Can you believe it is already October? How in the world did that happen? This week, we got into the spirit of the most spooky month and kicked things off with our Hocus Pocus Design Kit (Sold Out). We hope you joined us for Kit Day. If not, today is a great chance to learn about our jewelry making kits. Kits make it simple to design with a theme. Kits are also a great way to share your work with a community. We also learned how to make chandelier earrings. If you love DIY jewelry designs, you are going to want to make some earrings at home. Let's recap this week in videos and make some jewelry!
This week, we visited Kristen for an episode of Free Spirit Beading. She showed us how to make a chandelier earring set and necklace pendant. This lovely jewelry idea can be enhanced with new colors and bead shapes if you want to make it personalized. We then celebrated another Kit Day. Kit Day is our favorite company holiday. Sara unboxes our most recent kit, we offer our newest kit, and take a look at finished jewelry kit designs from our VIB Facebook community. It is a day full of inspiration and creativity. Finally, we visited Nealay. He unboxed his Green with Envy kit and made us jealous with his fantastic jewelry. You will love this haunted week of Hocus Pocus! Let's make some Halloween jewelry!
Joyful Beading is BACK!
Fall Masterpiece Design Kit
The Fall Masterpiece Design Kit is an homage to the Mother of American Modernism, Georgia O'Keeffe.
Georgia O'Keeffe was one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. She captured a unique vision of America as she painted the towers of the New York skyline, the lush flora of Hawai'i, and - notably - the ghostly icons of the Southwest. The Fall Masterpiece Design Kit celebrates bone white skulls and creamy flowers. Earthy brown trees and gold and beige colored leaves. If you love the gentle warmth of autumn jewelry, this kit is sure to inspire your next favorite necklace.
Sara will be doing a live broadcast on the Soft Flex Facebook page, with the Fall Masterpiece Design Kit, on Wednesday, October 28th at 3pm (PST).
If you'd like to join us in the design challenge next month, buy this kit and challenge yourself to try something new and unexpected. If you are new to beading, this kit comes with findings, beads, wire, and surprises.
Our kits are great for skill building. We want our kits to feel challenging. We want them to be accessible for beginners and advanced designers alike, but we love to throw in elements that may seem difficult to test our beaders skills and make them think out of the box. We think jewelry is great when it is easy. But when you really have to engage your mind and process your materials and tools, we think that your jewelry has the potential to be life changing.
Supplies are very limited. Don’t miss out!
Sara's new video premieres on YouTube on Saturday!
Sara's newest jewelry video will be available on YouTube this Saturday. On Wednesday, Sara created a necklace with her Hocus Pocus Design Kit (Sold Out). On Saturday, she shows us how to make a companion bracelet. If you have a Hocus Pocus Kit, this is your chance to get inspired. Make an elegant bracelet for Halloween. This bewitching piece of jewelry is perfect as a gift, for your favorite witch or warlock. Or you can spoil yourself with these spooky design. Don't miss this frighteningly instructive jewelry making video. You are going to have a ghoulish time!
Jewelry Making Videos
DIY Modern Chandelier Style Earrings or Pendant with Dagger Beads, SilverSilk & Wire
Kristen was excited to work with the newest TierraCast beads in our inventory. Last week, we had a beading party with Tracy Proctor of TierraCast. We have always been inspired by the lovely metal components from this company. We especially love their Hammertone line. Each finding is full of character. The distressed metal looks so unique. Don't settle for plain beads and findings when you can add a stunning accent to your next necklace or earrings. TierraCast has a catalog full of charms, ear wires, finished jewelry, and so much more. You can find their products at your local bead store. You can also find them online and internationally. Visit their site and get connected!
From Kristen:
This week on Free Spirit Beading with Kristen Fagan, I share how to make a pair of DIY beaded chandelier earrings that can also be a pendant with metal dagger beads, Czech glass vintage button mold beads, SilverSilk capture chain and Soft Flex beading wire.
Soft Flex .019/Medium Beading Wire - Dark Blue Lapis
Czech Glass Vintage Button Mold Beads
Hammertone Dagger Beads - Antique Copper
SilverSilk Capture Chain Kit
Ear Wires
Jump Rings
2x2mm Crimp Tubes - Copper
Crimping Pliers
Nylon Jaw Pliers
Cutters
Kristen has had issues with copper crimps being a little tight sometimes. When she runs into a crimp that seems to be a little less spacious and difficult to double back through, she improvises and uses two crimps. The two crimp finish really makes an interesting accent at the top of the pendant. How fun!
Kristen loves adversity. She is a free spirited designer and, rather than getting frustrated when a design element is not cooperating, she simply goes with the flow and accepts the flaw and turns it into part of the art itself. If you are a designer or artist, watching Kristen is a great way to learn how to overcome your tendency to be a perfectionist. Expecting a certain quality of work is fantastic. But, if you give into perfectionism, it can cripple your talents and hinder you from finishing your work. Be a free spirit!
Our Spinel color Czech Glass Vintage Button Mold Beads look amazing when paired with SilverSilk Capture Chain. Doesn't this this color mix look delicious? You can match up your new necklace with a pair of earrings created with Soft Flex Beading Wire. Yummy!
