paint cut paste

oooo, i’m a bit starstruck to feature this inspiring guest post from janet of the janet jewelry fame! over a decade ago, when i was a new yorker, i met janet when she was selling her unique and beautiful silver jewelry at a street market in the village. then she set up her first store right near my chelsea apartment! and now she has written a fab guest blog on making jewelry with kids just for us.

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!

a few evenings ago, we noticed a little bag of silver pendants in our art cabinet that we had yet to use — and i have my friend, rachelle of tinkerlab, to thank for passing them along to us! so, thank you, tinkerfriend, for these great blank “canvases” of the jewelry variety! they provided N and i with some enjoyment, as we decided how we wanted to design our pendants.

N wanted to make a “nature one” and a “beady one.” so we gathered some pebbles and shells from random buckets of beach treasures that are still in our backyard.

then N rooted through my seed bead collection and found some colors she liked.

she arranged the seed beads in the circular metal pendant, and put a white shell in the center of the square one with some pebbles and a few random neutral beads around it.

once she had them arranged how she wanted them, i squirted dimensional magic onto each, and let it dry for 3 hours. after it dried and encrusted all of these jewels to keep them in place, N wore her new beautiful mandala necklace!

and she decided we should give the “nature one” to rachelle and her little artist, N, as a thank you gift.

happy fall, y’all! (ooo, my quasi-southern roots are showing.) today is the first day of autumn, even though the sf bay area seems to just be getting the summer started. regardless, in my body and spirit, it feels like it’s time to bust out the chet baker and a scarf. to celebrate the season, i gifted my little one with a basket of autumn goodies today…

among the treasures was a strand of mala beads i strung just for her. i’ve always intended to make N one of her own (as she covets mine) and i was inspired by this one i saw on little. lovely. i just used 108 (in the buddhist tradition) blonde wooden beads i had on hand and some stretchy cord.

after they were strung, i looped embroidery thread around my fingers, snipped it at one end, then laid it over the cord. i tied another piece of thread around that to keep it in place. this made for a cute tassel.

i also included two wonderful autumn books in N’s fall basket — i just love both of these seasonal series. one is autumn, an alphabet acrostic by steven schnur and the other is by the light of the harvest moon by harriet ziefert. we have the other seasons from both authors, but somehow didn’t yet have these autumn treasures.

additionally, i found a sweet little melissa & doug wooden kazoo, some pomegranates (N’s favorite fruit – she takes after her momma!) and one a replica of one of my childhood memories… a weather telling owl kinda like this one! when i was a kid, i had a ceramic owl exactly like this on my windowsill. he has little clear salt-sized crystals on his head that change color to tell the weather (or so i thought when i was a kid???) when one of these owls came up randomly on my etsy homepage this summer, my heard did a little flip flop of recognition, and i knew i had to buy it!

another fun thing about today is that we got to use the autumn side of our handmade placemats – ah, refreshing change! i can’t wait to have some fun with fall art projects now…

first day of autumn breakfast

happy autumn to all! did your family do anything special to celebrate autumn’s arrival?

they’re baaaa-aaack! remember making these as a kid? well, as you can tell, they’ve made a comeback.

i used to love making these as a kid, so i got excited! when i was eleven years old, one of my best friends and i made special coded ones for a “secret club” we had, which i still have tied into a notebook somewhere. oh the possibilities!

somehow i had this random friendship bracelet book on my bookshelf, and i finally opened for the first time. it’s cool because it shows different patterns i’ve never made (but plan to someday…) i brought N to joann fabrics to pick out whatever colors of embroidery floss she wanted. as you can see from the pic below, she’s a rainbow lover so we had to get every single color in several shades! good thing the embroidery floss was on special for 33 cents each.

i brought the thread and a clipboard with us on vacation (thus the sand dollar above) to get busy making bracelets. i quickly realized that N’s role in these (at the age of 4.5) would be the palette picker, and i would be the knotter. for the first bracelet, she wanted it to be in various shades of her favorite color.

