Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
KRISTAL: Hi, Kristal Wick here with Artbeads Café, where we have all things caffeinated
-- what blend is it today, Cynthia?
CYNTHIA: It's a summer blend.
KRISTAL: It's a summer blend -- and beady, of course. I'm here with my guest Cynthia,
and we have some fun things to talk about, do we not?
CYNTHIA: We do.
KRISTAL: Okay. Some of our favorites. Yours is...
CYNTHIA: Birds.
KRISTAL: Mine is...
CYNTHIA: Dogs.
KRISTAL: Let's share, Cynthia. Tell me about birds.
CYNTHIA: Well, I have to say the reason why I love birds first. I came from a French tropical
island that's called New Caledonia, and because it's an island, we have so many birds. That's
the first thing you hear in the morning, at 4:30 in the morning.
KRISTAL: So it wakes you up, just the friendly singing.
CYNTHIA: Yes, and they're beautiful, they're very colorful. We have actually one bird that
is only in New Caledonia. It's called the Cagou. It's about one foot tall, so not super
big, and it doesn't fly.
KRISTAL: You're kidding. It just walks around?
CYNTHIA: It just walks around, and it's great.
KRISTAL: Interesting.
CYNTHIA: Yes. When he sings, it's not really nice; it's kind of like dogs barking. It's
really strange. But we are very proud of the Cagou, and it's really protected.
KRISTAL: That's very interesting. I've never heard of that kind of bird.
CYNTHIA: Yeah. So I love anything about birds, and I tend to do a lot of jewelry using our
bird beads and charms.
KRISTAL: Nice. Birds are near and dear to your heart.
CYNTHIA: They are.
KRISTAL: Show me what you've got. They're so pretty, Cynthia.
CYNTHIA: I have some birds that came from Green Girl. Here you have a beautiful owl.
Some also from TerraCast, like this beautiful little link. Some shells from Lillypilly.
I used this one that I glued inside this pendant. I glued them together. I love also the Lassero
birds because of the crystal inside.
KRISTAL: Those look like parrots.
CYNTHIA: They are, yes.
KRISTAL: Oh, that's really cool.
CYNTHIA: They're very pretty. And of course, also we have those beautiful hand-painted
bird pendant beads.
KRISTAL: That's a piece of art in and of itself, isn't it?
CYNTHIA: It is, yes.
KRISTAL: Wow. Really pretty.
CYNTHIA: I made different samples here to show you. I like to use them as cabochons,
even though it's a pendant, and then of course I will put birds everywhere.
KRISTAL: They're just flying around your neck.
CYNTHIA: Exactly.
KRISTAL: That's so cute.
CYNTHIA: And this one too, I love it. It's a hand-painted pendant, which is really beautiful.
KRISTAL: Oh, the peacock's gorgeous. And I love how you added all the colors in the pendant.
Beautiful piece. Oh, that's so fun, Cynthia.
CYNTHIA: Thanks. What about yourself?
KRISTAL: Dogs. Bow-wows are near and dear to my heart, so I have some really fun doggy
things here, from buttons that say "Hug your dog" -- I have to flip that over so you can
see that that's a button. They make great toggle clasps.
CYNTHIA: That's true, yes.
KRISTAL: Yeah, even people that aren't necessarily sewers, they tend to think sewing buttons,
but jewelry makers can use buttons for lots of things, and I thought "Hug your dog," how
cute is that? And some cute little "Good boy" and "Good girl" charms that are adorable.
My favorite, of course, are the little doggies with the angels. I have a lot of friends whose
pets pass, and they're their kids. So I tend to make them a nice little cute charm bracelet
or something in memory of their pet. So the little doggies with the angels are sweet for
that.
Then my doggies are Chihuahuas, and we have a couple of them here, so that's kind of cute.
And then some Patricia Healey copper bones; those are really fun. You can use those as
links or dangle earrings or put them together as a necklace, so it's kind of fun to look
at some of the links as well as the doggy charms. I have some charms over here; these
are little "I heart dogs," which is cute. Then this little guy, you can put a picture of
your pup in there, so it's almost like a little locket of your doggy, which is adorable.
I also put this piece together which, oh my goodness, I thought this was so much fun.
Because I like to use backpack dangles or little cell phone key chains, just little
things to dangle off your purse. I made one of those with my fabric beads. I made some
fabric beads using dog paws.
Then this guy, this is probably one of my most favorite dog stories. When my dogs were
puppies, they lost their baby teeth, and I happened to find a few in the carpet before
I vacuumed. Most dogs swallow them or you vacuum them up; you don't even realize. So
I found this little vial at an antique store, and I filled it with glitter and a couple
of their baby teeth in there.
CYNTHIA: That is really cute.
