TGIF! Let's shake away our worries and make jewelry! This week, we unboxed our  jewelry making making kit, the Purple Polka Dot Design Kit (Sold Out). This kit was inspired by the powerful and magnetic color purple. We also drew inspiration from avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama. We think this kit is a beautiful blend of creative spark and otherworldly energy! We also learned how to make wire wrapped earrings. If you want to learn how to wire wrap, you are not going to want to miss this instructional video! Let's celebrate life and make some amazing jewelry!

The global pandemic is showing no signs of slowing down. But that does not have to mean that we need to get dragged under with gloom. We think making jewelry is a great way to stay focused on what is important during quarantine - living life and recognizing beauty! This week, we joined Kristen and watched her make a stunning set of handmade earrings. She showed us how to wire wrap beads on a TierraCast connector. The end result was lovely and rather easy to do, even if you have never worked with craft wire before. On Wednesday, we celebrated Kit Day! Kit Day is our favorite day of the month. We are bristling with creative fury at Soft Flex. We post our newest kit, unbox our latest kit, and we celebrate art! If you have never participated in Kit Day, come join us and see what all of the hub bub is about! Nealay did not film a video this week, but he will be back next week. And good news from his end - SilverSilk is back in production, the out of stock goodies on his site will soon be back in inventory! Let's forget about COVID-19 and celebrate jewelry!

Purple Polka Dot Earrings, premiering on YouTube on Saturday, June 27th.

If you loved Sara's Purple Polka Dot Bracelet, you are going to want to check out the follow up video she made. She designs some cute earrings to complement her bracelet. Her earring video will premiere tomorrow on YouTube. If you have never made earrings with Soft Flex Beading Wire before, you will see how easy it is to make a set of classy earrings you can wear with every outfit and occasion. The small amount of wire and materials means that you can re-purpose old wire remnants you cut from old projects. Add a color variant - beads and wire - and you can make earrings that fit your style!

Memory Wire

Making jewelry is easy with Memory Wire.

Memory Wire is a hard steel wire. Memory Wire comes packaged in coiled loops. The wire holds this shape. If you want to design a bracelet, simply cut the wire at the selected number of coils. Just remember, adding beads will make the design expand, three coils will look larger with beads added. Once you have added your beads, you can loop the end of the wire and add a dangle to finish. The finished design will slip over your wrist. You do not need a clasp to finish your Memory Wire design. So easy!

Note: Memory Wire is a very hard steel. Using flush cutters or bead nippers on Memory Wire will result in dulled or broken tools. Make sure you use the right tool for the right job. Make sure you use Memory Wire Cutters as they are specifically designed to cut through this wire. 

Jewelry Making Videos

How To Wire Wrap Beads Around A Ring Connector To Make Earrings

If you have any interest in wire wrapped jewelry, you are not going to want to miss this week's episode of  Free Spirit Beading. This is a fantastic look at handmade wire working. Kristen takes her time and explains her process on how she designs an earring with Craft Wire, beads, jump rings, and connectors. The process is so much simpler than you might imagine, if you have never worked with Craft Wire before. Craft Wire looks like a daunting medium. It requires tools, patience, and skill. But it is very much accessible to a beginner. As long as you have some basic tools on hand and do not rush your work, you will be a wire working student in no time. This project is fairly basic, but if you can master this, you will be able to grasp concepts and techniques needed to make something much more elaborate.

This was a fun video. Kristen shows you the supplies she selected for these earrings and then let's you know why she used them. She wanted to use a  TierraCast Hammertone Ring (Antique Copper) as the hoop. She wanted to wrap beads from our La Fleur Design Kit (Sold Out). The ear wire she found was bright copper. It did not quite match the muted copper of her connector. To compensate for the color difference, she also used bright and muted jump rings. In the end, the different tones of copper all complemented another. The earrings came out great! Make sure you consider every element of your jewelry before you begin. Some people might overlook the color of their jump rings, but if you incorporate them into the colorway of your jewelry, your design will be all the more amazing for it!

From Kristen:

This week on Free Spirit Beading with Kristen Fagan, I share how to make a pair of beaded wire wrapped earrings. In this tutorial I will show you how to wire wrap beads around a circle jewelry connector with craft wire to make some fun and easy earrings! These would make a great handmade gift! 

Supplies:

Soft Flex Craft Wire - 24 Gauge
Soft Flex Craft Wire Silver Plated - 24 Gauge
Hammertone Ring, Hammered Metal Texture Connector
Rounded Cube Beads
Rectangle Beads
Ear Wires
8mm Texture Jump Rings
5mm Jump Rings
Nylon Jaw Pliers
Chain Nose Pliers
Flat Nose Pliers
Cutters

One fun thing about handmade jewelry is that allows for mistakes and imperfections. We tend to expect store bought jewelry to be flawless. We demand that it unblemished. But handcrafted arts look amazing when they are not perfect. Irregularities and bumps make homemade jewelry organic and fun to look at. Each little bend and twist was lovingly added and not a product of a unthinking machine. Don't be afraid to make beginner mistakes. In the end, your jewelry will have more character for it. You will also learn as you go. Once you start mastering the craft, you will see much more precision.

Kristen filmed her video with just the wire wrapped connectors and beads. After ending the episode, she realized she had extra beads on hand. She opted to add a dangle to her connectors. Both styles look amazing. What is your preference? Let us know in our VIB group. Kristen would love to hear your opinions. Would you do anything differently?

