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KRISTAL: Hi, Kristal Wick with Artbeads Café, and I have my guest, Cynthia, Chief Designer
and Grand *** of everything Artbeads. Does that fit on your business card?
CYNTHIA: I guess so. (laughs)
KRISTAL: We have some really fun things to share with our folks. Coffee -- of course,
everything is caffeinated here at Artbeads Café -- and we have lots of fun shareable
ideas and processes and beads and all kinds of good things. Cynthia, how about if you
start with some beautiful, beautiful baubles here? Tell us about it.
CYNTHIA: This is a bracelet that I just made, and it's called Byzantine Royalty.
KRISTAL: Byzantine Royalty, ooh.
CYNTHIA: I saw in a magazine a beautiful picture of a fashion trend, and it was a Byzantine
trend. I remember when I was a child, I really loved in my history class the Byzantine era.
I had pictures of this really gold, very luxurious, very magnificent, beautiful Byzantine period.
So I wanted to reproduce that, and I really like the color purple because it's the color
of royalty. I wanted to find something that would match with the purple. The first component
that I found was the bead cap. I like that the bead caps are pointed, so it gives a really
cool shape to those little pendants.
KRISTAL: It adds another dimension to the usual bicone, right?
CYNTHIA: Exactly, yes.
KRISTAL: Oh, beautiful.
CYNTHIA: Isn't it? And then with the purple, I love mixing the copper colors, so I used
some Swarovski beads. Then because the trend will be also with the little bugs, I thought,
"Hey, I would love to have a scarab and a dragonfly."
KRISTAL: Right, because there's some history about -- I don't know, the bugs in the past,
they had some mystical meanings to some of the ancients, didn't they?
CYNTHIA: I guess so.
KRISTAL: Wow. So you included that. This is a beautiful piece, because you included all
those elements.
CYNTHIA: Thank you.
KRISTAL: Very nice.
CYNTHIA: Then for extra popping colors, then I add the peridot green.
KRISTAL: Yeah, I love the peridot with that deep, rich purple. Very, very nice. It does
look very elegant.
CYNTHIA: Oh, thank you.
KRISTAL: Gorgeous, Cynthia. Well, thank you for sharing the story of that, too, that it
goes back to your childhood and your inspiration. We love to know that kind of thing.
Now, Cynthia, I would like to talk about Kristal Wick's Picks. I have some beautiful things
here, beautiful leather. Leather cord is so popular right now, as you know, and now we
have some braided leather cord. Not only is it the plain leather cord, but we have some
braiding. And some of the braiding comes with two different colors. It's a two-tone braid,
which is very, very interesting. I love the 4 millimeter, because that is nice and thick
and bulky, and I think it's good for guys as well as for women.
CYNTHIA: That's true, yes.
KRISTAL: There's a whole different look to that kind of cord, because there's some substance
to that. So it's kind of fun to wear that. And then also here we have the 3 millimeter,
and it comes in all these beautiful colors. Absolutely gorgeous, from metallic to pink
to black and white. Oh, I just think that's so fun.
And then I have to say one of my favorite pieces, that Teri designed for us here, is
what I'm wearing, which is a multi-wrap. Oh my goodness. This multi-wrap is gorgeous.
It's on purple metallic cord -- which of course is our lovely theme, with the royalty -- and
there are many, many charms added on here.
We have some Lassero, which feature the beautiful Swarovski crystals, and I love that she put
on a matte clasp there. The lobster clasp is a matte finish. It's kind of a nice shiny
color, and it's got some matte in there, and it's got some crystals in there, and some
butterflies, and oh my goodness, I just can't even... this is beautiful no matter how you
look at it. So when you twist your arm around and you move, it's just gorgeous. And you
keep playing with them; you can't help it.
CYNTHIA: Exactly. It's fun to have so many charms on one bracelet.
KRISTAL: Yeah, don't you think? And they mix and match and move around. Thanks, Teri, for
making this beautiful piece that I may not take off.
KRISTAL: Cynthia, it's time for Q&A, and we have Bobby from Minnesota, and he asks, "How
do you finish braided leather?"
CYNTHIA: It's very simple. You use the crimp end cap.
KRISTAL: Oh, a crimp end cap? I wondered what to do with those.
CYNTHIA: Yes.
KRISTAL: Show me, tell me.
CYNTHIA: Here we have the 4 millimeters and here you have the 3 millimeters. Of course,
the end cap size is going to change depending on the size of your braided leather.
KRISTAL: Sure.
CYNTHIA: So the crimp, and you have two types. One is really easy; you just mash those together.
You take your flat-nose pliers and you bring those little points at the end together.
KRISTAL: Okay, so you kind of take your crimp tool and you smash the prongs towards each
other?
CYNTHIA: It's not a crimp tool; it's just a flat-nose pliers.
KRISTAL: The flat-nose pliers? Oh, that's even easier.
CYNTHIA: Yes. And then, again, with your flat-nose pliers, you use those type of crimp ends.
So here, in the middle -- I don't know if you can see -- there is a little space here
in the middle of those two.
KRISTAL: Got it. What are those called?
CYNTHIA: That's called a crimp end cap.
KRISTAL: A crimp end cap. Okay, because I always wondered what they were called. And
you actually crimp the middle part?
CYNTHIA: Exactly.
KRISTAL: Very interesting. Nice secure way to finish your braided leather.
CYNTHIA: What I like sometimes is just to put a little dot of glue before I put the
crimp end cap.
KRISTAL: Do you have a particular kind of glue that you like?
CYNTHIA: Epoxy, usually.
KRISTAL: Yeah, the two-part Epoxy?
CYNTHIA: Yes.
KRISTAL: We love the two-part Epoxy. That's always smart, too. A little double security
at the end of those braids. Nice.
CYNTHIA: And that's it. They come in different finishes, like gold finishes, copper, silver,
antique silver.
KRISTAL: Oh, I like that.
CYNTHIA: And you've got this beautiful gunmetal finish.
KRISTAL: One of my favorites, because it goes with everything. Gunmetal mixes and matches.
This is so nice, and it looks like it would go really well for guys and girls.
CYNTHIA: Exactly.
KRISTAL: Nice. Well, good, thanks for sharing that, Cynthia.
CYNTHIA: You're welcome.
KRISTAL: Very nice, and that's for Bobby in Minnesota. If you have any questions for us,
please let us know. We would like to thank you for joining us at Artbeads Café, where
we have all things caffeinated and certainly beady. Happy beading to you all!