KRISTAL: You know, because it's one of those things that you can either share with your
friends, if you want them to know what's really in there, or, if you don't look closely, it
just looks like glitter. So those are my fun little doggy stories. Like you and your birds,
I have my little doggy stories. We do enjoy sharing our favorite animals, don't we Cynthia?
CYNTHIA: We do.
KRISTAL: Well, thanks for sharing your stories.
CYNTHIA: You're welcome.
KRISTAL: Cynthia, it's time for one of my favorite things, Kristal Wick's Picks, where
I get to share all my favorite things with you guys out there. Yay! This time, it's all
about gemstones. I thought it would be fun if I share my favorite gemstone and you share
your favorite gemstones. Mine: lapis. Oh my gosh, love lapis. I would wear it all the
time, every day, in the shower... I mean everywhere. Because it's just such a beautiful stone,
and it's a very relaxing, calming stone. It has some of those tendencies, some of those
properties. I like to enforce that in my life.
I have some really fun pieces here, all lapis, and they have different shapes and sizes.
So no matter what you enjoy, you can add those shapes and sizes to your jewelry. One of the
things that I have found is very, very popular, especially when selling gemstone jewelry,
is if you mix copper with a lapis or a turquoise color, it always sells. I do not know why;
it's like the most popular color combination. But when you mix that together, gone.
I made this cute little bracelet here with a magnetic clasp, and I added some Swarovski
copper pearls to the lapis gemstones, and it's just a really pretty little everyday
wear. You could wear it with jeans; you could dress it up. But I thought that would be a
real nice way to wear your lapis everyday and kind of chill out.
So lapis is my favorite; tell me about yours.
CYNTHIA: Well, to tell you the truth, it was really hard to choose one favorite. I tend
to like the gemstones with the season. Right now it's summer, it's warm, so I like everything
that is blue and green.
KRISTAL: Of course, because you're from New Caledonia.
CYNTHIA: Exactly. We have this blue and green quartz that I think is really beautiful.
KRISTAL: Oh. Now, that's quartz.
CYNTHIA: Yes.
KRISTAL: Because to me, when I hear quartz, I think of the rose quartz automatically.
I don't think it comes in this beautiful, varied color shades.
CYNTHIA: Exactly. This is what I like in those strands is look at how many different colors
you have in one strand.
KRISTAL: And they all go together. That's nice.
CYNTHIA: Exactly. So you can play with them, not only with the different colors but the
different shape. Like this nugget is really fun. The oval, the rectangular, and this is
a really cool shape also.
KRISTAL: Yes. It looks very organic. Pretty.
CYNTHIA: What I love with that is how well they go with the silver. Here I use a ceramic
pendant, and I love how it shines against the silver too.
KRISTAL: Right. It kind of pops it. It's almost like a background.
CYNTHIA: It does, yes. I made also this little bracelet. It's a three-strand. Again, with
a silver chain, it's so beautiful.
KRISTAL: It is. And it does remind me of summer.
CYNTHIA: It does, yes.
KRISTAL: It gives you that wonderful feeling of summertime.
CYNTHIA: It does. So this is my favorite now.
KRISTAL: For today.
CYNTHIA: Yes.
KRISTAL: Thanks for sharing, Cynthia.
CYNTHIA: You're welcome.
KRISTAL: Cynthia, it's time for a Q&A session. We have Noah from Arkansas, and he asks, "What
type of wire is best to use with gemstones?"
CYNTHIA: Okay. The most common wire that you can use is the .019, which is really good
for small gemstones. That's fine. But when you have gemstones that are pretty big and
heavy, it's better to go another gauge. In that case, you use the .24 gauge.
KRISTAL: Oh, okay. Good to know.
CYNTHIA: Yes. Then, because your necklace is very heavy, you want to make sure that
you crimp very well. My recommendation would be to crimp it twice.
KRISTAL: That's what a lot of people don't know about double crimping, and I think it's
always a really good idea for stuff like this.
CYNTHIA: Yes. The way to do it, you crimp it first above your last gemstone, and then
you go back through the gemstone and you put another crimp right there.
KRISTAL: Excellent idea.
CYNTHIA: Then you're sure that your necklace will be very strong.
KRISTAL: That's really good to know. I noticed that some of the wires that we carry are labeled
"heavy" and "medium," so you can figure out what you're going to be stringing.
CYNTHIA: Exactly. Heavy for very strong bead gemstones, and medium for the most common
and smaller size gemstones.
KRISTAL: Great. Good, that's a great tip I'm sure Noah will enjoy. We want to thank you,
Cynthia, for being my guest, and thank everybody for joining us at Artbeads Café. If you have
any questions for us, let us know at Artbeads.com. Meanwhile, happy beading.