Beadalon Blog

Whenever Product Manager and Education Director, Wyatt White, joins us for Facebook Live it's always a fun time! This Facebook Live is full of tips, tricks and ideas for ways to take finishing your jewelry to the next level.

We featured lots of products including Bead Bumpers, EZ Crimp Ends, and Memory Wire.We're offering a special coupon code for 20% off of our featured tool kit (and my current favorite!) the Shimmer Pliers until Wednesday, November 20, 2019.



Bead Bumpers were originally introduced to help reduce the abrasion between pearls and beads for people who preferred stringing rather than knotting. There are three different varieties - small oval 1.5mm, large oval 2.0 mm, and square 1.7mm; and 5 colors - black, white, satin silver, satin gold, and clear. As with so many of our products, the more we used them, the more uses we figured out for them!

One of the most important advantages of Bead Bumpers is that they allow you to string your bracelet or necklace snug, but …

We were so lucky to have Sandra Lupo join us in the Beadalon Studio to demonstrate a gorgeous stacked cone bracelet using her Conetastic Tool.

Sandra is an amazingly talented metalsmith, beader and inventor who designed the Conetastic Tool. The original tool comes with three mandrels and make cones about 1" long. She also designed two additional mandrel sets - the Hourglass Mandrels and the Inverted Mandrels. Full instructions are included in each of the sets!






Sandra shared so many great tips for getting the best cones from the Conetastic. Even though I have been using it for years to make cones (I like to use them as tassel toppers), I learned some extra tricks to take my cone making to the next level:

- use 20 gauge wire and work right from the spool
- hold the tool in your non-dominant hand, and use your dominant hand to guide the wire
- wind away from you, not towards you
- start with a quick turn of the wrist to lock the wire in place on the diagonal
- hold the tool so that…

One of the best parts of my job is getting to make new friends in beading and craft. I am so lucky that my friends Katelyn Moll, beader and crafter extraordinaire, and Marly Bird, national spokesperson for Red Heart Yarn, made the trip to the Beadalon Studio for Facebook Live!

I love learning new techniques and incorporating them into my jewelry designs, don't you? The last time Katelyn joined me on Facebook Live, she taught me how to make beaded crochet ropes. This time, she showed Marly and I how to take a beaded crochet rope and use necklace cones made with the Conetastic  Tool and 18 gauge Artistic Wire to attach it to a wire-wrapped Flat Artistic Wire component. It sounds complicated, but it's so simple!

Katelyn breaks down the steps to bead crochet rope and makes it super manageable by demonstrating with yarn and pony beads. During her last visit, she detailed step by step by step how to make a bead crochet rope. She gave a great refresher at the beginning of this video…

Wyatt and I spent a beautiful Saturday celebrating the beginning of the Main Line Bead Society Bead Shop Hop at two of our local bead shops. I went to Studio 36 Bead Shop in Pottstown, PA for a Facebook Live, and Wyatt went to Blue Santa Beads in Media, PA for demonstrations.

Seventeen stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia are participating in the three week event coordinated by the Main Line Bead Society and Sponsored by Beadalon. Participants have the opportunity to win swag from each shop, including a grand prize valued at $500!




Lisa from Studio 36 makes the most beautiful painted acrylic flowers and leaves! Her process is a secret, but the results are spectacular!  I showed her how I use the Beadalon Tying Station to make an adjustable sliding bracelet. We have written instructions posted for a similar project, and the Facebook Live video shows making Lisa's flowers into "beads" to include in the design. I love going to the shop to see all of the goodies!

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Memory Wire is steel wire, either stainless or carbon, that holds its shape. You can find all about Memory Wire on the Beadalon Memory Wire Page including all shapes, sizes and finishes. There are so many designs that you can make with it, and so many different ways to finish off your designs. 

The two most important tools to use with Memory Wire are the Memory Wire Shears and the Memory Wire Finishing Pliers. Never (say it with me) never, ever use your nipper tool to cut Memory Wire - always use Memory Wire Shears! After you've strung up your design, you have a lot of options for finishing it off. In the Facebook Live video, the first technique that I show is making a loop with the Memory Wire Finishing Pliers. When you turn the loop, make sure you hold the wire as far down in the jaws of the pliers as you can so you don't bend the tips of the tool. Another good tip is to come back with your Chain Nose Pliers and bend your loop back a little bit so it looks more like an eyepi…

Have you ever wanted to make a Beaded Bead? Stitching up beads using circular beaded netting is so versatile and you can make so many different variations! This project uses increases and decreases to create a netted beaded bead. For this particular bead, you need:
(8) 3mm bicone beads
(16) 4mm bicone beads
(8) 6mm beads
(4) 8mm beads
Size 15 seed beads
Delicas

If you want to change out your bead shapes or sizes, all you need to do is change up the counts of your size 15s in the even rounds. It took me a while to get my counts the way that I liked them, so just stick with it until you're happy with the results.

The materials can stay the same, though. You'll use:
WildFire (I like .006 Green)
Needles (I like the WildFire Needles - make sure you flatten the tip of your WildFire with a pliers before needling your thread)
WildFire Cord Cutter

Beadalon's Instant Pendants are the perfect finding to showcase your beautiful beads!

Click here for the step by step instructions, and wa…