i’ve always admired her artistry, and today she’s sharing a wonderful preschooler-friendly art project with all of us… AND she’s offering a special discount code for my readers to use when holiday shopping on her web site! don’t miss it at the end of this entry – read on…

janet wrote up a wonderful post for us all about how she helped her daughter’s preschool class create their own custom silver jewelry! how awesome is that?!?! enjoy janet’s words below:

Fingerprint Cast Sterling Silver Pendants

As a graduation present for each of my daughter’s friends at her daycare, I wanted to give them a chance to make their own handmade sterling silver jewelry that they (or their parent!) could wear, something that would represent this moment in time for them.  To me, jewelry isn’t just about adornment, but especially when it’s handmade, I feel that jewelry emanates a talismanical quality that encapsulates so much more–energy, creativity, intent, time, joy, love….

Since this was for a Pre-K class, first, I did a quick show and tell of some basic jewelry making tools (files, sandpaper, jeweler’s saw, wax, burner, dental tools, etc) but mostly focused on the wax:  what was it, how did it feel, what makes it softer/harder, why did it come in different colors/shapes, and how does wax become metal?

different waxes

Because of their age group (3-5 yr olds) I focused mostly on colors, textures, and shapes of waxes and let them feel each of the different colors and let them mush it between their thumbs and forefingers like they would Playdoh–this practice is great for young children to help develop their fine motor skills.  The more they mushed it around in their hands, the softer it got!  Magic!

I showed them how I make shapes out of wax, which is then cast into raw metal, which I  saw, file, sand, and polish to make jewelry.

I made a little ball of wax for each child, flattened it a little so that I could press their initials using my set of steel stamps (so I knew which pendant to give back to which child), and with the initial side down, I had each child press the semi-flat (from the initial stamping) ball into a flat thumbprint pendant.  The children saw that even with the same size of wax ball, some of the pendants came out to be really big and super flat, while others were smaller in shape but thicker, too.  They got to choose what they wanted to create.

After class, I took all the waxes to a casting company, where they use the lost wax method to create metal pieces out of the wax models.  Casting equipment is expensive, heavy, massive, dangerous, etc, so I prefer to outsource the casting portion of making pendants.  I get it back as “raw cast pieces” meaning, the sprues (those little things sticking out of the pendants where the metal is shot into the wax model) are still on it, and the finish is rough and white.

I saw off the sprues by hand, file and sand it, being careful not to interfere with the thumbprint, and drill holes where the bail will be.

I put little jumprings through the holes (the bail) and solder it closed.

In order to keep the thumbprints as visible as possible, I didn’t sand the main surfaces at all, but instead, rubbed it with a brass brush to give it a bit of shine, but left the texture intact.

For a more detailed description of the cast finishing process, check it out on my website. Ta-da!  Finished product!  Most of the moms wanted to wear the pendants until their child got older, so I finished it with a sterling chain necklace.  The kids really enjoy seeing their moms wear their “art work” every day, and the moms love their thumbprint reminders of their little ones.  I’m hoping to make this into a “kit” soon, so keep an eye out for it on my website!

If you don’t have access to wax casting or metal smithing, you can do a similar project using polymer clay, like Fimo or Sculpey, which can be hardened by baking in a toaster oven (follow instructions on package).  If you prefer a shiny finish, you can simply coat it with some clear nail polish!

My favorite part about making jewelry with children is that it is art they can wear, show to their friends, or give to someone they love, and they start to develop an appreciation for accessories and fashion, not simply as protection against the elements, but as forms of self expression and representation.  Enjoy their creativity!

get to know janet:

Janet Akie Masamitsu began taking silversmithing classes in high school (1987!) and she’s been hooked ever since.  After receiving a MA in Gender Politics at NYU, she realized she spent all her spare time making jewelry, and decided to take a break from her teaching career to create www.janetjewelry.com in 1997. Janet’s jewelry has been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers, including New York Times, Paper, Elle Girl, Revolver, and Cargo. Meredith Vieira wore her Postmodern Candy Necklace on “The View,” and Janet herself made her first TV appearance on The Oxygen Network’s “SheCommerce,” and more recently, on Style! Network’s show, “Isaac,” with designer Isaac Mizrahi. Her pieces have been worn by The Killers, Cibo Matto, and Blu Cantrell, and she has also worked on commissioned designs for Cyndi Lauper, Phantom Planet, and Jeffrey Gaines. Janet lives in NYC with her husband, a Creative Director, her 5 year old craft-acular daughter, Dylan, and 20 month old Jack, who keeps them all on their toes by running off with their half made projects.

a holiday offer especially for you, dear readers:

do some holiday shopping at janetjewelry.com and use the discount code: PAINTCUTPASTE to receive 20% off your entire purchase, including sale items and clearance items. this offer is good through thursday, december 15, 2011. the only fine print:  Cannot be used in conjunction with other Coupons;  cannot be used toward Gift Certificates. here is the holiday FAQ, which covers most questions regarding packaging, shipping, exchange policy, deadlines, etc.

