KRISTAL: Hi, Kristal Wick at Artbeads Café here, where we are celebrating something a
little bit different. Cynthia, I'm excited that we are celebrating the bubbly, the wonderful,
the fabulous sparkling cider. Yay! And it ties in with wine charms.
CYNTHIA: Yay.
KRISTAL: Whether you're having wine or sparkling cider, it doesn't really matter; it just feels
really fancy in a glass like this, so I thought we should decorate them. And I made up some
of these lovely little wine charms using our memory wire. Really quick, really easy, very
colorful, so when you're having a party you could do different colors and each guest gets
to pick their favorite color, and you just place them around the glass like that, and
there are so many options. You can pick your favorite colors.
I've done some breast cancer awareness wine charms over here, and I love the holiday wine
charms that have all kinds of different holiday celebrations. Look at that cute little ball
right there. That's like a tree ornament. And then snowflakes, you could put the Swarovski
snowflakes on the end of the charm. Also the little mittens there. Is that adorable? Oh,
love them.
CYNTHIA: So cute.
KRISTAL: And over here we have some beautiful hearts with Swarovski crystals, of course,
and they come in different colors, so you can make all these beautiful colors. Then
I also thought, on some of them, I like to add the seed beads. And we have these really
great seed bead mixes, so there's all different kinds of seed beads mixed together already,
and you get a variety of colors without having to -- well, I shouldn't say colors, but a
color palette that you get a wide variety of shapes and textures so you don't have to
buy all the different packages. They all come in one. And they make the greatest seed bead
mixes. So those are a nice thing to add to this.
CYNTHIA: I saw that you have some that are open and some that are closed?
KRISTAL: Yes, and it kind of depends on -- I don't know, it's a style thing, whether you
want it all the way opened or you want it to close. Because either way, it works; you
just slide it on and off. But a lot of times, people have extra memory wire laying around
because they've made it for another project and they have scraps of it, so a lot of times
I'll use the scrap memory wire that I have leftover to make a wine charm because it's
just barely enough. So if it doesn't fit all the way around, that's okay; it still works.
Or you can double it over and go around. You could even go around three times if you want.
CYNTHIA: That would be neat.
KRISTAL: Gorgeous. Very, very beautiful. They're great gifts to make for your friends for the
holidays. Great for holiday parties.
KRISTAL: Cynthia, this is one of my favorite segments where it's Kristal Wick's Picks and
I get to share all my favorite things with you guys out there in bead land, and this
time it is breast cancer awareness jewelry, because October is breast cancer awareness
month, so it's wonderful to make jewelry for all kinds of reasons. So fill us in.
CYNTHIA: Okay. We have some wonderful beads and also charms to use in your jewelry for
breast cancer. For example, those are Lampwork beads, and they have the breast cancer awareness
sign on them. They're so cute.
KRISTAL: Oh, the little ribbon, and it's so tiny. That's adorable.
CYNTHIA: Exactly, and I made this idea, mixing the Swarovski beads and the Lampwork beads,
and it's a really cute little bracelet.
KRISTAL: That is precious.
CYNTHIA: We have also some beautiful charms. Some are pink in the middle, pink and then
silver-plated. This one has some crystal, and as you can see here, you can make some
very cute pair of earrings and dangle the breast cancer awareness at the bottom.
KRISTAL: That's so great. The ribbons are everywhere, and look at how the enamel really
pops that color on the ribbon there. Nice.
CYNTHIA: Exactly, yes. Here you have a very cute idea also that Cheri made, and it's a
necklace. What she did is she stamped some words on this donut-type there. And it's all
about breast cancer awareness, too.
KRISTAL: That's a great idea. Inspirational words, you can stamp your own, you can customize
it for somebody who's maybe a breast cancer survivor or something like that. Oh, that's
great.
CYNTHIA: Another great idea that I really like is those really cute clip-ons.
KRISTAL: Those are cute.
CYNTHIA: You can put them on your bag, you can put it as a zipper pull, and I thought
it was a great idea, too, to put on your running shoes when you go on the race.
KRISTAL: Right. Oh, and if you had a team or you're running with your girlfriends, you
could all have matching.
CYNTHIA: Exactly, yes.
KRISTAL: That's a great idea.
CYNTHIA: And I did another one that is bigger because I thought that would be great to put
on a bag.
KRISTAL: Yes, or a backpack. Oh, that's wonderful.
CYNTHIA: I used those really beautiful Swarovski beads. The pink is so vibrant. It's so beautiful.
KRISTAL: Yes it is. Oh, I love that.
