WigJig Newsletter 061210 on Jewelry Making, Jewelry Supplies, Beads and Wire dated 12/10/2006

Boomer the Beads & Jewelry Making Supplies by WigJig Spokesdog WigJig News -- AKA Boomer Sez:

Our Spokesdog: If an insurance company can have a gecko, we have decided that we can have a spokesdog. Boomer, shown at right, is our spokesdog.

New Items: We added some new sizes of the earring settings for our bling gemstones. You can view all of our earring settings for our gemstones in gold here and in silver here. We have also added some new jewelry/gift boxes. Our gift boxes can be found in our store by visiting either our "Tools n Supplies" Department or our Miscellaneous page. then selecting the "Gift Boxes" Sub-Department, or by just selecting here. Our new selection of gift boxes include gold foil gift boxes with a cotton lining and black leatherette boxes for earrings and necklaces. Unfortunately, our only picture of the leatherette boxes shows a white box instead of the black box that we sell. In the future we will replace our picture for these boxes. You can view our leatherette boxes below-left and you can view our gold foil gift boxes below-right. Remember the color of the leatherette boxes is black. This will allow our simulated diamond gemstones to really shine against a dark background.

Black Leatherette Necklace Jewelry Gift Box

New Vendor with Classes: We now have a vendor in Malaysia who both sells our WigJig tools and has classes. The vendor is House of Beads and they are in N. Sembilan, Malaysia. The House of Beads can be reached by e-mail at HouseOfBeads@gmail.com and you can visit their web site here.

Birthstone for December: The modern birthstone for December is the Blue Zircon. Zircon is a naturally occurring gemstone and is not the same thing as the laboratory made Cubic Zirconia. Zircon comes in many colors but the blue variety has become the most popular. Zircon is one of the heaviest gemstones so when sold by carat weight, it will be smaller than other gemstones of the same weight. (This won't be a factor where the stones are sold by size like 8mm.) Zircon is relatively hard and can be chipped if handled roughly. The hardness of Zircon is 8 on the Mohs scale (Quartz sand has a hardness of 7 and diamonds have a hardness of 10.)

The traditional (old) birthstone for December is the Ruby. Ruby is distinctive not only for its red color but for its hardness. With a hardness of 9, the ruby is harder than everything but a diamond. With rubies, in general, the deeper the red color the more valuable the gemstone. Natural rubies are expected to have inclusions (small internal imperfections) but because of the dark color these imperfections are frequently not noticeable. Fine quality rubies are among the most expensive naturally occurring gemstones and can be more expensive than diamonds with the exception of the more rare colors of diamonds.

Please don't ask us the difference between the modern and traditional birthstones. We don't know.

Boomer Humor: Since we have received a complaint about every joke we have included in our newsletter. we are reorganizing our newsletter. We are going to move our Boomer Humor to the bottom of our newsletter. It seems that some people found it offensive to have to scroll past our humor so we have moved it. For the majority of our readers, who like our Boomer Humor, please scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to view Boomer's joke for this week.

Free Jewelry Design:

Onyx Beads Square Knot Braceelt Jewelry Making Project

Beads & Square Kno tBracelet Jewelry Making Project

With every newsletter we provide a new jewelry design from WigJig University to spur the creative juices. The new design for this newsletter is the design for the Beads & Square Knot Bracelet shown here. These bracelets use the same square knot wire component that we used to make the earrings in our last newsletter. This square knot wire component can be made on any WigJig tool using one regular metal peg and a 3/16" Super Peg. We have added some new pictures to our instructions for making the square knot wire component that will make it easier to understand how this component is assembled.

To view our instructions for how to make these Beads & Square Knot bracelets select here, or select either picture above.

Past Techniques:
We maintain a techniques web page that provides links to the discussion of techniques in our prior newsletters. You can visit this web page here. Follow the links on that page to the discussion of the

Jewelry Wire Watchband Jewelry Making Finding Assembly

technique in that newsletter.

Jewelry Technique:
This weeks jewelry making technique is the technique for making a jewelry wire chain to connect to a watch without a wire loop like the watches shown here. Because of the size of the hole in these watches, frequently the bend in a smaller loop will not allow it to fit through the hole in the watch face. For this reason, we need to make a link with a larger loop on one side and a smaller loop to match the size of the loops in your chain on the opposite side. This type of link can be made on any WigJig tool, but requires a regular metal peg and two Super Pegs. For the links shown here, a 3/16" and a 1/4" Super Peg were used. For some watches, a 5/16" Super Peg may be required instead of the 1/4" Super Peg. (These watches make great Christmas presents.)

You can view our instructions for making the two size loop link by selecting either picture above or by selecting here.

Nostalgia Corner:
This weeks featured design in our Nostalgia Corner is the design for our Classic Pearl Beads Necklace shown at right. This necklace is truly a classic piece of jewelry. We use Swarovski Crystal Pearl Beads to make the necklace. These are high quality simulated pearls and look identical to expensive real pearls. The end result is a necklace that looks like it would costs hundreds, if not thousands of dollars but only costs about $10 to $15 to make.