Kristen created two chandelier earring options. The big and assertive dangles with three button molds. And a petite chandelier with a single button. Perfect for mood. Are you feeling loud and assertive today? Or would you rather go with the flow? Now you have options! Soft Flex earrings are so simple. You can mix colors and stones for different looks. You can do simple loops and fully beaded designs. It is easy to make jewelry for every occasion and you only need a couple tools and a small batch of beading supplies.
Sara Unboxes Our Hocus Pocus Design Kit And Makes Jewelry
Sara unboxed our latest kit this week, the Hocus Pocus Design Kit (Sold Out). This kit was a witch's cauldron of beading delights! There are mystical purples and haunting blacks. There are beguiling charms - flying witches and hissing cats. If you love the spooky season, this kit is the vampire's kiss!
Thank goodness it's Kit Day! We all look forward to this day at Soft Flex Company. We get to show off our latest kit and announce our newest kit. We have a new design kit each month. Each kit is a themed mystery kit full of goodies - beads, components, and more! If you have basic beading tools - Crimping Pliers and Cutters - you are going to be able to create a bunch of jewelry with your new kit. Every kit theme is unique and exciting.
The Hocus Pocus Design Kit (Sold Out) is a roiling cauldron of bewitching colors.
The midnight blue sky outside holds no mystery. Your coven is powerful and is privy to the secrets of things hidden. Black cats nuzzle your feet as you stir your cauldron. The liquid inside dances. Dark purple mist swirls and tickles the air. A serpentine band of green skates the bubbling surface. The recipe is complete. This enchanting kit is ready to make magic memories.
Hocus Pocus Design Kit (Sold Out)
Soft Flex Beading Wire, .019 Diameter in Black Onyx
2x2mm Crimp Tubes
Magical Crimping Pliers
Cutters
If you missed out on this ghoulish kit, don't fear, we have a new Hocus Pocus Bead Mix and Hocus Pocus Bead Strand. These beads celebrate the spirit of the kit. They are also fantastic additions to a kit if you have a Hocus Pocus Kit and want to add to your beading supplies. Just make sure you twinkle your nose and cast your spell quickly, the inventory is limited. They will disappear soon! Hurry before the goblins get them before you.
Our design kits are accessible to all skill levels. Each kit is loaded with beads, wire, and components. If you are a beginner, there is nothing in each kit that will be too difficult to tackle. Especially if you watch a video or two and learn how we finish our jewelry. But we do like to challenge our community. Each kit is well planned and we will often add an element that designers and beginners have never considered. Sometimes that is a color choice. Sometimes is an odd finding or bead. This is a fun way to expand your jewelry knowledge. If you are comfortable just stringing beads, that is fine. But we want you to be a better designer. Join us on this journey. We always have your ear and can help solve even the hardest jewelry questions. Our Facebook group - VIB - is also an invaluable resource for jewelry designing hints and tips. Get real time help from crafty minded folks. Or, impart some of your own knowledge and help somebody else.
If you grab a kit, get creative and make some jewelry. After Sara unboxes the kit you purchased, at the end of the month, you can post your jewelry designs on our Facebook group. Each design you post with a given kit will give you an entry into our kit design challenge. You can post ten designs on a single photo or ten separate images of different jewelry designs. Each piece will be counted as an entry. At the end of next month, we will collect the names of the people that posted their kit pieces. We will then create a numbered list. We then use a random number drawing website to determine the winner. Skill is not a factor. Everybody can win. The winner will receive our next kit for free! Show us your work!
We cannot wait to see the spooky jewelry pieces everybody posts on our group this month. The elegant colors and mystical tones of this design kit are sure to produce some hauntingly lovely pieces. We want to see your Morticia inspired fashion. We want to see earrings Elvira would die for! We want to see a bracelet Constance Hatchaway would kill for!
Unboxing Green With Envy Kit And Making Jewelry
Nealay had a limited edition kit this month, the Green With Envy Kit. This was a quick little kit and not a full campaign. He wasn't planning on featuring a kit this month - but sometimes, life has other plans for us. This kit has an amazing centerpiece, a stunning green stone from Dakota Stones. This exotic pendant is sure to make any design with this kit exquisite! Pair up your designs with Green Emerald Soft Flex Beading Wire and SilverSilk Capture Chain and you have a glorious piece of jewelry!
From Nealay:
I love my SilverSilk Double-strand End Caps for their versatility and ease of use. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to put together two very different looks that coordinate together as a stackable design, but they can also be worn separately. This concept works very well for fall fashion and I’m loving the spooky yet glamorous theme of Green with Envy for this design. What does that mean? Watch the video to find out ;)
Green With Envy Kit
SilverSilk Capture Chain
Soft Flex .019/Medium Beading Wire in Green Emerald Color
Soft Flex Craft Wire - 26 Gauge
Soft Flex Craft Wire Silver Plated - 26 Gauge
Beads
2x2mm Crimp Tubes
Magical Crimping Pliers
Cutters
Round Nose Pliers
Chain Nose Pliers
Be sure to mark your calendars for every Tuesday, 5:30pm CST and hop over to facebook.com/groups/silversilk to watch Nealay's videos live and ask questions.
Nealay's channel is dedicated to learning how to make high quality jewelry with SilverSilk with an emphasis on design. You can follow his journey here:
www.instagram.com/silversilkandmore
www.facebook.com/silversilkandmore
Or join his Silkies group and be a part of the conversation www.facebook.com/groups/silversilk
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