I am off to go and buy stock again on Tuesday. I am armed with a new shopping list as long as my arm but we welcome any shopping suggestions that you may have.
Carla will be handling new listings while we are gone and Thea will be handling orders. Cornel is handling the front end in the shop. Speak to him when you get to the shop about your special needs.
A week ago I tried to install a quick checkout module. With this module you just had one checkout page. It was a very complicated install that took about 4 hours. Somewhere something went wrong and I lost a lot of data. I even lost some clients. I regret it and apologize for any inconvenience caused. I believe that I have the website stitched together again. Please have a look to see if you can log in. bronnrocks.com/log in
We have been listing some of the old favourites like the metal beads with the shiny edged surfaces. The customers that use them have already made a dent in my stock levels so I have to get some more. Please make time to visit the updates page often. Here is a link. New Listings
I plan to get more red coral, pearls and stone pendants. I have already ordered Swarovski and 925 Silver Findings. I will also be buying loads of pearls.
Remember that we are listing new items every day. Yesterday was pearl day. We are listing pearls. I have stunning white pearls in large sizes with excellent prices. And then we have listed some coloured pearls as well.
We have black nylon cord and white in stock for bead stringing. These are usually strung in a double line. The easiest way to knot with these is to pull through both cords at the same time and then make a simple double knot with both strings. You can put some nail varnish on the end of the string to make the string stiff. In this way you do not need a needle. Most needles are too thick for pearl stringing.
I just want to remind all of you about the steps at checkout. There are four steps.
Step one shows you what is in your shopping cart. Here you can make changes and proceed to step two.
Step two is the place where you have to pick your postage of choice. Priority mail is fast(two days) Time freight is even faster. (overnight) But normal mail is the best value.
Step three is the place where you pick the method of payment. Just remember that no transaction has yet been concluded. You have two choices here. Credit card payment. With Credit card choice you will hear from us again when we have posted the parcel. This method is seamless. So easy and giving us your card detail is 100% safe. Approved by ABSA. If you pick EFT to our ABSA bank account, you will have to wait for us to send you the banking detail. You then have 48 hours to send us the funds.
Step four is the final confirmation. When you confirm the order here you have successfully placed the order. Remember 4 steps. If you do not receive a confirmation email from us I suggest that you check your shopping cart to see if there are any items left in your shopping cart. If there are items left you have not checked out successfully. You must then check to see which of these items shows that there are less in stock than the amount you have ordered.
When you visit our store at Hartbeespoort, my daughter Anja will string up any project for you for only R30 per project. She never gets comebacks. Her work is very professional.
We do our best to get parcels out as quickly as possible. I have found a new delivery service for Pretoria and Johannesburg. Bruce stays just around the corner from me. I can phone him before 8.00 in the morning and he will hand deliver the parcel the same day for only R100 per delivery. I have not added this service to my website because I am scared that people will not read the restrictions carefully and will tick the block as a delivery option. If you choose Priority Mail door to door and you live in Pretoria or Johannesburg we will use Bruce to deliver to you and only charge you R100 regardless of the size of the parcel.
I have just delivered over 600 000 wood beads to the Witwatersrand Campus. They use them in Science sets. If you have a larger order and struggle to get it anywhere I suggest that you contact us. We will get it for you.
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Beading on a budget With all the glum news about the economy and thousands of people uncertain about their jobs, it makes sense that more and more people are turning to handcrafts as a way to soothe their souls and seek refuge from the five o clock news. But when you are trying to stick to a budget, you might think that it can hamper your creative impulses. Not so, if you try a few of these ideas. 1. Use What You Already Have We've all done it. We bought that strand of gemstone beads or those tubes of seed beads in the perfect color and then put them away in our stash, only to be forgotten for a few days or weeks or months. So when you feel the urge to start on a new project, instead of despairing about not being able to afford any new beads, try digging through your stash - you might be surprised and inspired by what you find. 2. Set Up a Bead Barter or Swap Bead swaps are all the rage lately. There are several good message boards for beaders where interested parties can offer beads for a trade. Look through your stash and find a few things that you can part with and offer to trade them for something that you really need or want. It's a great way to save money, and you just might make a new beading buddy. 3. Place Larger Orders for Beads and Supplies With Your Friends I know it might sound contrary to the idea of sticking to a budget, but if a mail order or vendor at a bead show offers a large discount for a large purchase, gather a few of your friends and see if each of you can purchase enough beads to get the discount. For instance, if a vendor at a bead show offers a 30% discount for purchases over R10000, if you and three friends can each pick out R5000 worth of beads, you'll each end up paying only R2500. Keep your eyes open for discounts or special offers that you and your beading friends can take use to your advantage. 4. Sign Up for E-mail Newsletters From Your Favorite Online Bead Stores Lots of online bead stores now offer weekly, bi-weekly or monthly newsletters. And many times when they send out these newsletters, they announce sales and special promotions on their merchandise. Some of them hold raffles where you can also win gift cards and gift certificates. Most of them also offer wonderful design ideas and handy tips for using their featured products as well. 5. Reuse and Recycle Go through your completed projects, looking for pieces that didn't quite work, or pieces that you just plain don't like. It can be a very rejuvenating process to tear something apart and make something entirely new from its components. And the best part is that you probably won't have to buy anything new to make a new piece of beadwork. |
I will write again in about two weeks time when I am back from the trip. May you be blessed
Gerdus