubelles challenged her with enough beads that she created three unique pieces of jewelry. I think the necklace, shown above left, has a nice vintage look to it. Good job Szarka! To see the bead soup Tammy sent and the soup Szarka sent her look below (or click above to see old blog posts, it was blogged about previously).

This month's Facebook Fan of the Month is Heather Otto who won free beads for being our number one fan. You can find out more about this give away at https://www.facebook.com/MagpieGemstones/app_118098318208381 and http://www.magpiegemstones.com/freebeads.html .


You can see some of Heather's unique jewelry, like this one, served up in "Mama's Craft Room", on the Facebook page she helps moderate and in her etsy shop and Craft Star Shop.


Heather has come onto the jewelry making scene with a flourish, she is a natural and pretty new to it too! We have really appreciated her energy and outlook in the groups that we are involved in online and off. Thanks for being such a great member of this community Heather!

    

We'll be serving up more information for you soon about upcoming shows and happenings.

Serving it up for you, we are Magpie Gemstones.

Karen Meador, PhD

Dreamcatcher Designs

Up and Down and . . .

Szarka's bead soup arrived this week and you should see what Tammy Jones mailed to Texas. (If you don't know about bead soup, please read the last post.) Many of you may know Tammy and appreciate her words as she writes Jewelry Making Daily. Her shop, Southern Baubelles, displays some of her great pieces. The soup contained Citrine, Fluorite, Resin, Cebu Shell, Opal Nuggets and Amazonite Nuggets. She also sent the lovely focal piece shown below. Although I was "up" and excited to see the soup Tammy sent, now I'm "down" and anxious to see what Szarka makes from these lovelies. I guess we'll just have to tolerate ambiguity until her reveal date.

On another up and down note, let's talk about the new website. All of us were excited to see the new site up and running this week. It has a truly outstanding look (in my opinion) and makes it so much easier to shop with all the new bells and whistles (and then there's the SALE going one). The only "down" part has to do with some of the bells. The website had to be shut down briefly while some of those technical difficulties were ameliorated. We certainly hope that didn't cause you too must trouble and that you will stick with us while everything is worked out. As you know technology is definitely up and down! I fear I have less patience with the woes of technology than with simple human falibility. How about you?

Working to stay "up" for you, we are Magpie Gemstones.

Karen Meador, PhD

Dreamcatcher Designs



The Heats On

You may have noticed that we've taken a short hiatus from this blog. No, we're not sick or lazy, but things around here have been heating up as we prepare to launch the new, improved, super duper website. I've been amazed at the amount of time and work it has taken to get this on the launch pad. It seems to me that the folks at Magpie have spent months of sleepless nights. Have you seen the new look? Below is a peek.

During the late stages of this website preparation, we are unable to post new beads, tutorials or articles. We have several of these heated up and ready to go for you when the new site comes up, so hang with us during this intermission.

Don't forget that even though we can't show you the new beads, we still have plenty of sale beads. This week, the O beads are on sale (as in Oh, aren't they pretty!). I think I would be especially happy with an opal or two like the one below. How about you?

Meanwhile, Szarka and I are both involved in Lori Anderson's bead soup exchange. Just in case you've never heated bead soup, it involves the pairing of beaders from around the world. Each person receives the name of a partner and sends that person a bead soup package that includes a focal piece, a clasp and some other beads. That partner then creates and posts a photo of their work with the soup. Szarka's partner is Tammy at www.etsy.com/shop/SouthernBaubelles. We hope Tammy likes the bead soup Szarka sent and anxiously awake the birth of Szarka's creation with the soup from Tammy. (I'll post about my partner in my own blog)

We hope that your summer has you heated up and ready to sit in a cool place and bead. If so, we've got the gemstones you need.

Heating up our website for you, we are Magpie Gemstones.
Karen Meador, PhD
www.dreamcatcherranch.net/designs

New Website? You Asked and We Listened!

photo from http://www.claimtheweb.com/

You asked and we listened. We have almost completed negotiations with Claim the Web to build our new website. Many of you have asked for and needed features like:

• wish list
• visual search
• search by price
• bigger thumbnails
• ability to buy from the catalogue page (as opposed to the product page)
• a way to track your past purchases
• top notch search engine
• sign in with facebook
• product reviews

. . . and more. Well we went on the hunt and we interviewed many web design companies and shopping cart platforms and I think we made a really good decision to go with this company. They are also willing to work with us in the future to build programs that you all want and need when we know we need them.

How this impacts you? Well the site right now will no longer have the "specialty pages" updated. For instance I will not be adding the new A grade beads to the "Top Shelf Page". Also because Karen Meador is swamped helping me rewrite category pages and because we will be swamped doing data entry there will be fewer blog posts and new articles for about a month. Don't worry we have so many now you can spend that month looking at what is presently on the site.

