Come celebrate National Craft Month with us! March is a joyful month of craft, hobby, and jewelry making creativity. Learn a new technique or explore a medium you never thought you could master. Crafts are chicken soup for the soul. Using your imagination and creating helps reduce stress and lower blood pressure. Artistic hobbies excite your senses and make every day wonderful. Involve your little ones and make their beautiful brains spin with imagination. Let's celebrate this amazing month of crafting!
March is National Craft Month. Do you want to be a part of the excitement? This month is the perfect time to invest in a new hobby. This is a great month for supporting small craft businesses. This is a time to involve your littles and ignite the spark to create. Need some inspiration? We brought back Joyful Beading. We wanted to give you a roadmap. Create what our community creates. Post your jewelry on our VIB Facebook Group and you will have a chance to win a ten dollar credit. Read more about Joyful Beading and download the calendar.
What a fantastic week to get the creative motivation flowing! Kristen started off the celebration. She used her Supernova Design Kit (Sold Out) and a Very Peri Pantone colorway to make an interstellar pair of earrings. Sara was on vacation, but she saved a video for us before she left, learn how to make a necklace with an American Southwest theme. We then threw a beading party with talented designer and TGBE presenter, Abbi Berta. Abbi has contributed to the Great Bead Extravaganza since the beginning and we love her shop - The Bead Place. Kay Goss, from Star's Beads, showed us how to wire wrap jewelry elements to finish a design. Marcie Creates unboxed our Tucson Great Bead Extravaganza Kit (Sold Out). Rosanna Brafford and Deb Houck showed their Supernova jewelry. Randee Brown, from Thunderhorse Descendant, showed off her Lunar New Year themed jewelry. Monica Dockery, from Sparkle by Monica, unboxed a Bargain Bead Box. And finally, Shelley Penney from Twisted Phish Artisan Jewelry gave us a quick tutorial on how to use a wire protector.
So many crafts, so few hours in the day! Let's make March a memorable month of masterful making!
Joyful Beading Challenge Calendar
Download the Full Calendar for March - Click HERE.
Follow along on our Joyful Beading road map. Each day, we begin a new jewelry project. For instance, March 29th is 'Make a Knotted Design'. On that day, every project that is a knotted design (macrame or a pearl necklace might be fun), will be entered to win a $10 credit. Projects must be posted before midnight PST, on that date. If you post a kit project on a different date and it is not applicable to that date's project, you will not be entered to win. Make sure every project you post has this hashtag - #joyfulbeading. If you do not include the hashtag, we may overlook your entry.
Read more about Joyful Beading here!
Jewelry Making Videos
Follow Us On TikTok And Instagram - Learn How To Craft And Make Jewelry In Just Minutes
Follow us on the web! Our social media sites are loaded with instructional jewelry making videos YouTube and Facebook have a ton of long form videos that will teach you how to make jewelry. You will find in depth discussions on how to use your tools and finish your jewelry on those channels. Our Instagram page and SoftFlexWire@TikTok will teach you how to make jewelry in under a minute. Smash that learning curve and learn a new technique at lightning speed. Instagram Reels and TikTok are great tools for learning something new or finding quick inspiration. If your creativity needs a quick cup of coffee, make sure you visit us for a much needed jolt of crafting caffeine!
Check out our 30 second jewelry tutorials on Soft Flex Company's Instagram Reels! Master a new technique in minutes. These videos move quick but are easy to follow. You will get a sense of how to use your tools and finish your crimps securely. If you need more assistance, make sure you check out our YouTube catalog for deeper dives into jewelry making education. Stand on the shoulders of giants and enhance your jewelry making knowledge in a flash!
Got a minute? Follow us on the Soft Flex TikTok Page! Learn how to make jewelry with a fun soundtrack. Sara is here to show you how to make something amazing in just a minute. This is a great quickie if you need the basics. You can always follow up with more in depth videos on our YouTube channel if you need extra help. Sara has ideas for bead stringing, wire wrapping, and so much more. Learn from a jewelry designer pro at the pace you choose!
Supernova Jewelry Making Kit & Very Peri Pantone Colors
Kristen unboxed our Supernova Design Kit (Sold Out) and made a pair of earrings that was as beautiful as the cosmos above. Earrings are super easy to make with Soft Flex Beading Wire and you need very few supplies to finish your designs. If you use one of our mystery themed design kits to make your earrings, you are going to have enough wire and beads to make dozens of unique jewelry pieces.
For this design, she used the wire found in our Very Peri duos collection. This wire set is a complementary colorway to accent Pantone's Color of the Year - Very Peri. We think the tanzanite and purple amethyst wire colors pair really well with Pantone's vibrant color selection.
