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KRISTAL: Hi! Kristal Wick here with Artbeads Cafe! We're here to talk about some beady
things and have some coffee talk at the same time. I'm here with Cynthia. Cynthia, it's
so good to chat with you again. We have some fun things to share now, don't we, Cynthia,
here on Artbeads Cafe with our Beady Peeps? CYNTHIA: We do. So Kristal, you are a Swarovski
Ambassador. KRISTAL: Yes I am!
CYNTHIA: And I've always wondered what does that mean?
KRISTAL: That's a good question. I get that all the time from everybody. What is a Swarovski
Ambassador? What do we do, what does it mean? Well, believe it or not, there are 33 Ambassadors
in the United States, and then there are 19 worldwide and that includes Asia, Europe,
and Africa. CYNTHIA: Wow!
KRISTAL: Yeah! It's by invitation only, so we are invited --certain designers are invited
--by the Swarovski company to become ambassadors for them. And the criteria mainly is we know
a lot about bling...and your name is Kristal. No, I'm just kidding! (Laughs) But actually
all of us do a lot of teaching. We're ambassadors for the product line, so we know a lot about
the trends and a lot about the technicalities of the crystals and how they're presented
and we get to know things ahead of time so we can go out and spread it amongst our blingy
friends. And, so, we teach a lot of techniques. I've taught on cruise ships as well as on
land. We have a passion for Swarovski crystals and their Elements. So, a lot of it is sharing
our knowledge, and we learn a lot of new things, a lot of new techniques and share it with
a lot of people and give a lot of classes. And doing all things blingy and bright and
crystally. CYNTHIA: Right, and you've brought some beautiful
pieces here! KRISTAL: I did! Thank you, Cynthia!
CYNTHIA: These are amazing! KRISTAL: Well, I brought some of my favorites.
These guys have been--all won awards-- international awards and they're my own designs filled with
crystals. And again they are not office attire for sure, but if you're going on a night on
the town...a big party! This guy won first place here in one of the worldwide competitions.
And then this one here, last year won first place in the British Bead Awards. These guys,
this one and that one won second place here. They took a jaunt across the pond! They were
in actually one of the shows over there in England. It's been really, really exciting
and, again, part of it being such an honor to be asked by Swarovski to represent their
company and their product line. And, of course, I love it to pieces and put it in everything
I possibly can! But it's also that the quality is really great and they stand behind the
quality of Swarovski because it's just the Cadillac of all Cadillacs in crystals. And
it's always my pleasure to teach different techniques and share different designs with
everybody. I think that's part of my excitement of being part of the Artbeads family, is that
I get some of the trends ahead of time and I can share them with you guys, I can share
it with all the peeps and also, you know, field a lot of questions about Swarovski crystals.
If I know them I'll be glad to share that, but if I don't I know where I can ask and
figure it out! CYNTHIA: That would be really nice (laughs).
KRISTAL: Yeah! It's a pleasure to share it. CYNTHIA: Well, great! Well thank you, Kristal!
KRISTAL: My pleasure, Cynthia! KRISTAL: So Cynthia, speaking of Swarovski,
I have Kristal Wick's Picks and they are the wonderful ceramic Cosmo Rings. I love these!
And I know a lot of people don't know what to do with them. They look at them and they
go 'what? Are those things Swarovski?' and yes, they actually are a Swarovski component.
And one of the things that I found was really fun is --the sky's the limit on these --is
take one of the rings, and they come in all these beautiful colors and finishes, I use
a two-part clay. I use the Crystal Clay and I mix that together, and then I put it in
a ring blank. These ring blanks come with nothing on the back of them. And you put some
Crystal Clay on top of the ring; you squish in one of your rings --the Cosmic Rings --and
then on top of that I squished in one of the jeans buttons. So, everybody thinks with these
jeans buttons, 'what do you do with them?' and I thought, well this might be fun, to
layer them. Then you just keep squishing, add another layer. Squishing, add another
layer...and that's how I created the necklace as well and all these beautiful rings and
the bracelet. So, you start by making your focal point, and then you can make that into
anything else! You can make it into a necklace, you can make it into a bracelet, or like I
said, these fashion rings. And, you know, the chunky, clunky thing is so in that these
rings are wild! They are so much fun to wear. I stacked the TierraCast components and the
Swarovski crystals, and we have these little fashion rings that are making quite a statement.
In fact, this one would go really great with your outfit right now, now that I see that.
CYNTHIA: That's such a great idea! It's pretty amazing.
KRISTAL: It's pretty fun, isn't it? CYNTHIA: Yeah!
KRISTAL: Cynthia, it's time for our Q&A section and several people have been asking about
this, so this is a good one. They have asked us how to finish the Monterey Pop bracelet
that you made. A lot of folks are confused about this. Can you show them?
CYNTHIA: Yeah, let me show you how to do this. KRISTAL: That'd be great!
CYNTHIA: After you're done with your kumihimo bracelet you'll want to tie a knot at the
end. And then you take an eye pin and you open the loop. You want to be as close as
you can to the bead. So you poke it through one piece of the thread here. You bring it
up and then you just close the loop of the eye pin like that. You bring this together
and you take a piece of thread and I like to use Nymo and I'm going to wrap the thread
around the eye pin and the kumihimo piece. First I will tie a knot and I like to do double
to make sure that it's really strong. So I will do a double knot. And you start wrapping
and make it as tight as you can. And my thread is a little long. You wrap and wrap until
you have a good, tight- bring it together like that. Make sure it's really tight. And
I will do another knot. And to make it more secure let's do a second knot. I'm doing my
second knot. Now you can put a dab of glue if you want but right now I'm just going to
cut the thread here and here. And then you need to cut the kumihimo thread here. Like
that. Then you take your end cap, and you just slide it in - and I like to put inside
a little of the beads. And to make it tight I take a crystal round bead and I will make
a wrapped loop at the end here. I like to make a wrapped loop because it ties everything
together and makes sure that the end cap is really against the bead. So then you make
your wrapped loop. You can put your clasp right here and finish your loop; or, you can
do your loop, put a jump ring on and put the clasp. And that's it. So voila!
KRISTAL: Lovely, Cynthia! That was great. Thanks for sharing that with us. Well, thank
you for joining us at Artbeads Cafe, and if you have any questions, please feel free to
let us know at Artbeads.com. Happy beading!