Teens + Glitter =

 

(Click on the photo above-the girls are so cute close up!)

We tried a new class last night:  all teen girls, fourteen and fifteen years old, 8th and 9th graders!  A mom attending a previous class had requested it, so we thought we'd give it a try.  Her daughter's and my daughter's friends attended, eight in all, and made glittered-word charms, plus hammer/stamped sterling silver word charms.  They each went home with their creations strung on a ball chain, and they did a  BEAUTIFUL  JOB!

The hammered/stamped word charm was a new experiment for us.  I had cut little 3/8" x 1 and 1/8" tags out of a sheet of sterling silver and drilled a hole in the ends.  The girls filed the edges and corners, and then took my steel letter stamps and pounded in a word.  The sterling is so soft, that it didn't take much force at all to get a good indentation.

 

Black was rubbed in to highlight the word and then the charms were polished.  Here are close-ups of two of the finished products:

 

Of course, lots of silliness ensued along the way. . .

 

 I almost forgot to mention, we had 4 little babies also in attendance:

  

The 8th-grade 'moms' had to bring their flour-sack-babies along with them as part of a school project. Chris got a kick out of the extra 'students' attending our class:

  

It was a fun evening for all of us.  And a really great group of girls!

Too much fun!

Another great class!  This one was our fourth "Collage College",  our 2-night class with jewelry charms the first night and collaged coasters the second night.  It was a small but mighty group of extremely fun ladies, who went home with some beautiful projects and Uncle Marvin (scandalous!). Chris and I really enjoyed this bunch! 

These gals knew there way around a scissors and paper...

 And look at their sweet charms:

Cute, cute stuff.  And look who showed up again! It's Jodi, the teacher's pet:

Our intrepid crafter, ready at a moment's notice to make some charms! (or does she just jump at the chance to be away from 'the boys'?)

The second class had us cutting even more snippets of paper....just look at the mess on this table:

 

People got right to work on their collages...

 

And She-Who-Hates-Glitter actually succumbed to the creative spirit in the room and started sprinkling:

 

  

Here are the finished products and the lovely spokesModels who made them:

  

Okay, I know I said "spokesModels" earlier, but this is a little ridiculous......

  

Like I've said before, our students REALLY get into these classes!  Susan is very happy with her beautiful "S" pendant, as evidenced above.  But get a load of her 'wonky house' charm, my most favorite house charm made thus far:

  

Just ridiculously cute, you have to agree!

THANKS for yet ANOTHER fun, fun class, Ladies!

More Baubles...

Last week we had a great group of women taking the "Girly & Glittery" class, a class we weren't even expecting to have.  At an earlier class, we were lucky enough to have Karis attend.  She really enjoyed it,  and in the days following, she became quite the P.R. person!  She enlisted a whole new group of her pals to join her and we found a time that worked on our calendars and made an extra class happen.  Here are the little trinkets made by a really fun group of ladies:

Aren't they all beautiful??!!  One of these days, we'll have put charms on every woman in Southwest Portland!  Quite a few so far......

This past week, we started a new session of "Collage College", so I have a new pile of charms to get soldered before that second class, and lots of prep work to do.  But, I am having the time of my life!  This is so much fun for me and I know I can say the same for Chris.  We just signed on to do a couple of classes at My Masterpiece Art Studio this spring, and we're really excited about that opportunity to broaden our client base (plus the chance to be in that very awesome studio space!).  My regular illustration workload has picked up lately, so I am keeping quite busy (as is Chris, with her demanding 'day job').  A little bit of a juggling act, but it's all good.  And the best part is having fun with all of our terrific students!  Thanks so much to all of you.

And let us know, like Karis did, if you'd like to organize a group of your pals for a crafty little party!

Happy Birthday to Chris!!!

Today marks another birthday for dear Chris.  As she gets older, her judgment has suffered a bit, however, as evidenced by the picture below:

The poor woman has turned into a soldered-charm-necklace-oholic, as you can see.  She simply can't stop herself.  Some days are so bad, she actually topples forward from all that weight hanging off her neck.  Poor thing.  She does have some good days, though:

See how much happier she looks with just one sweet little chain and just a wee bit of glitter?  Keep her in your thoughts today, as she celebrates her birthday, and pray that her compulsive condition improves...

happy birthday, dear chris.  you are such a wonderful friend and crafty partner!!

Charming!

 I know I'm being redundant, but we had another stellar group of ladies last week, who diligently put their goggles on, rolled up their sleeves, and got to work making a batch of beautiful charms.  Here are our intrepid crafters:

Lacy charms, glittery charms, and china charms were labored over, and here are the beautiful results:

 

Did I mention they were really beautiful?  Thank you, ladies, for a truly enjoyable class!!