Supernova Design Kit (Sold Out)
Soft Flex Beading Wire, .019 Diameter in Purple Amethyst
Ear Wires
2x2mm Crimp Tubes
Magical Crimping Pliers
Cutters
2022 Pantone Color of the Year Duo of Beading Wire (Very Peri)
Celebrate Pantone color with this collection of beading wire. This year, rather than select a pre-existing color, Pantone has created a new color for their Color of the Year. They took a calming blue and married it with a radiant red. The gorgeous mix is a periwinkle tone they named Very Peri. We have selected two colors that are a stunning accent for this Pantone selection. Tanzanite and Purple Amethyst Soft Flex Beading Wire is going to look amazing with your Very Peri beads! Design with color in mind and make jewelry that is fashion forward. Pantone is the authority on trending color. (Bead Mix Sold Separately)
"As we move into a world of unprecedented change, the selection of PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri brings a novel perspective and vision of the trusted and beloved blue color family, encompassing the qualities of the blues, yet at the same time with its violet red undertone, PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri displays a spritely, joyous attitude and dynamic presence that encourages courageous creativity and imaginative expressions."
~ Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute.
Duos Color Wire Sets let you apply color theory to your next design.
Duos Color Wire is a lead-free beading wire for designers that want to create jewelry with color mixing in mind. Duos Color Wire Sets encapsulate the vivid palette of nature and the glamour of the fashion world. Duos Color Wire Sets are comprised of two 10 foot spools of beading wire: Soft Touch .019 (Medium) in Satin Silver and Soft Flex .019 (Medium) in Yellow. Both are constructed of 49 micro woven stainless steel wires.
Handmade Southwestern Jewelry Style Made Easy
Sara was on vacation this week. But before she left, she had a great idea for a necklace design and she wanted to share it. On Wednesday, we premiered a pre-recorded video on YouTube and Facebook. Not something we normally do, but it was fun to try it out. If you have the chance to catch us live, or in this case, during a premiere, you have the opportunity to ask any questions you like and pick our brains about our products. Join us! We love to hear your thoughts and get your ideas. Sometimes you can also give our presenters tips about how to improve what they are making. Kristen often asks her audience how they want the finished piece to look like.
If you love jewelry that evokes thoughts of the American Southwest, we have some beading supplies that make it really easy to make gallery quality jewelry on a budget. We have a collection of charms from TierraCast and wire colors that look like they were recovered from the glory days of the wild west. Sara used these supplies to create a contemporary imagining of the Southwest. Her design has the colors and tones of an Arizonan necklace, but the exposed wire and bead choices are daring and an exciting update. Don't be afraid to be unconventional!
Soft Flex Beading Wire, .019 Diameter in Turquoise
Soft Flex Craft Wire - 20 Gauge
Soft Flex Craft Wire Silver Plated - 20 Gauge
TierraCast Charms and Components
Beads
2x2mm Crimp Tubes
Magical Crimping Pliers
Round Nose Pliers
Chain Nose Pliers
Cutters
Background art is by Kristen Fagan. Her website is
KristenFagan.com.
Live Beading Party With Abbi Berta Of The Bead Place
We love throwing a party! Our first beading party started with the simple thought that meeting over Zoom was a great way to contact friends and share a moment. This was in the early days of COVID and we were aching to be normal again. We scheduled a beading party, live on Facebook, with Andrew Thornton of Allegory Gallery. After a fun meeting, the conversation kept going. We discussed how much we missed bead shows. This talk eventually blossomed into The Great Bead Extravaganza.
We have thrown lots of parties since and they have all been insightful and fun. Beading parties are a great way to learn about a new designer or bead store that you never knew was going to be one of your favorites. Learn a new technique, find a great new place to shop, and meet the people that make this industry amazing!
This week, we threw a beading party with Abbi Berta. Abbi is the owner of an exciting brick and mortar bead store in Illinois. Her shop, The Bead Place, is a crafter's utopia. She carries beads, yarn, tools, and more. You can find classes and live events if you visit. If travel is not in the cards, check out her website and see what she has to offer! Since this is National Craft Month, you are actively celebrating the month long jamboree by supporting her small business!
Abbi has been a presenter with the Great Bead Extravaganza since the first show debuted. We love her creative designs and vibrant parade of colorful jewelry. Her work is infectiously happy and gorgeous. You definitely don't want to miss out if you love joyful jewelry! Make sure you check out her video presentations at the Great Bead Extravaganza and DIY jewelry videos at The Bead Place. If you live nearby, you definitely want to check out her classes!
For this beading party, we wanted to take a look at Abbi's Luna Bracelets. We included a Luna Bracelet in our Supernova Design Kit (Sold Out). Not everybody could figure out how to use the jewelry component. So, we spent a good deal of time looking at how to string your beads on a Luna Bracelet and then how to finish it. If you love the ring and bracelet in the image above, good news - they are super simple to make! Check out this video. You just might have a new favorite design idea!
