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KRISTAL: Kristal Wick here with Artbeads Café, where we have all things caffeinated, beautiful,
and blingy. Oh my gosh. Teri, what a lovely guest. It's all about blingsters. I have been
waiting for this episode, I can't even tell you how long, because you know, my name's
Kristal for a reason. All right gang, it's little black dress jewelry time. So Teri,
happy to have you here to fill me in on some little black dress goodies that you have for
us, so please share.
TERI: Always happy to talk about shiny things. We need men's jewelry for dressing up. It's
hard enough to get them out of jeans.
KRISTAL: True, true.
TERI: But if you could make them something spectacular like these shamballa bracelets
-- we have natural gemstones with large holes that accommodate the big cord.
KRISTAL: And I like the one with the skull there, because it's a guy thing. I mean, it's
wonderful. And what I really enjoy about a lot of the shamballa style is it is unisex.
So a lot of these, of course the women would like to wear them, but the guys would like
it too, and they are masculine. They're looking nice and black. They go along with anything
that you're wearing fancy. Maybe some holiday outfits. Maybe you want to do matching; maybe
the gal wants to wear shiny jewelry and the guy can wear the black. I just really like
this idea about the little black dress jewelry but with a twist. The guys have some shamballa
stuff going on.
TERI: Fun to make.
KRISTAL: Okay, so walk me through some of these other beautiful pieces.
TERI: We've got -- pearl is basic. I mean, we all love pearls. Nothing says "I'm ready
to go out"...
KRISTAL: They go with everything.
TERI: Yes. And plenty of sparkly crystals. We have some sew-on stones that you could
link together with some chain.
KRISTAL: I like that it's unusual, because a lot of people don't know, jewelry people
don't know what to do with the sew-on stones, and they're gorgeous. The Swarovski sew-on
stones are big, bold, beautiful. It's lovely to just link them together. If you can do
a jump ring, this works, doesn't it?
TERI: Huge variety of colors and shapes. Anything you like.
KRISTAL: I love this one. Walk me through this baby, because we have little filigrees
that are linked together that are sewn. You did what kind of stitch with this?
TERI: I just strung them. The filigrees have six holes, good size holes. You can sew them
onto things or you could incorporate them in strung jewelry. But I just used the round
5000 beads in between and two strands of ZambaPro wire.
KRISTAL: Lovely. And tell me about the clasp. That's my favorite part.
TERI: That's my favorite part.
KRISTAL: Jinx, you owe me a Coke.
TERI: Okay. That's a Linda Hartung clasp that accepts epoxy clay.
KRISTAL: So it's a blank, so it comes with nothing on it. It's plain; you can put whatever
you want, and you did this.
TERI: Because the filigree just fit nicely on top, and I was able to fill around with
super small --
KRISTAL: So you used black epoxy clay, stuck your filigree in the middle, and then filled
in with clear chatons.
TERI: Chatons so small they look like stars in the night sky.
KRISTAL: Yes they do. Oh, that's wonderful. So you could also customize this very project
KRISTAL: Any color chatons. Love it. Okay, what about these waterfall earrings? Those
might be my favorite, I don't know. Look at those. They look like -- it looks like ice
cubes dripping down your ears. Perfect for holidays.
TERI: That would be all you need, and a little black dress.
KRISTAL: I should say.
TERI: Leave the rest of the jewelry at home.
KRISTAL: Like it.
TERI: Because that's all you need.
KRISTAL: That's true. Cool. I put on -- I wanted to do a little black dress flair with
a bit of rock and roll, because I like the edgy stuff sometimes, so I did this lovely
TERI: You own that.
KRISTAL: -- draping chain. I try. And then I actually made these, this flower from melting
little fabric pieces and then putting it together. That's so much fun, I can't even tell you.
And then glued the Swarovski crystals in the middle. And this is a pin. So I just pin the
pin to the necklace. Then you can take it off and it's just a chain. So I thought that
was a fun little take on --
TERI: On a hat, or...
KRISTAL: Yeah, all kinds of things. Little black dress jewelry.
TERI: Heavy coat in the winter, cheer up.
KRISTAL: Exactly. Very cool. Well thanks for sharing, Teri. We love our little black dress,
and especially all the unisex bracelets for everybody out there to get ready for the holidays.
TERI: Can't leave them out.
