When All Thoughts Turn To Holidays...

Last week we were lucky to have with us two brilliant Year 10 students undertaking work experience with us. Tabby already works with us on Saturdays and she opted to also spend her work experience week at the shop. Amber had not been with us before but after the first ten minutes it felt like a team that had been together since the start!

The girls were tasked with making a piece of jewellery symbolic of their holidays, and here is it - a beautiful memory bracelet:

Below they explain the process:

Holiday Charm Bracelet

This bracelet is about capturing precious memories from your holiday whether they’re from a week ago or three years ago in the summer sun –and you would like to remember the colours of the shimmering waves, or the crabs scuttling along the shore- or a trip abroad to Italy or France where you ate foreign delicacies while feasting your eyes upon iconic land marks -now is your chance to combine these memories and make a beautiful charm bracelet.

We decided to do a seaside holiday charm bracelet. My bracelet has pearls, swirling sea shells, a bottle of sea, a tiny picture of a boat on the sea and a few hand-moulded polymer clay treasures.

To start this easy, quick and fun project you will need to get 4 beads that are sea/beach inspired, shells, pearls, turquoise turtles/fishes are perfect for this sweet accessory. Make bead charms with them by using headpins.

Then get polymer clay in pink or orange to make a sweet little starfish charm. You can make your starfish by making a ball first from polymer clay, then pinching 5 sides to make the star shape. To add detail to your starfish get a toothpick and make small holes on the top and a star on the bottom, then put in oven at 125 degrees for 20 minutes- you must preheat the oven for at least 20 minutes before so the oven is hot.

To make the ‘beach bottle’ get sand and very small shells (possibly from your holiday) however if you cannot get these materials you can use glitter and seed beads.

Another polymer clay charm you can make is a shell. Make a ball with yellow polymer clay and push it down a bit so it’s the shape of a burger. Make it into a v-shape and at the top of this V make indents that follow to lines. Make these details with a tool if you have one, if not just use a toothpick. Cover your polymer clay shell charm in mica powder to give it a golden magical shine, to bake it do the same instructions from before with the starfish.

The last two charms for your bracelet are glass tiles with photos behind in small metal trays. First get 2 10mm glass cabochons and cut out a photo from your holiday or draw a memory from your holiday the same size as the glass cabochon, then seal with ModPodge. After it dries use silicon adhesive to stick the image to the glass, only use a drop but enough so that it spreads around the whole cabochon. 

After that dries stick the cabochon to the tray with ModPodge, and wait 24 hours.

After all the charms are ready, dry and baked, you can assemble them. First cut a large link chain to the length of your wrist, use two jump rings one on one side, and one on the other with a clasp. Put jump rings on all of the charms and attach them to the chain. Put the charm bracelet on and feel like you’re in the sun on holiday again!

Have a lovely summer!
from Tabby & Amber x

Anglo-Saxon Jewellery Day

We had a ball on Monday when all sixty Year 4 pupils from Immanuel & St Andrew's CofE Primary School visited the shop to put together their wonderful handmade beads. This was a hands-on art project that formed part of their studies in Anglo-Saxon history. At school they had made some very lovely beads out of clay, which were decorated in the colours of long ago; and in the shop, they strung their beads together and learnt how to secure the ends to make a wearable piece of jewellery such as might have been worn in Anglo Saxon days. So out went the lobster clasps, and in came the hooks and rings!

We discussed the materials and design elements that Anglo-Saxons might have used in their adornments, and some groups even had a chance to try out making their own clasps out of wire. Below, a lovely necklace in progress:

Of course it helps a great deal to have your very own in-house helper for all that setting up that is needed, so a big thank you to where it is due.

We had lots of fun, and hope to do it again next year! 

Kids' Party Ideas

My seven year old daughter had some friends over last weekend and they soon found a stash of trays and epoxy stickers that I had hoped would have been a well-orchestrated surprise at the next birthday party.  They are all crazy about My Little Pony and Hello Kitty and I had some images that I knew would be great for making pendants and then taking home as part of the party bag.  

So whilst the cat was out of the party bag, making these necklaces kept them quiet, focussed and entertained for a good long while:  

(Incidentally, images of these and other popular characters are all copyrighted and as such you really should not make them up for sale, though I suspect a small bit of making for personal use may be allowed?)  

Next time I won't wait for a birthday - they are all asking to do it again!  But it would be a great crafty activity for a birthday party.   We have plenty of slight seconds that are cheap as chips and perfect for letting the kids loose on their creative adventures.  Get some magnets in also and some superhero images for the boys - they will all enjoy it!  

I mean really, who cares about cutting a perfect circle when the lovely Rainbow Dash is smiling at you?