some of my own personal favorite items that janet makes are her customizable pieces – and i happen to have collected a few over the years!

in the photo above, i’ve included a few of my top picks such as: janet’s hot mama jewelry line is awesome for custom pieces with your family names. (i totally love the three little bears necklace!!!) and the significant other ring which is a great gift for your partner, best friend, or sibling.

janet offers a gift idea page for everyone on your list, and she even breaks it down by price (starting under $25) and by recipient (for mom, for dad, for teen, etc..)

you can keep up with janet by following janetjewelryNYC on twitter and on facebook, too! have a sparkly holiday!

last christmas (2010) we skipped the dough ornament part of our christmas tradition altogether because our kitchen became gluten free a few months prior, and i found it daunting enough to cook with weird and expensive flours. at the time, gluten free crafting seemed like way too much. i guess i’ve adjusted because i now know it’s not. we created the simplest of gluten free salt dough ornaments yesterday.

i was (p)inspired by a lot of pretty salt dough ornaments i saw around the web this year, like these and these, and the lovely ones tinkerlab posted yesterday. so yesterday afternoon, i figured we’d give a gluten free version a shot, and i searched for recipes. the one we ended up using is from the spunky coconut. they made cute pretend fruit with their dough, so it took a while for them to bake their thick pieces, but even our thin ornaments were not quick at all! here’s what we did:

i’m a huge fan of acrylic inks. i have a few colors from dick blick, so i decided to get them out and introduce them to N. she has seen me use them with a very fine brush, but she’s never used the inks and the script liner brush herself – until now.

she said she wanted to make “teeny little marks” on her pot, and set out to paint it in great detail.

we had such a great and quiet little art making session… it’s almost like the intricacy of the marks we made brought out a really mellow mood in us both.

as an art therapist, i often choose materials for clients that are a metaphor for what they are experiencing or that are like a holistic artistic prescription for what emotions they’re needing to work through. i often present materials to my daughter based on her energy level and feeling state, or to provide balance for what she might be needing in that moment. this art activity reminded me how materials can elicit a response – when N works in a small scale, she tends to get quiet, and when working with large, broad strokes, her energy tends to match.

what have you noticed about how materials affect your little artist(s)?

we each took a little chunk of the clay for ourselves and began to roll it into a ball.

little hands and earth

when we rolled it on the table, a fun side-effect was the marks it made on our paper below, so we played with that for a while. process. process.

pinch pots begin to take shape by first pressing one’s thumb into the center of the sphere.

next, i showed N how to use equal pressure with her thumb and forefinger to pinch her way slowly around the sphere, until a bowl-like shape formed.

she took great care to smooth the cracks and crumbles with her finger by “petting” the clay.

the pot in the foreground is one that i made alongside N, to model the technique, so as not to put my fingerprints on her piece. i feel like clay is like that – it takes the shape intended by its sculptor, and the fingerprints on it are part of the artist’s mark.

N was so proud of her pot after smoothing it out.

and now we just wait patiently for them to dry… up on a high shelf where our cats won’t lick them.

kelley with kids performing a puppet show

jen: can you tell us a bit about your background and about the work you’ve done with children and puppetry?

Kelley: I am an actor and teacher. Just after I received my BA in Theatre Arts, I moved to New York City where I lived and worked for nine years. One day, I bumped into an old friend and she told me I needed to contact her puppet-building friend, thus my foray into the world of puppetry. I became a lead puppeteer for four years in the Off Off Broadway production of the jazz children’s puppet show The Adventures of Maya the Bee. As I continued to perform with puppets and witnessed puppet builders conceiving, building, and performing their own shows, I gained such a reverence for this most ancient and creative art form. I then moved to the British Virgin Islands where I was a teaching artist in K-12 schools facilitating hand puppet workshops to children in grades 1-5. Most recently, I designed and taught an Introduction to Puppetry Arts course for BFA theatre students at Virginia Commonwealth University, where I am now a graduate student working on my MFA in theatre pedagogy.

jen: how do you think puppetry helps children to express themselves?

Kelley: Puppetry is a wonderful art form for children because it is interdisciplinary. The skills gained from making and using puppets are many. This is because to engage in puppetry is to engage in the visual AND the performing arts. Puppetry provides an arts experience that affirms the creative potential of each student, augments technical knowledge and ability, inspires imagination, and stimulates the expression of personal vision. Puppetry helps to improve fine motor skills and encourages imaginative role-play and listening. Creating a voice for the puppet aids in speech development and the enrichment of language. There is something about performing through an object that feels safe. Even the shyest child can express him or herself through this character “mask” Puppets were actually the first masks and date back to prehistoric times. Even though the mask/character is physically separate from the child, the puppet is a reflection of its maker, which instills a sense of confidence and accomplishment. Self-expression is found not only in performing with the puppet, but also in each paint color chosen and button glued on to create one’s  completely unique and special character.

jen: can you share your favorite types of puppets that would be appropriate to create with children ages 3-7?