Unboxing Our Purple Polka Dot Design Kit And Making Jewelry

Hooray! Kit Day has returned. Kit Day is a Soft Flex Company holiday. Kit Day is the day we introduce our newest mystery themed jewelry making kit. On Kit Day, we also film an unboxing of our most recent kit and make jewelry, live on Facebook. To top all of that off, we also announce a kit winner on our VIB Facebook group. This winner will receive the newest kit for free. It is a jam packed day of jewelry making and creative energy. If you are part of our VIB community, you are probably as excited for Kit Day as we are!

Every kit we launch is a lovingly crafted mix of jewelry making supplies. First, we brainstorm a concept. This can be a holiday, a topical event, or a celebration. Then, our gallery goes to work pulling and organizing beads and findings that evoke the concept. Then, we partner up with Jesse James Beads and organize a mix that will be exclusive to that design kit - you will not find this mix of beads anywhere else. We put a love of care into each package. Each design kit is hand wrapped and sealed and sent to our friends. Every month, we are always excited to see how the kits are received. We know you are going to fall in love with them! Design Kits are full of unique and fun goodies. As such, each Design Kit launched is limited in supplies. Make sure you pick one up as soon as you can. Once they are gone, they are gone for good.

We want to challenge you! Our kits are made to be a puzzle. We fill our kits with enough beads, findings, and wire to make a bunch of different jewelry. All you need are basic beading tools - crimping pliers and cutters. The challenge is the way we present them. Sometimes we will include a color palette that is unfamiliar or uncommon. Sometimes we will include Craft Wire or an element that is different. Once, we included a large tassel, one clever designer turned this tassel into an amazing sculpted angel - fantastic out of the box thinking! We never include items in the kits that would be too difficult for a beginner. We want everybody to feel included. Our challenges are more mental stimulation than craft difficulty. In the end, we think that if you need to focus on the items in your kit and not just string beads, you are going to make life changing jewelry.

Supplies:

Purple Polka Dot Design Kit (Sold Out)
Soft Flex Beading Wire .019/Medium in Purple Amethyst
Hammertone Ring, Hammered Metal Texture Connector 
2x2mm Crimp Tubes
Clasp
Magical Crimping Pliers
Cutters

We loved our Purple Polka Dot Design Kit (Sold Out)! First off, who isn't a fan of purple?!? It is such an amazing color. It brings to mind wealth and royalty. And purple is just ridiculously mystical. It is a color we strongly associate with magic and wizardry. Also, how fun are polka dots? The are so bouncy and jubilant. For this kit, we took inspiration from Yayoi Kusama, her work is surreal and ethereal. Her polka dot patterns are a sumptuous visual feast. We love her avant-garde aesthetic. We thought a marriage with purple would elevate this design kit into something fantastic!

Every Kit Day, Sara unboxes our most recent kit on Facebook. Her unboxing videos are instructional and entertaining. She goes through each item in the kit, often explaining how to use it. She discusses how we created that kit. She discusses techniques and tricks for jewelry making. And then, she takes the remainder of the video to create a new piece of jewelry. If you are a beginner, this is a great way to hone your talents. Sara will show you how to crimp and finish jewelry. You will learn how to make jewelry that lasts and does not require a restring and will not break.

Wasn't that fun? We love Kit Day! If you have never participated, make sure you check out a kit unboxing video. You will learn a lot about jewelry. If you want to buy a kit, make sure you hurry. They sell out quick! Once you have the kit, you can leave it until Sara unboxes it, that way, you can follow along and make the jewelry she makes. Or, you can open it when you get it and design your own unique jewelry. If you want to enhance your kit, we often release a bead mix by itself or a special Trios collection of wire that celebrates the kit colors.

If you purchased the Purple Polka Dot Design Kit (Sold Out), you may wonder how to work with the Memory Wire inside. Memory Wire is a hard steel wire. Memory Wire comes packaged in coiled loops. The wire holds this shape. If you want to design a bracelet, simply cut the wire at the selected number of coils. Just remember, adding beads will make the design expand, three coils will look larger with beads added. Once you have added your beads, you can loop the end of the wire and add a dangle to finish. The finished design will slip over your wrist. You do not need a clasp to finish your Memory Wire design. So easy!

Hi-Tech Steel Memory Wire Heavy Duty Cutter

Making jewelry is easy with Memory Wire.

Memory Wire is a hard steel wire. The steel is so hard, in fact, that it will eat your regular cutters up. Spare your flush cutters and bead nippers and use the right tool for the job. Memory Wire Cutters will give you a quick and easy cut. Memory Wire Cutters will make short work of cutting the hard steel Memory Wire. Don't use cutters that are not equipped to handle the hard steel or Memory Wire will make short work of your regular cutters!

After Sara unboxes our kits, our Facebook group comes alive with jewelry creations. We ask that our community hold off on posting kit jewelry until Sara reveals the kit, but once she does, we encourage everybody to show us what they made. Throughout the month, our VIB group is full of jewelry from the kit. On the week of the next kit unboxing, we collect all of the names of the jewelry designers that posted jewelry and we randomly select a winner. The winner receives the newest kit for free. If you want to participate, every piece of jewelry you create with the kit and take a picture of is an entry for the giveaway. You can take a single picture with multiple items or multiple pictures of single items. We will count your creations as entries, regardless. Post that on the group with the hashtag that designates it as an entry (Sara will let you know what the latest hashtag is).

Join us and have some fun. COVID-19 has made this year awful. But we think staying at home, in quarantine, does not have to be unpleasant. If you join our group, you will find new friends that are eager to see your jewelry and network. If you want to be inspired, there is plenty here to light that fire. If you want a gentle critique of your jewelry, we would love to offer opinions and advice. We foster a spirit of help and friendliness. We want you to feel welcome. Our group consists of designers and beginners. No matter where you are on that spectrum, you are a valued and welcome addition to our community!

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