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KRISTAL: Hi, Kristal Wick here with Artbeads Café, where we have all things caffeinated
and beady and fun. I'm really, super excited, because I have a guest here to my right, and
it's Linda Hartung with Alacarte Clasps and WireLace. Linda, welcome to the Artbeads Café.
LINDA: Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.
KRISTAL: This is so much fun. You have a lot of eye candy for us, so let's dive in. Can
we start with WireLace?
LINDA: Love to. Our WireLace, we have four sizes of it. We have our 1 millimeter size
right here, and it's like thread. Then we have our 3, our 6, and our 12. All three of
these sizes are tubular. All of these are knitted wire, but only these three are hollow
so you can put a wire inside of it. That also makes them so that they're manipulative, so
you can pull them apart and make the fun, lacy waves. You can see the knitted part of
it underneath, when I pull it apart. But if you don't happen to like it, you simply just
pull it and smooth it out, and you basically have erasable jewelry.
KRISTAL: That's amazing.
LINDA: It's very forgiving, but it's also extremely durable. It kind of covers both
worlds. The fun thing is, when you put a wire inside of it, then you can reform, sculpt
with it, and give it some body underneath of it. You'll see that a lot, but you won't
know what people are doing, and that's what the technique is.
The other thing is that they come in 1-yard cuts. The 6 and the 12mm come in 1-yard cuts.
This is what they will get when they order them. The 1 and the 3mm come in spools, so
that's what you're seeing right here.
KRISTAL: This eye candy here, which is completely boggling my mind, are all the colors, right?
LINDA: All the colors.
KRISTAL: Oh my gosh. I don't even know how I decide. But those are the spools, and then
these are the 1-yard packages. Got it. Oh my gosh, where would you start with that?
Fabulous.
LINDA: You just have to pick one of every color. It's just the only way you can go.
KRISTAL: It's not so hard to do. (laughs) Oh, I love it. Okay, let's look at another
product that we have here that's your latest and greatest.
LINDA: Yes. This is our new WireLuxe. "Luxe," of course, meaning "luxurious," because it
truly is a luxurious item. There's nothing like it on the market, because we invented
it. It comes straight like this, so this is what they will see when they purchase it,
and it comes in two lengths so they can make a bracelet or a necklace. You can use it straight
for a bracelet like you see some of these samples here, or you can zigzag it. But what
makes it even truly amazing is you can curve it. Now you have the ability to make a curved
necklace with a wide band. That is what makes it completely unique.
KRISTAL: How difficult is it to curve it or to zigzag?
LINDA: Simply pull it. One side will give, one side won't, so it's foolproof. You just
start tugging on one side. Everything comes with the instructions on the packaging, so
there is nothing to remember.
KRISTAL: Excellent. And it looks like you brought beautiful samples here. It looks like
some of these you actually just trim the edges in seed beads. Seed beading in the middle.
Or you zigzag it and bling it up a little bit.
LINDA: Of course, your favorite.
KRISTAL: Never too much. (laughs)
LINDA: You did leave one spot there. I had to point that out. And you can glue flatbacks
on it. You can seed bead it. You can attach things to it. As you can see, you can do different
finishes on the end for the clasps. This is one of my favorites. It was featured on the
front cover of a magazine just recently, and it has a unique way to finish it off on the
ends. This, of course, is becoming a framework inside to capture the beads on it. You can
use it for a frame, you can use it by itself, you can...
KRISTAL: That's spectacular. And I love how you can combine seed beading with the WireLuxe.
LINDA: Absolutely.
KRISTAL: This is just gorgeous. It looks like it's a slider.
LINDA: It is.
KRISTAL: That you make it and then slide it onto your WireLuxe piece?
LINDA: Yep.
KRISTAL: Oh my goodness.
LINDA: You could take it off and wear this just by itself. You can kind of think of it
like a chain, like sometimes you just like a chain, just something simple on, and sometimes
you want to embellish it. It has enough structure in the framework to allow you to do that.
KRISTAL: That's amazing. And like something like this, all over the top...
LINDA: Well, that's your personal favorite.
KRISTAL: Yes, it is. Oh my gosh, it's so royal-looking.
LINDA: And of course, anybody that does seed beading loves to do that style, so it really
covers all the markets. The seed beaders love it, the wire workers love it, the beaders
love it, the people that like to glue flatbacks. There's not an audience in our beady world
that wouldn't find this a fabulous product.
KRISTAL: Right, and it's hard to find something like that.
LINDA: There isn't anything. Not that I've come across.
KRISTAL: Oh, that's why we like it. Because again, it can be a framework to even start,
like what they used here with the Tila beads. This is so much fun.
LINDA: The other cool thing is you can make it like this, and then you can go back and
add something to it. You go okay, you want to try a new technique on it, and you can
stitch on the edges of it.
KRISTAL: Oh my goodness, I love that idea.
KRISTAL: Okay, I get very excited about this, another thing that is absolutely gorgeous
eye candy here: clasps, your beautiful, beautiful bails. Tell me a little bit about this, because
oh, just stunning.
LINDA: As a designer, the thing that I love about our clasps -- which is why we came up
with them -- was that they all fit Swarovski crystal. It doesn't get any better than that,
right?
KRISTAL: Right.
LINDA: The cool thing is they all have the Swarovski crystal so you can go to your bead
bin and pick out your crystals to match the clasp. This is what Artbeads is carrying.
They have a nice variety there, and so there's something for everyone. We also have our bails,
and the bails are wonderful because they have a hinge on the back and they make any pendant
portable.
