Kandi Guide for Starters! :D (just an excuse for me to infodump)

Beautiful_Cyanide 5/15/2024 08:52 am 163

CW: brief mention of needles (crafting needles), also I had to go back and edit this because the formatting messed up, hopefully this is better now!

Okay I know a lot of people already know what they're doing, but I've seen a few new people (and I really just wanna infodump about kandi lol) so here's a guide for ya'll based on my experience!

Beads:

I recommend going to walmart or amazon and buying a variety box of beads to start off with! You can keep the box afterwards for more beads!

Afterwards, you don't really need to keep buying the variety boxes (but you still can if you want!) because those get really expensive, so buy the colors you want individually! Here's places you can get them:

*Amazon

*Walmart (beware, the only individual colors I see there are red, white, and clear. They do have listing on the website for beadtin items though)

*BeadTin!

*Michael's.

*Hobby Lobby! This is where I usually get mine because they basically do different brands on sale every week or so, and they have a brand called Bead Design Co, which has so many pony beads, charms, etc. And Bead Design Co is pretty much always half off! The bags of 500 pony beads usually are $3, but since they're always on sale it comes down to about $1.50 a bag!

*Dollar Tree! They have some good specialty beads! I've seen silicone beads, metallic pony beads, mini metallic and clearish color beads, round beads, wood beads, etc.

*Bass Head Beads

(BTW there's probably even more places, I usually just stick with hobby lobby and dollar tree because I prefer to buy in person as opposed to online, but do what works for you!)

String!

I'm sure ya'll have heard this but please don't use the clear stretch cord! It dry rots after a few years and I personally find it super hard to work with. Cloth Covered stretch cord is the way to go!

Here's where I get mine:

*Dollar Tree! My absolute favorite string!! The package either says stretch lace or stretch cord (it changes sometimes) and i've seen two different color packs (first one is pink, periwinkle, purple, and blue, second one is black, gray, white, and brown). $1.25 for 20 yards of string!

*Hobby Lobby! They have a bunch of different packs

*Walmart! My Walmart doesn't always have it though but yours might!

*Amazon and beadtin have it too I believe

Be sure you make sure the string is stretchy but doesn't break easily!

Charms!

You can pretty much go crazy with charms, you can make almost anything into one! toys, playing cards, random objects. But if you want more traditional charms you can get them here!

*Amazon

*Walmart

*Hobby Lobby

*Michael's

Other Kandi Accessories/Tips!

Here's some stuff you'll want to get if you get super into kandi along with where I get mine!

*Bead boxes/organizers! you can probably find them online but since I shop in person I get mine from Hobby Lobby

*Plastic crafting needles! Hobby Lobby, I think walmart, Amazon, etc. It makes doing bigger projects so much easier and going so much faster. These are usually found in the sewing or knitting section I believe

*Check out the button section!! they always have so many buttons that can be used as beads since they have a loop in the back! Walmart and Hobby Lobby have a bunch!

*If you wanna put something on a bracelet but cant attach it like a charm or anything, you can always hot glue or super glue it to a bead!

*Some Kandi takes time, if you get frustrated, just take a break and come back to it, don't stress

*Learn the basics like singles and x bases! those are essential for making big pieces!

*Tie bracelets and everything multiple times!

Tutorials!

There's lots of great creators on YouTube and other places (a lot of them are on here too!) that make tutorials for beginners and just in general! These aren't all but here's some good creators to check out!

*Mood Kandi

*Justin Bennett (he's always super clear and easy to understand, highly recommend for beginners)

*Ginger Cand E (if I spelt that wrong i'm so sorry this is all off of memory)

*cyber . grl

Again there's so much more but that's just off the top of my head

Hopefully this helps some people, I know this is kinda redundant for the veteran Kandi makers here so sorry! Again I just really wanted to infodump but hopefully any beginners find this helpful! If anyone else wants to share some tips feel free to! Thank you for reading!

(note: i heard hobby lobby is homophobic and I'm sorry I shop there but everywhere else is either too far away or too expensive and I don't like shopping online that much so I'm just doing what I can :.) also just depends on where my mom is willing to drive me to)