Free spirited jewelry design is the order of the day! This video shows you how to finish your knitting spool jewelry with a fantastic hand wrapped Craft Wire cone. A unique finish is guaranteed. Jewelry designer and author, Kristen Fagan, shows us how to wire wrap a lovely cone. She shows how she takes a 'free spirited' approach to her jewelry and goes with the flow on the journey. Kristen is not worried about perfection and appreciates the beauty in a piece with character. If you love knitted jewelry designs, you won't want to miss this video.
Kristen Fagan has been with Soft Flex Company for fifteen years. She is our graphic designer. If you have ever opened an email and loved the themes and style, you can thank Kristen for her wonderful eye for color. If you have ever thought we had a lovely website, Kristen has had a strong hand in making sure everything looks and functions professionally. She loves art and has an exceptionally creative mind. She is an accomplished painter, jewelry designer, and she has co-authored two books with Sara Oehler: Seed Bead Revolution and Soft Flex Bracelet Projects Booklet.
Kristen has done videos and Live Facebook shows before, but this video is the first in a new series. ‘Free Spirit Beading With Kristen Fagan’ will be live on Mondays at 11:00am PST. The show will be saved on our YouTube site for anybody that misses her live. You can watch the replays for projects and tips, but it would be fantastic if you joined us live and asked any questions you had directly. We love to interact with fellow beaders and creative people. Learning a new technique or tip from an artistic person is a great way to get inspired.
For her first show, Kristen started with an introduction. She talked about her experience with Soft Flex Company. She talked about writing books and articles. Sara joined on the chat to help answer questions and talk about jewelry design. Kristen talked about how she likes to use wire to finish off knitting spool pieces.
Kristen showed her project materials and tools. She is using a Peridot colored beading wire (.019 diameter on a 30 foot spool). She is using a knitting spool. Her knitting spool is a 3 pin knitting spool. 3 pin knitting spools are great for projects when you don’t want a wire intensive look. The finish is open and is great for showing beads added to the piece. She is using a bead mat, great for keeping beads and tools in place while you work on your design.
Kristen showed off a finished bracelet that was made with Antique Brass Colored Soft Flex Wire. The design was created using Style 1. She did not use beads with the design, save for a beautiful focal bead and two beads bookending the focal bead. The focal bead is a Polymer Clay bead; unfortunately, she could not recall the artist’s name. She showed off how she finished the design. After knitting the piece on the spool, she used Craft Wire to create a cone to finish the bracelet. She used Peacock Blue Craft Wire in 20 gauge for her design, but if you wanted to create a similar finish, you could select any gauge or color you feel fits your style. She calls her finish ‘messy wrap’. She did not need to add a clasp to the bracelet as the wire has enough play to allow for the design to stretch over a wrist.
Find our Knitting Spool Styles here:
Her next design was another bracelet; also done using Style 1. She used beads for this piece. She did not use a clap for this one. It can be stretched over the wrist. She opted for metal cones on this bracelet instead of her ‘messy cones’. She used a 5 pin knitting spool when she created this piece and added beads to the design as she knitted.
Her next design was a lush piece created with Antique Brass and Copper colored Soft Flex Beading Wire. She used Knitting Style 1 with two beading wires. She used a 5 pin knitting spool and added beads to the design while she knitted it. The beads look amazing on this piece, contrasted with the antique look of the wire. The focal bead on this piece was a print of a design she painted. She printed the design out on a piece of paper and used ice resin to seal the art.
Kristen normally does not add the beads to the wire while she strings. She likes to float the beads in the center so the designs stretch. You can add beads to the wire as you knit your pieces, as long as the beads fit down the center of the knitting spool you are using. She doesn’t cut the wire off the spool before knitting her designs, but prefers to keep the spool attached and let wire out as she goes. Soft Flex wire spools are also fantastic bobbins for Kumihimo designs.
Kristen pulled a knitted piece off of her spool. She was using the Peridot wire she showed earlier on her 3 pin knitting spool. She showed how she removes her knitted pieces from the spool and how the wire is a little messy at the ends, which is why a cone is a great component to use to conceal the wire ends of a knitted piece. She then strung the wire through a crimp tube. When using multiple strands of wire, a larger crimp tube can be necessary. 3x3mm crimp tubes are great for multiple stranded designs. We carry a tool called the Mighty Crimping Plier for crimp tubes larger than 2mm in size. For smaller crimp tubes like 1x1mm, we carry Micro Crimping Pliers. For this particular piece, Kristen just used a 2x2mm crimp and regular crimping pliers.
After crimping one end of her bracelet to a clasp, Kristen grabbed a spool of Craft Wire. She is using Vintage Bronze 20 gauge Craft Wire. She straightened her Craft Wire out while it was on the spool. She used Nylon Jaw Pliers so she did not damage the color finish on the wire. She cut six inches of wire off the spool. Using Chain Nose Pliers, we wrapped the wire around the end of her design. Once the wire was secure against the crimp, she hand wrapped the cone. She says you can use a tool, but she likes her method and the messy finish is why she calls it a ‘messy wrap’. She says she calls her series Free Spirit Beading because of techniques like this – she just goes with the flow. After wrapping a bit of wire, she felt like six inches off the spool might have been too little and cut more. Once she finished wrapping the cone, she tucked the end of the Craft wire inside the cone, using her Chain Nose Pliers.
Kristen showed off her finished cones on her finished bracelets to compare. She showed a bracelet that was done using Craft Wire on a knitting Spool, instead of Soft Flex Wire. If you would like to use Craft Wire on a knitting spool, consider starting with a 28 gauge and see how comfortable you are with the wire. Craft Wire can be a little rough on hands on the spool, make sure your wire is loose enough on the spool to be pliable. Wrapping the wire around the pins too tight will make the process much more difficult than it needs to be. If 28 gauge is working out for you, 26 gauge is also a great wire for knitting spools. Kristen used a draw plate to finish her Craft Wire piece so it became a uniform shape. Draw plates are not necessary with Soft Flex designs.
Kristen showed a macramé piece she created. She used 3x3mm crimp tubes to finish that and then used a messy wrap to conceal the crimp tubes. The macramé design she had was featured in an article she had written for Belle Armoire Jewelry magazine. The instructions for the design can be found in that magazine. The article was published in the September/October/ November 2015 issue.
If you enjoyed her show, make sure you catch her live on Mondays at 11am PST!
Be sure to check out the video below for a great demonstration!
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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