Kelley: I have worked with hand, rod, hand and rod, Japanese Bunraku (manipulated by three puppeteers), marionette and shadow puppets. I have also worked with non-traditional and found object puppets. I find that building and performing with hand puppets is the easiest and most effective for children ages 3-7. With a hand puppet the child uses the arm, wrist, hand and fingers to manipulate the puppet from the inside, like a glove. This gives them the most control. Rod and even hand and rod (like the Muppets) are harder to control due to the rods that are held with the opposite hand outside the body.

Two dimensional shadow puppets are also easy and fun to experiment with. You cut out a shape in profile and fasten movable parts together. Hold them up to a sheet and shine a light from the back and you have a shadow puppet.  The shadow puppets in these photos are simply made with folders from Target and fastened with brads and scotch tape.

jen: how would you suggest making a puppet with a young child?

Kelley: The answer to this is limitless, as anything can be a puppet! I’ll outline two types of puppets that are really great to make with kids: sock puppets & hand puppets.

Sock puppets : great for younger children because they’re soft & easy to make

Materials:

• one long sock
• one thick rubber band
• art supplies to create the character (wiggly eyes, puff balls, sequins, buttons, paint or fabric markers etc.)
• glue (preferably a fabric glue)

When putting the sock over the hand – hold the hand with the fingers on top and the thumb on the bottom. The thumb will serve as the jaw. Put the rubber band over the sock between the thumb and top fingers and then stretch over the top around the knuckles. This will create definition for the “mouth”.

The key to manipulating this kind of puppet is use of the wrist. Working with your puppets in front of a mirror is the best way to work on performing with puppets. If you don’t have a puppet stage for performances, use a table as your stage. You can turn it over on its side or you can leave it upright and drape a sheet or blanket over it to hide the puppeteer.

Hand puppets : perfect for grades 1-5

Materials:

• 1 Styrofoam ball (3 inch) – for head
• 1 Styrofoam block (3×3 or larger) – used as a base for puppet drying
• popsicle sticks for puppet drying (stick in styro base) and for sculpting
• Celluclay paper mache (natural and safe for kids) to cover Styrofoam ball and to sculpt features like ears, mouth, eyeballs, eyebrows etc.)
• Tempra paint in colors of your choice
• Paint brushes (at least two—one fine tip for detail and one larger for overall coverage)
• Fabric (for body pattern—your choice of color/pattern; must be somewhat thick to maintain shape)
• Felt (for hands and anything else you want—colors of your choice)
• Yarn (for hair or anything else you want—color of your choice)
• Ribbon, buttons and any other decorative items for puppet “costume”
• Fabric glue
• Scissors

sculpting hand puppets

In creating this kind of hand puppet and then performing a show with them, children learn about sculpture, painting, design, writing and acting. In terms of building, attach all parts with fabric glue so there is no sewing involved. A paper pattern should be used for body and hands. For younger children, you will need to help with pre-sculpting the styrofoam balls (eye sockets, nose and hole in bottom of head where fingers will go-the best way to make this hole is with a broom end!) and cutting the fabric. Also, when gluing fabric, glue edges inside out and when dry, turn right side out and it will look like the fabric was sewn.

jen: what can parents do to encourage puppet play at home?

Kelley: The best way to introduce your child to the idea of puppetry is to encourage puppet play with puppets you can purchase or by animating stuffed animals. Also, in any city there are usually puppet performances at children’s museums or other venues. The best way to expose children to puppet performance is by attending a live performance. One of the rules of puppet performance is the puppet must interact, or at least address, its audience. Thus puppet theatre is very interactive and engaging for children. In my experience performing children’s puppet shows, we always let the audience come backstage to “meet the puppets”. It is amazing to see the child approach the puppet, tentative and awestruck, as if it were real despite the fact that I was standing right beside it, in full view, making it walk and talk. Magic is intrinsic to puppetry. I love that.

waiting to come to life

jen: is there anything else you’d like to add?

Kelley: For small children, puppet performance is very much about creating a character and playing that role. This involves creating, naming and even performing the voice of the character. Encourage your child to come up with a specific puppet voice for their puppet. For older children, encourage them to find different ways to manipulate the puppet. This involves close observation of movement. If your child has created a lion puppet, encourage them to observe lion behavior and characteristics on the internet and then have them try to recreate it, including movement and sound. Most importantly, “breathing the puppet”, or giving the puppet breath, is the golden rule of puppet manipulation!  The puppeteer exaggerates their breathing so the puppet will move up and down with that breath, giving the illusion of breathing. Lastly, puppet theatre is highly collaborative. When performing a puppet show, the puppeteer/puppet must really take time to listen to other puppet in the scene and then react. Performing puppet theatre is a way to really encourage your children to pause and listen.

Anyone can learn to build and perform with puppets. While I have a lot of experience performing in puppet theatre, I am not an advanced builder. I am definitely more of a performer than a visual artist, but I have managed to improve upon these skills over the years. If I can learn to sculpt, anyone can!

kids enjoying a puppet show

thank you to my amazing friend, kelley, for sharing all of this awesome puppet info with us! now i really want to make some shadow puppets with N!