CYNTHIA: And the last idea that I want to talk about is this Caspia bracelet. This is
a memory bracelet, and as you can see, you have the bracelet here, you unscrew the end,
and you slide your beads. So for example, you do one race and you want to remember about
the race, you can do one bead. Then you do another race, you can add another bead. Or
something special that you did with your friend, add another bead.
KRISTAL: So it's like a make-it-as-you-go, so to speak. You add a bead for each race
you did or something.
CYNTHIA: Yes.
KRISTAL: These are great ideas, Cynthia.
CYNTHIA: Thank you.
KRISTAL: Perfect for breast cancer awareness. Lovely. Thanks for sharing.
CYNTHIA: You're welcome.
KRISTAL: Cynthia, it's time for our beginner series where we're going to show them how
to make things from the very beginning, from scratch, and today it's necklaces. So show
us.
CYNTHIA: Yes, necklaces are easier than what people think to do. This is a very simple
necklace. You use, first, jewelry wire. I like to use the ZambaPro, medium, clear. And
I always talk about those bead stoppers, because it's so helpful. You don't lose your beads
when you string them, and I add the clasp at the end; I don't add the clasp at the beginning.
So you need something to stop your beads, and the bead stoppers are wonderful, wonderful
little tools.
KRISTAL: Yeah, every jewelry person should have a whole bunch of those, right?
CYNTHIA: Exactly, yes. After you string your necklace, you want to use some crimp tubes.
The crimp tubes are those little tubes, and you need a crimp tool to be able to crimp
them. We have on our Learning Center, some Handy Tips on how to use the crimp tool.
KRISTAL: Oh, that's great. So you can just watch it over and over if you need to, and
you can learn how to do a crimp properly. Because I think a lot of people get stuck
on the crimp.
CYNTHIA: Yes. It's easy, but at the same time sometimes it's too overwhelming.
KRISTAL: Got it. Great.
CYNTHIA: Then, when you're done with one necklace, you might want to add a little charm. It's
very easy. Figure out where is the middle of your necklace and start to add the charms.
You put the charm on a jump ring, slide first your charm and then your bead around your
charm.
KRISTAL: That's excellent.
CYNTHIA: And the finishing is the same with the crimp tube. We do have those beautiful
beads.
KRISTAL: Oh, those are my favorite, yes.
CYNTHIA: Hand-painted, just gorgeous. They don't have a loop, so it's not a charm. It's
mainly a bead, but you can make them as pendants. For that, you use a head pin. One thing that
I would recommend is to slide first a spacer at the end, because the hole of the bead is
sometimes too big. Your head pins will go right through.
KRISTAL: That's a really good tip that people don't always know about, is add some kind
of bead or something on the bottom of that head pin.
CYNTHIA: Exactly.
KRISTAL: Great.
CYNTHIA: At the end, I like to do a wrapped loop. Again, you can find directions and how
to make a wrapped loop on the Learning Center on our site. Those are really beautiful to
work with.
KRISTAL: Yes, and that's really wonderful, because any bead -- anything with a hole in
it, actually, that's a bead, you can make into a pendant.
CYNTHIA: Exactly. And then why not working with chain?
KRISTAL: Oh yes, of course.
CYNTHIA: We all love chain. In this case, I just put a bail on this beautiful Swarovski
pendant, and I used a very fun chain. It has all those little round little loops.
KRISTAL: That's adorable. Very playful.
CYNTHIA: Yes, so don't use only one simple chain. You can play with your chain. We have
so many different designs. It's very fun to do.
KRISTAL: Yeah, and it really sets off the black of the pendant.
CYNTHIA: The last one is just a simple chain with some charms and a big pendant in the
middle. This is really easy to do. You just find where is the middle of your necklace,
add your big pendant with a jump ring...
KRISTAL: Okay, so same technique that you've been showing all along.
CYNTHIA: Exactly, and then you just add wherever you want, the charm beside it. Once in awhile,
I take it, I put it around my neck, and I see if the charms go well together, if everything
is balanced. You can add or you can remove the charm if you want.
KRISTAL: That's great. It looks elaborate, and when you're wearing it, it's very, very,
fun, and there's a lot going on, but it's really easy to make.
CYNTHIA: It's really easy. It's just jump rings.
KRISTAL: Great. This is great to teach everybody how to make all these different kinds of necklaces.
Thanks for sharing, Cynthia.
CYNTHIA: You're welcome.
KRISTAL: This is really fun. We want to thank you for joining us on Artbeads Café, where
we have all things beady and bubbly to celebrate today. We want to make sure that you are beading
happy.