Cast your vote for this month’s “Featured Product Contest”!

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CAST YOUR VOTE NOW!

Submissions for May’s Featured Product of the Month Contest are closed and the B3 team has completed the difficult job of narrowing down the finalists, which means it’s time for YOU to cast your vote to determine the winner. Folks this month were asked to show off their stainless steel creations.  Competition was fierce and we had the most submission this we’ve every had!  Voting will close May 31st. Voting is only allowed once per computer so choose wisely!


To share the survey, we recommend you copy the link to this blog post and use that in any emails, blog posts, or social media posts you’d like to make about it (we’ve noticed some weirdness in the past with sharing the link directly – it sometimes like to bump people out of voting that haven’t already.)

Get a sneak peak at the all of our finalists below:


               

 

FEATURED PRODUCT FOR JUNE – Colored jump rings!

We thought we’d do something a little different for June and broaden the materials choices while honing in on a skill – the creative use of color.  Using colored jump rings in your maille creatively and strategically can completely change the look of a weave.  We want to see your best and more creative uses of color.  Pieces can use any of our colored rings including anodized aluminum, enameled copper and anodized niobium.

Check out this blog post for some notes about color from Rebeca!

Driver needed for Bead&Button Show 2012!

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Driver and Helper wanted


Driver:
Blue Buddha needs someone who can drive from Chicago to Milwaukee (and back) in a rented U-Haul truck for the Bead&Button show.

Driver will pickup the U-Haul in Chicago on Wednesday June 6th at 7:30 am.  You’ll help load items into the truck in Chicago, travel to Milwaukee and help deliver the items to our booth. During show set-up, the movers may be asked to help assemble the “shell” of the booth, mostly gridwall, and/or assist in setting up some of the inventory items. You’ll drive back to Chicago that afternoon.  Some items will have to go back to the B3 studio and then you will be required to drop the U-Haul off at the U-Haul facility

We will also need someone to pick up a U-Haul  in Chicago at 12:00 noon on Sunday June 10th.  The driver and helper will assist with show tear down, loading the truck in Milwaukee and unloading back at B3.  The driver will then return the truck to the U-Haul facility.

Helper:

The helper will assist with loading and unloading and will ride along with the driver to and from Milwaukee.  The helper will also be responsible for keeping a journal entry of arrival and departure times and noting any anomalies that caused delays.

Hours:

Wednesday, June 6 — 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (hours might be less, depending on how fast we load. Hours include driving from Chicago to Milwaukee and back.)

Sunday, June 10 — 2:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. (hours might be less, depending on how fast we tear down. Hours include driving from Chicago to Milwaukee and back.)

Wages & Compensation:
$15 /hr for all truck driving duties (or $30/hr worth of B3 supplies).

If you are the helper/passenger to or from Milwaukee and do not drive, you will receive a flat rate of $15 for each one-way trip.

Both the driver and helper will receive $10/hr for all loading/unloading/schlepping/journal-entry duties (or $15/hr worth of B3 supplies).  You will receive a food stipend of $15.00 cash for each day you work.

If you cannot drive or help on both days please contact us anyway.  Depending on our responses, a one day opportunity may be very welcome!

Experience/Qualifications/Skills:

Valid driver’s license and insurance required for the 1-2 drivers. (We will screen your driving record.)

Willingness and ability to lift up to 40 lbs and physically exert yourself for a 2-3 hour period. Some heavier lifting (up to 80 lbs) might be required, but those items will be few and far between. No chainmaille experience necessary.

If you are required to pay for personal car parking (at U-Haul), Blue Buddha will reimburse you up to $10.00.

If you are interested in this position please email [email protected].

Our website has a new look – and a new shopping cart!

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We have been working diligently over the last several months to revamp how our website works.  Most changes affect the “behind the scenes” aspect of B3, but there are some front-end changes you are going to notice as of Thursday night (May 17th.)

Most notably, we have a new shopping cart and checkout system!  This new system largely eliminates interactions with PayPal, although not completely (more below) – but it should DEFINITELY eliminate disappearing shopping carts.  (Those of you have experienced this are surely breathing a sigh of relief right now!)

 

In addition to the new shopping cart and checkout process, there are some other neat changes including a new Mix ‘n’ Match discount and a whole new look to the our “Kits + Instructions” section now call “Projects”.

 

There are more tweaks and features on the horizon for us for sure, but we hope this initial burst of upgrades improves your shopping experience as much as we think it will.  As always, we welcome your feedback and will do our best to answer all your questions and concerns about the changes.  Please feel free to send us an email at [email protected] at any time.

No more PayPal – well, much LESS PayPal!

Ultimately, we will move away from PayPal completely.  For now, we’ve moved MOSTLY away.  You shopping cart will now be housed right on our site until you decide you’re ready to proceed to payment.  Payments will still be handled through PayPal (as always, you don’t need a PayPal account to pay – just a credit card.)  Basically, our cart will handle all your items and PayPal just handles the final total and your payment information.  It’s not a complete escape from PayPal, but it’s very close and we think it will eliminate many of the PayPal related headaches some of you have experienced in the past.

READ MORE + SEE HELPFUL SCREENSHOTS OF YOUR NEW CHECKOUT PROCESS

New discounts taken automatically in your cart!