KRISTAL: These are removable, so you can actually put it on and take it off?
LINDA: Right.
KRISTAL: That's key. Oh my goodness, I love that.
LINDA: So many people love that. This sample right here, that will pop off. And this is
our WireLace, 3 millimeter size, with the wiring side of it. Now you can -- because
remember, it's tubular, so you can freeform sculpt with it.
KRISTAL: Right, excellent. So if you wanted to have a definition, you would put wire inside
of it and then mold it and shape it, and it will keep its...
LINDA: Yes.
KRISTAL: Oh my goodness, I love that. That is so gorgeous. What about this here? Let's
talk about these, because those are very interesting.
LINDA: Yes. He looks a little sad because he's missing his crystal.
KRISTAL: He's incomplete.
LINDA: Yes, yes. But that's the best of all worlds, because now you can make your own
cabochon to put on that, using epoxy clay, Swarovski crystal, and you make your own cabochon
and glue it on. That's the cool thing. That's this sample right here. This is an epoxy clay;
pick your own crystals, push them into it, and then when it's dry you just glue it right
on the top of the framework. So now you have your own custom clasp here.
KRISTAL: That is phenomenal. Oh my gosh.
LINDA: It's really awesome.
KRISTAL: I love that. Now, of course, nobody gets any sleep trying to dream up all the
LINDA: That's the idea. I have to share that with everybody, because I don't sleep, so
why should anybody else, right?
KRISTAL: (laughs) I love that. Oh, that's so true. I just can't get over how gorgeous
these are. Oh my goodness.
LINDA: The other thing I skipped over was our bell end caps and our clamshells, which
are great ways to finish a lot of our WireLace. They have a small component and you two-part
epoxy glue the WireLace up into it, which makes a really nice, elegant finished end.
Our clamshells, for those where you have too much to fit in there, you just simply squeeze
it closed, and it's got a split ring on the top, add your clasp to it, close it up and
go, and you're ready to put your clasp on.
KRISTAL: That's nice, because they have a nice finish. They look really elegant, finished.
So a great way to finish your project.
LINDA: Right. Because you want to make it compatible. These are all high-end pieces,
and so you want compatible finishing components as well.
KRISTAL: Oh, I just love it. A lot of people get into the seed beading part of it or making
the jewelry, and they don't always pay attention to the clasps until the end and they're like,
"Oh, what should I finish it with?" Well, your clasps here are just stunning. That is
actually a great way to end all these beautiful, lovely eye candy pieces. Oh my gosh, Linda.
Thank you so much. This is so gorgeous.
LINDA: You're welcome.
KRISTAL: This is so gorgeous.
LINDA: Thanks. I'm very excited to be here.
KRISTAL: Linda, I have a question for you. The Q&A this week comes from Kristal. Can
you use WireLace to make a bail?
LINDA: Absolutely.
KRISTAL: Show me how.
LINDA: Let me show you how. It's super easy, too. All you want to do -- this is a sample
right here of making a WireLace bail, and I've also used it for earrings. There's a
lot of things you can do with it. All you need is a small piece of wire. I am using
the ZambaPro, medium weight. I've got my Swarovski donut. You can do 8 to 10
inches. It just depends on if you're doing the big bail or the small earring donut. I'll
take the large one, actually. I'm just going to use the wire, and that's going to form
my needle. I divide this in half...
KRISTAL: Oh, so it's just a needle.
LINDA: Right, yeah. It's nothing tricky. You need a bead that's got a large enough hole
in it. You're going to grab it and you're just going to simply pull it through and pull
it all the way to the end, and that's all you're using the piece of wire for. You're
going to take your donut and you're going to do a lark's head knot, which is simply
slipping it through, pulling it back over the top, tightening it down, slide your bead
down. Get it a little snug. Then you're going to make a series of square knots. You want
to make those tight, because that's what's holding it on tight. You're going to do about
three or four of them, just so you get a nice *** right there. The great thing about WireLace
is you can just snip it with scissors or your wire cutters.
KRISTAL: Oh, look at that. That's the scissors.
LINDA: Yep, super easy. Take one of your clamshells. I like to start it by squeezing it with my
fingers, just to get it gripped on there. Now, you can take your wire smoothers because
it won't mar, and give it a good squeeze. But if they're too wide and it doesn't let
you get down to the base of it, you can take your flat nose pliers -- and of course, you'd
want to cover it over with something like the Artbeads polishing cloth, because then
it would protect it. You would just put it inside of it and then squeeze it down. But
I'm not going to do that because it would cover over everything I'm trying to show you.
You want to just make sure you give it a good squeeze. See how the split ring opens up?
All you're going to do is add any type of length or one of our new bails that Artbeads
is carrying, and close it up and there you have it.
KRISTAL: Oh, that's so easy.
LINDA: Fast too.
KRISTAL: Really fast, and so elegantly done. You would never know. That's really good.
LINDA: Hardly takes any WireLace, and you can pick any beads you want. As long as you
can pull it through, that's the key. It's always easier to pull something through a
hole than to try to push it.
KRISTAL: Oh, right. Good tip. Well Linda, that was so much fun.
LINDA: Thanks for having me.
KRISTAL: Oh, thanks for joining us here at Artbeads. And thank you for joining us here
at Artbeads Café. Again, if you have any questions for us, please feel free to let
us know at Artbeads.com, and go enjoy yourselves, beady peeps. We are off to have a beadylicous
day.