The pearl beads are strung on Soft Flex or Soft Touch Bead Stringing Wire. This project is very quick to make because it takes less time to string beads on Soft Flex than it takes to knot beads on silk thread. Historically knots were required because with silk thread the question is not whether the silk will break, it is a question of when it will break. By using Soft Flex Bead Stringing Wire, you do not require the knots because the Soft Flex is made of stainless steel and won't break. To create the same visual effect as knotted silk, we use seed beads between our pearl beads.

We think you will like this necklace. We have placed our 6mm Cream Swarovski Crystal Pearls on sale this week. You can view these pearl beads in our Internet store here.

Please select here, or select the picture above-right to view our instructions for making the Classic Pearl Beads Necklace Jewelry Making Project.

Warning! Joke Follows.
This is only a joke. We tell jokes because we are in favor of smiling, laughing and being happy. This does not mean that we are opposed to anyone or anything. So far, every newsletter that included a joke elicited a complaint from someone. Our last newsletter kept this string alive. If you are a sensitive person, please skip this portion of our newsletter.

Boomer Humor: Boomer goes into our neighborhood bank and introduces himself to the teller, Patricia Mack. Boomer says "Good morning Ms Mack, I would like a loan. My name is Boomer Jagger and my father is Mick Jagger. The bank manager knows me and can vouch for me." Ms Mack, the teller responds "Certainly Mr. Jagger, but to get a loan, you will need some collateral." Boomer produces a carved 3" tall statue of an elephant and says "I would like to use this as my collateral." Ms Mack indicates that she will check with the bank manager.

The teller goes to the manager and explains about Boomer wanting a loan. She shows the manager the small carved elephant and says "What's this that he's using as collateral?" The bank manager responds "It's a knick knack Patty Mack, give the dog a loan. His old man's a Rolling Stone."

(This joke may be more funny when the bank manager's response is read aloud to the tune of "This Old Man". For those of you who aren't familiar with this song, you can find the lyrics here.)

We are continuing to improve our newsletter, so please feel free to provide feedback at custsrv@wigjig.com.

Announcements:
Online Books. If you are looking for new and interesting jewelry projects -- try one of our Online Books. Our most detailed instructions are for sale online. Please select here to view our selection of online books. These books are delivered over the Internet and there are no shipping costs on an order with just online books.

Shipping Policy. We waive the shipping charge on orders over $60 shipped within the US (as long as these orders remain over $60). For International orders we ship via UPS international service and charge $34.95 (our average cost) for this expedited shipping service. Please select here to view our entire shipping policy.

WigJig University. We provide Over 2,500 web pages of free information, tips, techniques and free jewelry making designs in WigJig University. We encourage everyone to view this information as a source for new ideas, projects, or a way to learn new techniques. We now have a page in WigJig University that shows our designs sorted by the WigJig tool used to make them. Please select here to view that information.

International Vendors. We do have vendors who sell our WigJig products outside the US. We encourage customers to contact these vendors in their home country. Please select here to view our list of overseas vendors. We are also happy to sell our WigJig tools to stores. Please send us an e-mail if you are interested in selling our WigJig tools.

Classes. We have a listing of various jewelry making classes using our WigJig tools that are offered by bead stores throughout the country. If you are interested in classes, please select here. If you know someone who has classes in using our WigJig tools, please ask them to send us an e-mail at custsrv@wigjig.com so that we can include them in these pages.

SHIPPING WAIVED ON ALL ORDERS OVER $60.00 SHIPPED TO USA - Customer Care - WigJig, PO Box 5124, Gaithersburg, MD 20882; (800) 579-WIRE (phone), (240) 597-2262 (fax), custsrv@wigjig.com (email). Privacy Policy. All content on this web site including jewelry and wire designs are copyrighted© by WigJig. WigJig® is a registered trademark. Last modified: 12/10/2006

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View Prior Newsletters

2003 2004 2005

1/16/2006 02/12/2006 02/26/2006 03/13/2006 03/26/2006 04/09/2006 04/30/2006

05/14/2006 06/29/2006 07/16/2006 08/06/2006 08/21/2006 09/04/2006 09/17/2006

10/02/2006 10/15/2006 10/30/2006 11/13/2006 11/27/2006 12/10/2006

Beads, Tools & Jewelry Supplies by WigJig Jewelry Making Newsletter

6mm Swarovski Crystal Pearls Cream Package of 100 Crystal Pearls	8mm Round Swarovski Montana Beads Package of 6 beads
Black Simulated Leather Earring Box 1 Box in Black Simulated Leather	Bead Board Economy Jewelry Tool 1 Bead Board
Gold Foil Gift Box 2.5"x1.5"x7/8" 1 Gift Box	24G Natural Silver Anti-Tarnish Silver Plated wire 30' Spool

Beads, Tools & Jewelry Making Supplies by WigJig Newsletter 12/10/2006