I hope you agree it is worth it though.

How this will NOT affect you? We will continue to put new beads in almost everyday, sales will run as they have been, we will provide our top notch service as we always have since that is our priority everyday and after that is done we pull up our shirt sleeves and get on the website redesign.

I hope the new site will meet your needs and ours and make it just that much better for you all. We are doing this because the second part of our slogan is so true (well the first part is too!) "Great Beads for Great People" and you all deserve it.

We do not yet have a timeline when this change will take place but as soon as I do I will let you all know.

Remember if you ever have any questions we are only a phone call (512-392-3091) , an email, or a facebook post away!

www.magpiegemstones.com

Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap

Did you read the title of today's blog entry? It represents the sound of my foot, tap, tap, tapping as I wait for 47 boxes of gemstones to arrive at the Magpie Gemstones warehouse next week. Szarka, Gibby and Tera have just returned from a big buying trip to LA (that's Los Angeles, not Louisiana!). I get really excited when they leave for these trips, get to hear the descriptions of what's been procured for us when they return and then have to tap, tap, tap my foot until the beads finally get here.

I went to check on things today and found Szarka sitting on a little mound in her garden examining how nature had changed it. What is it that the deer don't understand about a human's garden. They seem to have tapped their feet on the most luscious parts of vegetation. Do they really think Szarka planted things just for them? I think they enjoyed eating the Magpie strawberries, the pansies and other garden goodies. Hmm . . . I guess we'll have to just tap our feet while we wait and hope the little plants recover. We'll also hope no one forgets to close the garden gate any more.

Perhaps you're enjoying signs of Spring like those I saw in the garden today. Are you also doing a little Spring cleaning? While you're at it, why not plan to show off your work with a Home Jewelry Party. I just wrote a little piece about these events and hope that you can find something of interest to you at the following link: http://www.magpiegemstones.com/home_shows.html.

Did you see the Muscovite that's in the online store now? I've been pairing this with a number of other beads and find it to be quite a versatile stone. Take a look at these.

I wonder how those would look with some turquoise. I've got my eye on some of the Hubei Turquoise I saw online.

You can tap your feet while you wait for Kateri to get to the next bead show May 5-6 in the San Antonio area. This will be held at Live Oak Center in Live Oak, Texas and is sponsored by the San Antonio Bead and Ornament Society. There are a number of classes offered at this show and Kateri will have plenty of beads to show you. She'd be pleased to see you there.

I've been tapping my feet to the music on the radio as I wrote this to you, but it now seems to be news time; so that's the end of that.

Tapping as fast as we can to get the right beads for you, we are Magpie Gemstones.

 

 

 

Karen Meador, Ph.D.

Dreamcatcher Designs

www.dreamcatcherranch.net/designs

Parades

My grandson and I went to the feed store the other day and saw quite a parade of animals. There were chickens and rabbits, fish and birds and we also spotted containers of lady bugs who begged to be released in the garden. Yes, we need only look in the feed store to know that Spring is here. I also found Spring at Magpie Gemstones yesterday. It was parading by as a lush garden. There were flowers and vegetables with lush leaves on the terraced slope. I tried to convince Szarka we needed to make some jewelry, but on her one day off, she chose to work in the garden.

 

I did see, however, that Magpie Gemstones had already put a parade of new beads in the store for our viewing; so, I gave her a break on the jewelry making. Someone had been working late into the night to get all these beads ready for us. Part of the bead parade was made of beautiful tourmaline, which is one of my favorites.

I also spotted some aquamarine showing its color in the bead parade and hoped I might grab some before it all left the store.

 

 

If you already looked at the parade of new beads, perhaps you saw the lucious color in the garnet beads at Magpie Gemstones. I am often surprised by the contrast of shades in this particular stone. Any of these beads would be a nice addition to create something for your own Easter or Spring Parade.

Or . . . how about crossing your fingers and hoping that you win a piece of Szarka's jewelry? Don't miss out. I did say FREE!

Have you decided to join the parade of people who are going to see Kateri at the upcoming bead shows? The first one is April 20-22 in Alpine, Texas. You'll find her at the Big Bend Gem and Mineral Show. Then you can march on over to San Antonio May 5-6 to the San Antonio Bead Bazaar. There will be a number of us teaching classes at this show and I hope to see you there. For more information about where to see Kateri, please check the link and print out your coupon for a 10% discount: http://www.magpiegemstones.com/show_coupon.html

We hope that Spring is parading nicely where you are that this season brings you joy.

Parading our stuff for you, we are Magpie Gemstones.

Karen Meador, Ph.D.

www.dreamcatcherdesigns.net