KRISTAL: Cynthia, I'm so excited to share with you my Kristal Wick's Picks for this
week, and of course, as you can see, blingy, sparkly, shiny, ready for the holidays. I
thought it would be really fun to use some simple rondelles that are very fancy and pretty,
and just add some Swarovski pearls. Because I love the pearl colors, and now we have the
rondelles to match the pearl colors, and so when you put them together -- easy. This is
the best last-minute project for either Christmas gifts or you're running out the door for a
party, or -- this happens to me all the time -- someone gives me a present and I didn't
think they were going to. Oops. And I make these because I'm like, "Oh, here, I have
this for you. It's your favorite color." Has that ever happened to you?
CYNTHIA: Oh, yes.
KRISTAL: So I thought, "Well now, these are easy, quick and easy." And again, I just used
the Swarovski crystal head pins to add a little touch of bling on the bottom, the pearls,
and then the rondelles, and I just slapped a little guy on top and called it good, and
those are your earrings. But these would make great necklaces and great pendants. Just one
would be nice. Or a keychain, or also really great zipper pulls, backpack dangles. So if
you want to do it for your tweens, do a backpack dangle instead of earrings.
CYNTHIA: They look very cute.
KRISTAL: Thanks, I think they're pretty fun.
CYNTHIA: Yes.
KRISTAL: Okay Cynthia, it's time for our Q&A, and we have Tammy in Iowa who is asking us,
"How do I use clamshell type findings?" Great question, huh?
CYNTHIA: It is, it is. I just want to say also, some people call them clamshell and
some people call them bead tips.
KRISTAL: That's a good thing to bring up, because bead tips to me means something different
than clamshell findings, so everybody needs to know, clamshell, bead tips, same thing.
You're going to fill us in on all of it.
CYNTHIA: Yes.
KRISTAL: Yay!
CYNTHIA: We have different types, and I want to talk about this one first. All those clamshells/bead
tips are used mainly with thread, and it can be silk, it can be cotton or Chinese cord
also. I used some Chinese cord. I want to show you those first. They come in silver
and they come in gold plated. What I like in those is they're really great to use with
the silk when you do knotting pearls. And then here I made also a multi-strand necklace,
and you have all those strands and you don't know how to finish and put them to the clasp.
Very easy; you just use the bead tip.
KRISTAL: The bead tip for that. That's great, because it looks really elegant. You'd never
know the mess that's inside the bead tip, would you?
CYNTHIA: Exactly.
KRISTAL: Nice.
CYNTHIA: And then I really like those also because you can use a thicker cord, and I
used a Chinese cord with those. What I like also is the finishing. If your cord is black,
you can use a black one; if your cord is a copper color, use a copper color. That is
a clamshell too.
KRISTAL: I like that a lot.
CYNTHIA: So let me show you how to do this. It's very easy. We're going to start by making
a knot at the end of this cord. I cut the cord so it's very, very short, just to show
you how to do this. It's just a simple knot. And you go inside the bead tip, and there
is a little hole there, so you bring your needle there and you pull it, and your knot
will be ending inside the bead tip. At that point, I like to use some glue. I love this
one, because the tip of the glue is very small, so you can drop just a dab of glue in here,
cut the thread, and then you just close the bead tip. You can do it with your fingers
or you can do it with chain nose pliers.
KRISTAL: That's it?
CYNTHIA: That's it.
KRISTAL: Wow, that was easy.
CYNTHIA: It was really easy.
KRISTAL: It looks great.
CYNTHIA: So then you keep going with your bead, like I did on this one. And I want to
show you how to finish it on the other side. I take another bead tip. This time, I go through
the back. When we started, we went through inside; this time I go through the back, because
the knot has to go inside the bead tip. And then you bring your thread like that, and
what I like to do is, again, just a simple knot. But this time I will use also a pair
of tweezers to bring my knot inside the bead tip.
KRISTAL: This is the key right here. I think that's the tip, to get it nice and tight right
up, to butt up against the little finding.
CYNTHIA: You want to make sure also that your bead tip is really close to your bead or the
knot that is there. And you keep pulling on the thread, and your knot is right inside.
KRISTAL: Look at that.
CYNTHIA: Easy. The same, you put some glue, cut the thread, close it, and then you can
attach a jump ring with your clasp right in there.
KRISTAL: That's a lot easier than it looks, than you think, so I'm glad you walked us
through this. Wow. Well thank you, Cynthia.
CYNTHIA: You're welcome.
KRISTAL: Thank you Tammy, because that was a great question, and now we all know how
to do it. And thank you for joining us here at Artbeads Café, where we have all things
caffeinated and beady. Any questions, please let us know at Artbeads.com. Otherwise,
happy beading!