Inside the app
Four of the screens you will spend the most time on.
KandiCon is a kandi bracelet maker and a community for the people who make kandi. Turn a photo, an emoji or a name into a real pony-bead pattern with a bead list and row-by-row steps, then post what you made to the feed, get likes and comments, follow makers and watch them bead live. Free on iPhone, iPad and Android, and in your browser with the same account.
You need to know which bead goes where, row after row. KandiCon is a kandi pattern maker and pony bead pattern generator that works that out on your device, with no internet connection.
Four of the screens you will spend the most time on.
Kandi (sometimes spelled candy) is the name for the bright, beaded bracelets, cuffs, and charms made from pony beads: little plastic beads with a big round hole, in every color of the rainbow.
Pony beads have been a cheap craft bead since the 1970s. Modern kandi grew up in the 1990s rave scene as a way to make something by hand and trade it with a friend: a single-strand bracelet, a wide multi-row cuff, or a 3D charm shaped like a heart or a mushroom. Today you see it at raves, music festivals and EDM shows, swapped in person with the PLUR handshake.
Pony beads are cheap, and they are very hard to ruin. A few dollars of beads and a length of stretchy cord is all it takes. You can make a simple single strand in a few minutes, or spend an afternoon on a 30-row cuff with a picture beaded right into it.
Beading a picture into a cuff is the hard part, because you have to work out which bead goes where, row by row. KandiCon does that counting for you.
Use KandiCon as a kandi pattern generator: start from a photo, an emoji, a word or a starter pattern, then pick the style that matches what you are stringing. Every style has a step-by-step build guide.
KandiCon isn't only a pattern maker. It's a social app for kandi makers, where people show each other what they made. Post a photo or a video of your finished piece, and other makers like it, comment on it and follow you for the next one. Start from a pattern somebody else loved and make it your own.
Makers go live while they bead, and everyone watching can talk to them in the live chat. Posts can carry a poll, there's usually a themed contest running, and VIP makers get extra room to post and a blue check by their name.
KandiCon is for makers aged 13 and up, and everyone agrees to the same community guidelines. Any post, comment, profile or live chat line can be reported, hidden or blocked, and a person reads every report. Private messaging is switched off for safety. There are no ads anywhere in the app, and you can browse and make patterns without an account. Read our child safety standards, and if you ever need someone to talk to, the Get help page lists free lines you can call or text.
Trading works better face to face, and that is what the events are for.
KandiCon is coming to the Javits Center in New York City. A full weekend of kandi: workshops on every technique, a huge trading floor, live pattern challenges with prizes, vendor booths, and meetups with the makers you follow. Beginners welcome, with kits and help on site.
Dates are being finalized with the venue now, so there is no weekend to announce yet. Smaller things happen in between: bead bashes, bead-alongs and local meetups, announced in the app first. Tap I'm going on any of them and you will hear first when tickets drop.
KandiCon started with Laila and a giant tub of pony beads.
Laila has been beading for years, and she got past plain bracelets fast. She works whole pictures into her cuffs, planning the rows and colors by hand on paper first.
That's where the idea came from. If she could turn a picture in her head into a beaded cuff, why couldn't an app do the hard counting and leave makers the fun part, the making? KandiCon is built around the way Laila actually beads: pick something you love, work out the colors, string it row by row, and share it.
Every starter pattern in the app is a bracelet Laila made first. She tests every build before anyone else sees it.
Looking for Candycon, Candicon or Kandycon? You’re in the right place. It’s spelled KandiCon, one word. People also find us as Kandi Con, Candy Con and Kandikon. Why there are so many spellings.
No. Half of it is the people. It’s a social app for kandi makers: makers post what they made to the feed, like and comment on each other’s work, follow each other, run polls, enter contests and go live while they bead.
Yes. Give it a photo, an emoji, a word or a name and it makes a pony-bead pattern, with how many beads of each color you need and the order to string them. You can also draw your own pattern in the Pattern Studio.
Singles, word and name bracelets, ladder stitch, multi-stitch (peyote) cuffs, X-base cuffs, rotator cuffs, 3D cuffs, flower cuffs, and kandi charms like flowers, stars and 3D charms. Each one has a step-by-step tutorial.
No. KandiCon is for pony beads strung on cord, not fuse beads ironed on a pegboard. The pony beads vs perler beads guide explains the difference.
No. Trading kandi happens in person, at raves, festivals and EDM shows, with the PLUR handshake. In the app you post, like, comment and follow. Our trading guide covers how it works at a show.
Yes, with no ads. Patterns, tutorials, the feed and watching live streams are all free. VIP is an optional $2.99 a month for makers who want to post more, get a shout-out on Home and go live.
No. Open kandicon.com/app in any browser and sign in with the same account you use on your phone. Going live needs the iPhone or Android app.
It’s built for makers 13 and up. A person reads every report, anything can be reported or blocked, private messaging is switched off for safety, and there are no ads.