If you enjoyed this video, visit our blog on March 16th when we do an indepth look at Abbi and The Bead Place. Learn all about this talented artist and entrepreneur.
Star's Beads: Learn How To Wire Wrap Jewelry Elements To Make A Pair Of Earrings
Soft Flex Craft Wire is a lot like a blank canvas. There is a lot of potential to create a masterpiece. But for a beginner, the stark empty platform can be a little spooky and daunting. Craft Wire is a wire that holds a shape when work hardened. You can use it to wrap and sculpt. You can use the wire to connect components or make findings - like ear wire or head pins. If you do not work with Craft Wire, check out this video and get an idea on how to use it. Kay is a great teacher. Turn your next Craft Wire project into a masterpiece!
From Kay:
Work it Wednesday as we finish orders and saying bye to Phil! There was even time to play with the warped square that we learned this past Sunday with Kristen and Amy.
Join Kay for Bead with Me!
Need something to do? Do something creative! Check out Kay’s new series Bead with Me to get you inspired. Get free video tutorials, design tips, and product highlights to keep you creating!
Bead with Me is a LIVE broadcast designed to offer inspiration with free video tutorials, guest artists, project tips, product highlights plus custom kits and care packages to make your designs uniquely you!
Airing Monday thru Thursday on FB Live
Visit Kay's links:
Beadorea
Star's Clasps
Facebook
Pinterest
Marcie Creates: Unboxing The Tucson Great Bead Extravaganza Kit
Want to see the jewelry making kit we sold as a companion to our Great Bead Extravaganza presentation? Marcie Creates unboxed our mystery kit and gave us her thoughts.
From Marcie Creates:
Join me as I unbox this fabulous Southwest inspirational kit!
My name is Marcie Hall and I live in North Texas. I am a mixed media artist, jewelry maker, recipe creator and an avid Dachshund Lover (I have two rescues- Ginger and Cha Cha). I have been an artist my whole life. In my early art days, I would create prints, sculpture, ink drawings and oil paintings. About 25 years ago, I started making jewelry after a friend invited me to take an intro class at my local bead shop - I was hooked! I loved everything about jewelry making- the colors, textures and shapes really spoke to me. Soon I was making jewelry for family and friends and then everyone said, “you should sell your jewelry” and Marcie Hall Designs was born.
I recently started a YouTube channel called Marcie Creates to share my passion for beads, jewelry making, mixed media art and cooking. YouTube is a new venture - I am really enjoying it and would love for you to join me!
Visit Marcie's links:
Marcie Creates YouTube Channel
Instagram
Facebook
Facebook Marcie Hall Designs
In Rose's Garden: Make A Bracelet With The Supernova Design Kit
Rosanna Brafford is a talented designer and exciting artist. She has been a part of the Soft Flex Facebook group – VIB for years. We have watched her create a staggering number of new and beautiful jewelry designs over the years. She is always innovating and always trying something unique. We were excited to hear that she is a new Jesse James Beads Design Ambassador and that she is making videos on YouTube. If you are not familiar with her work, you owe it to yourself to subscribe to her channel and follow along on our community. She is sure to inspire you to try a new technique or two!
If you enjoyed this video, make sure you check out Rosanna's Supernova Unboxing Video.
From Rosanna Brafford:
This beautiful, sparkly bracelet is made from the beads from my Soft Flex Company Supernova Design kit. The Czech glass purple, blue and silver beads are stunningly beautiful and it will make you feel like you have a treasure on your wrist!
You will need:
Beads from the Supernova kit
Soft Flex beading wire, 9-10 inches
crimp tubes
clasp (I used the toggle from the kit)
flush cutters
crimpers
ruler
Check out
Rosanna's Links:
Dahlia Designs: Supernova Finished Jewelry Designs
Deb Houck always has fun design ideas and her videos are great soul food. If you enjoy unboxing videos as much as we do, check out her video library on YouTube. She has hauls and unboxing videos that you will really enjoy - especially if you like the companies she features. Unboxing videos are a great way to do your due diligence before you purchase. Don't take a company's words as truth, listen to what a customer has to say when they unwrap their goodies and put the products to the test! You can also catch the crafty side of Deb on her second YouTube channel. Check her videos out, we promise you will learn something new and have fun doing it!
If you enjoyed this finished jewelry video, make sure you check out these other videos Deb made using our Supernova Design Kit - Supernova Unboxing Video and Supernova Earrings Tutorial Video.
From Deb Houck:
Sharing what I was able to get made using the Supernova Mystery Design Kit by Soft Flex Company, which includes a Jesse James Beads mix as well. Come See! WELCOME! to Dahlia Designs - Jewelry and More, where you'll find videos and live streams related to all things beading and jewelry making. This is a sister channel to Deb Houck's Crafty Cottage.
