KandiCon — the beading app & community

📍 Manhattan, NYC · November 2026

KandiCon NYC 2026

The first-ever KandiCon — the first-of-its-kind kandi beading event — comes to Manhattan. A giant gathering of bead makers, traders, and kandi fans: trade kandi, swap patterns, meet your favorite makers, and bead together in one room. 20,000+ makers have already signed up.

20,000+

Makers registered

Nov 2026

Manhattan, NYC

100+

Workshops & trades

1

Giant bead party

Save my spot →

How it works

From a picture to a finished bracelet

The tricky part of beading from a picture is figuring out WHAT to make and HOW. Kandi does that for you — right on your device, no internet needed.

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1. Pick a photo

Any photo — a pet, an emoji, a drawing. Kandi can cut out the background so you bead the subject, not the couch.

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2. Snap to real beads

Every spot is matched to the closest real pony-bead color you can actually buy, so it still looks right as beads.

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3. Get a shopping list

Kandi counts exactly how many of each color you need — or order a ready-to-make bead pack right in the app.

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4. Build row by row

Follow numbered steps and a bead-accurate chart. Simple, medium, or detailed — you choose how many colors.

What is kandi?

A little history of the bead

Kandi (sometimes spelled candy) is the name for the bright, beaded bracelets, cuffs, and charms made from pony beads — those little plastic beads with a big round hole, in every color of the rainbow.

The beads themselves are part of a long story: from trade beads strung centuries ago to the friendship bracelets traded on playgrounds, people have always turned a handful of beads into something to give away. Modern kandi grew up in the 1990s as a way to make something by hand and trade it with a friend — a single strand, a wide multi-row cuff, a 3D charm shaped like a heart or a mushroom.

The magic of pony beads is how forgiving and cheap they are. A few dollars of beads and a length of stretchy cord is all it takes. You can make a simple strand in minutes, or spend an afternoon on a 30-row cuff with a picture beaded right into it.

That last part — beading a picture into a cuff — is the hard part. Figuring out which beads, in which order, row by row. That's exactly what KandiCon was built to solve.

What you can make

One app, lots of beadwork

Browse ready-to-make starter patterns, generate your own from a photo or emoji, edit bead-by-bead, and pick the style that matches what you're stringing.

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Single bracelets

Classic single-strand kandi — quick to make and perfect for trading.

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Multi-stitch cuffs

Wide, offset-bead cuffs with a picture beaded across them, with the stringing order numbered for you.

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Word bracelets

Spell a name or a phrase in letter beads, with a matching color pattern.

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Emoji patterns

Pick from hundreds of emoji and turn any one into a bead pattern in a tap.

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Bead editor & pegboard

Fine-tune any pattern bead-by-bead, or lay it out on a pegboard view.

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Simple → detailed

Dial colors up or down, see size in inches, and track your build progress.

Community

A whole world of makers 🌈

Kandi isn't just a generator — it's a place to share what you make. Because kandi has always been about trading, sharing is the whole point.

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Maker feed

Publish your patterns, browse what others have made, and start from a design you love.

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Follow & profiles

Pick a username, follow your friends, and build a profile of everything you've beaded.

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Likes, comments & DMs

Cheer on other makers, leave comments, and message friends — with gentle, kid-safe moderation.

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Contests

Join themed beading contests and see featured community creations.

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Tutorials & videos

Step-by-step beading tutorials and how-to videos right in the app.

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Bead shop & Kandi Pro

Order bead packs to make a pattern, or unlock extras with Kandi Pro.

Meet the founder

Laila — founder & head of beads

KandiCon started with Laila (@laila in the app) and a giant tub of pony beads — and yes, she's wearing her own kandi in just about every photo.

Laila has always loved beading: the sorting, the colors, the quiet focus of stringing a bracelet one bead at a time, and the joy of handing the finished one to a friend. She didn't just make bracelets — she figured out how to bead whole pictures into her cuffs, working out the rows and colors by hand on paper.

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 let makers spend their time on the fun part — the making? Every starter pattern, style, and design choice traces back to a real bracelet Laila made first.

She's the founder, the first tester, and the reason the whole thing exists. 🧵💖