Whether you’re placing an order that qualifies for our new Mix ‘n’ Match discount (click the link below for more details on this!) or you have a coupon code you’d like to use, Blue Buddha’s new shopping cart will be able to calculate and apply your savings as you shop – displaying them in your cart as you go along.  No more waiting for refunds – you’ll get your deal right away.  There is also a handy little notification that will appear at the top of your cart page letting you know when you are close to receiving a discount so you can decide if buying more now might save you more later.

READ MORE ABOUT OUR NEW DISCOUNT STRUCTURE

New look for Projects

Our new “Projects” section now houses all of our B3 Instructions.  These instructions are organized by level so you can be sure to get a project that will work perfectly for you.  Clicking on one of the projects will give you a big, beautiful image, information about the project and a picture of the project’s designer.  Many projects still offer the same kits you are used with cool new dropdowns that show swatches of color right in the menu!  For projects that do not have kits, we have created handy shopping lists at the bottom of the page where you can get everything you need to complete the project or just stock up on the parts that you don’t already have in your stash.

READ MORE ABOUT THE NEW “PROJECTS” SECTION

No more PayPal – well, much LESS PayPal!

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Ultimately, we will move away from PayPal completely.  For now, we’ve moved MOSTLY away.  You shopping cart will now be housed right on our site until you decide you’re ready to proceed to payment.  Payments will still be handled through PayPal (as always, you don’t need a PayPal account to pay – just a credit card.)  Basically, our cart will handle all your items and PayPal just handles the final total and your payment information.  It’s not a complete escape from PayPal, but it’s very close and we think it will eliminate many of the PayPal related headaches some of you have experienced in the past.

The post below will offer your some helpful tips and screenshots to get your more acquainted with the new cart and checkout process.

As soon you add something to your cart, you will be taken to this new page.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: If you add something to your cart and you see the old cart page (example shown left) – your order will get lost in PayPal!  Try going back to the Blue Buddha home page and clicking on the “Buy Supplies” link.  Give us a call or shoot us an email if the problem consists so that we can help you with your order try to track down the issue.

Here you an update quantities of items by changing the number in the field under QTY and clicking the blue “Update Cart” button.

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You can also remove items from your cart by clicking the “remove” link under the quantity field.

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Once you have everything you need and are ready to checkout, you must first select your country to determine shipping charges.  Use the dropdown labeled “Select Your Country” to do this.

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Once you have selected your country, you will be given shipping options.  You may choose to change your shipping method here if you like.

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If you have accidentally chosen the wrong country, simply click the link that says “change your country” and select again.

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After you have selected you country and your preferred shipping method, click the big red “Checkout” button.  You will be taken to a page that will let you review your order before going to PayPal to enter your payment information.

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It is important to review your order on this page before going to PayPal as PayPal will not display your cart items.  It simply handles your payment.  If as you review you order you notice something you’d like to change, simple click the back button on your browser or click on “View Cart” near the top of your screen to go back and edit your cart contents.

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Once your order looks good, hit the big yellow PayPal button to complete your payment.

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After you have completed you payment using PayPal, you will be sent back to our site where you will see this confirmation page.  At this point, your order is complete!

New discounts taken automatically in your cart!

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Whether you’re placing an order that qualifies for our new Mix ‘n’ Match discount or you have a coupon code you’d like to use, Blue Buddha’s new shopping cart will be able to calculate and apply your savings as you shop – displaying them in your cart as you go along.  No more waiting for refunds – you’ll get your deal right away.  There is also a handy little notification that will appear at the top of your cart page letting you know when you are close to receiving a discount so you can decide if buying more now might save you more later.

This post explains more about our new discount structure.

Our new Mix ‘n’ Match discount structure is replacing our old volume discount structure and offers discounts starting at a much smaller threshold on all our metals (yes, even silver and niobium!)   Depending on the pack size you purchase, you can qualify for your first discount level with only 5 packs!  The overall discount levels range from 5% – 40%.  For the the complete breakdown of how this discount works, visit our new Discounts page (LINK COMING SOON!!)

The best part about this new discount structure (and our new shopping cart) is that your discounts will be taken automatically as you add items to your cart and you’ll see your savings reflected right away.

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As a bonus, our cart also gives you little notices at the top of the page when you are close to reaching an even higher price break point.

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We are thrilled to be able to offer these new discounts and deliver your savings to you right away.  No more waiting on refunds!

It is important to note that this Mix ‘n’ Match discount is also replacing the 1000-pack mix n match we previously offered on our anodized aluminum.  For those of you really only purchase our AA and used this discount a lot, the new discount structure will take a little getting used to.  You’ll need to purchase 5 packs of rings to receive a discount, and the discount at the level will be slightly less than our original deal.  We did agonize over the decision to get rid of these Mix n Match 1000 packs knowing it would affect some customers.

Ultimately however, we realized that the including the anodized aluminum in with all our other metals would help a much larger majority of our customers reach the threshold to begin receiving discounts across the board.  We also felt most people would appreciate the simplicity of having all metals Mix n Match rather than having to keep track of this kind over here and that kind over there to get the best deal.

We created the Mix n Match 1000 packs back when we were a much smaller company with vastly fewer products and it served us and our customers well for a long time.  At this point though, we think this new discount structure is the way to go and we hope you agree and are able to benefit from it.

You will also notice that, for most metals, we have eliminated the 500 packs. These packs were not as popular as the 250 and 1000 packs and we thought this would help keep our discount structure more simple. It will also help our inventory assistants, allowing them to make more of our most popular pack sizes, getting them ready for your orders more quickly!

As always, we welcome your feedback about these changes.  To offer your thoughts, please send an email to [email protected].