Visit Dahlia Design's links:
YouTube
Etsy Shop
Facebook Business Page
Thunderhorse Descendant: How To Make A Lunar New Year Necklace
From Randee:
Hello Party People!! I am a little late with this video as I have been in North Dakota helping my grandparents with medical issues. I am back now and I couldn't wait to get this open. Also wanted to test out if you can actually make a project by just adding tools!! Turns out that is true. This package is from Soft Flex. Thank you Soft Flex for sending this over!! Lets Get this party started.
My name is Randee Brown and I am the sole proprietor of Thunderhorse Descendant. I am originally from North Dakota and currently reside in Minnesota with my Significant Other Jeff and my employee of the month Jake (my hound dog) and my Supervisor Mr. Bunson (my Cat). I love to bead, be creative, share online, try new things but for the most part just have fun with things I make. NO Rules Beading! I sell beads on my etsy shop and website along with handmade jewelry. You may have seen me on Jesse James Beads doing tutorials or on Dress it up Buttons. Maybe you have seen me on YouTube or one of Thunderhorse Descendants Facebook Lives, I just love to be creative and share my designs with everyone. I hope you have a wonderful, spectacular, amazing beady day!
Visit Thunderhorse Descendant's links:
Facebook Group
Website
Etsy Store
Coffee Club - LIVE on YouTube at 9 am Monday -Friday. The start time will be posted daily in the THD group page on Facebook :) Everyone is welcome. We have coffee and chat about beads, events, sales, all things crafty.
Please join me on my Thunderhorse Descendant business page I do live videos every Tuesday and Friday at 8 pm Central Time
Sparkle by Monica: February 2022 Bargain Bead Box Unboxing & Finished Jewelry
From Monica:
Hi, y’all! My name is Monica Dockery of Sparkle by Monica. I’m originally from Tennessee, lived in the deserts of Arizona and Texas, and have now recently moved to a farm in Kentucky. I’ve been on a beading hiatus for 2 years during a nightmare farmhouse remodel. I am getting my sparkly groove back, however, thanks to options like Soft Flex Company’s exciting Mystery Design Kits and beautiful beading wire colors. Although I originally got into jewelry making as a hobbyist in need of uniquely themed party favors, I eventually transitioned over to a business and later expanded into teaching craft classes, providing consultation services to other handmade entrepreneurs, creating digital graphics, and posting YouTube tutorials. My hubby and cats are still my biggest fans (even though they think I’ve developed a SLIGHT bead hoarding addiction). I am grateful to all who become members of my Sparkle Squad along my beaded path. Sparkle on, y’all!
Visit Monica's Links:
Website
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Pinterest
Twisted Phish Artisan Jewelry: How To Use A Wire Protector Or Guardian
There was a time when Soft Flex Company carried a product called Wire Protectors. They are designed to keep your wire safe at the crimp. Wire Protectors were a little metal loop that shielded the beading wire. This protector was meant to keep the wire from fraying as it rocked back and forth on the wearer's wrist or neck. We sold the item, but Soft Flex is a marine quality stainless steel and you really do not need this product to keep your Soft Flex wire safe. Our beading wire is extremely flexible and meant to withstand a ton of the abuse that comes from wearing jewelry. However, some people enjoy the look of that metal component. So, even if it is not necessary, it does add an appealing flair. We are often asked about protectors and similar products, so we thought this educational tutorial would be helpful.
From Shelley Penney at Twisted Phish Artisan Jewelry:
Learn how to use wire guardians to protect your beading wire from fraying and breakage. Wire guardians also give your finished piece a professional look.
I was walking along a Florida beach 3 years ago and found some shells. I thought "These are so beautiful, I could make jewelry with these!" That simple thought unleashed a flood of creativity I didn't even know existed! I love designing pretty things. While jewelry is my first crush, my passion is for making beautiful light catchers made of wire, crystal and glass. I just love the look of delight on a face when someone sees a piece that speaks to them. I also have a passion for teaching and recently launched my YouTube channel to share my designs and techniques.
Visit Shelley's Links:
Join our Facebook group – VIB. Stay in the know. Stay up to date. From our bead shows to our video shows and sales, you can stay in touch with us. The community is full of artistic and helpful beaders and crafty people. Inspire and be inspired. Share your pictures and get the beading bug from others!
Visit the Soft Flex Company YouTube Channel!
Blog contributor Thomas Soles loves Jazz Age writers and crunchy french fries. His favorite gemstones are Lapis and Pietersite. His favorite hobby is day dreaming. And his favorite mustache is Freddie Mercury's. As you can see, he has a healthy (or possibly unhealthy) sense of humor. You can write to him at Thomas@SoftFlexCompany.com