to make the simple diagonal “candy stripe” pattern, just cut a long (40-60″ depending on wrist) length of embroidery thread in each color you want. choose at least four colors. fold the thread in half and tie it in a knot to make a loop at the top like you see below.

find a nice work space. a clipboard has always been my workspace of choice for friendship bracelets, but some people prefer to safety pin the thread to their own pants in their lap or to a pillow in their lap. next, lay the colors out in the order you want them, in a repeating pattern (like A, B, C, D, A, B, C, D.) pick up the A thread and knot it twice around B, then C, then D, etc… working your way left to right. (there are so many good video tutorials online of this, so i won’t attempt to describe it further in writing.) it should look like this as you work.

when you are finished knotting, divide the threads in half, then make two braids. knot them at the ends. these will serve as a way to tie a bow or knot around the loop at the other end to fasten the bracelet to your friend’s wrist. N loved hers and put it on right away!

of course, she began to draw seconds after putting it on

as we were flying home on the plane, she asked me to make one for her daddy, and chose some colors for him.

i got busy knotting it up, as she pretended (to dad) that i was making the bracelet for her (so it would be a surprise to him.)

hooray for bulkhead seats!

while i can’t get behind the resurgence of all parts of 80s fashion, this is one friendly trend i don’t mind a bit.

there’s been a LOT of self-directed drawing going on in my home these past three weeks or so. and i mean A TON. did you see the video i posted on facebook the other day? yeah, N is doing at least 60 of these illustrated stories per day. i know a very prolific artist who is on a roll over here!

3 weeks worth of her 2D, non-preschool, non-paintcutpaste art

one of the themes i’ve noticed (when sifting through the pages that get deposited on my desk throughout the day) is that N is into tracing her hand a lot these days.

in addition to the tracing, there seems to be a lot of rainbow manicuring going on in these images.

and some really cool rings and jewels. (i’m really into the stacked turquoise bands above, personally.)

so just a quick little bit about one of the many themes arising organically in the art over here as of late — yep, this and the muppets.

how about at your house? what sorts of things do your little ones draw repeatedly?

i like how these rings are on the ringfinger

p.s. – any tips for me on storing all of the masterpieces that don’t get recycled? right now these 9×12 images on her drawing paper are archived in a HUGE 3-ring-binder.

one of my favorite things about autumn are the beautiful, variegated ears of maize that grace the farmers markets. their jewel-like colors are always inspiring… and this year they inspired jewelry.

if it were not for crow rooster crow, i wouldn’t have known it was possible to bead with corn, but i saw this supercool idea for making an indian corn necklace and had to put it into action.

N was thrilled to help pop the kernels off the ears of corn. she spent an entire day (off and on) working on one of the ears. this is a great task for little hands, unless you have one of those weird ears of maize where the kernels are sharp. (we had one of those and it so wasn’t possible for her or me to pluck that one.)

after all kernels were off the cobs, it was quite satisfying to even just play with a huge bowl of the seeds. this material alone makes a colorful filler for an autumn sensory box for toddlers and up.

the next step was to soak the kernels in water to soften them a bit so they can later be punctured by a needle. i chose a handful of the seeds to soak, as i wasn’t ready to use them all at once. (we ended up with zillions!) the blog where i saw this idea said this may take “a few hours” but i soaked ours for about 24 hours (only because i didn’t have a chance to get back to them until a day later.)

i chose some random thread and a needle from my sewing stash, and drained the water from the kernels. then i began to string them onto the thread. it was easier than i thought it would be.

the white part of the kernel is easiest to pierce.

pardon these dark rainy-afternoon photos

stringing the necklace was very satisfying. while N couldn’t use the needle and thread herself, she sat beside me, cheering me on excitedly as she watched her necklace take shape.

the idea is to make this as easy as possible… use a LONG piece of thread so you can just tie it together after the strand is long enough to go over your little one’s head. i didn’t have too much forsight on this one, so my thread was too short, and i ended up having to put a clasp on this necklace so she could take it on and off because it lacked a bit of length. luckily, i’m a beader and had those things on hand, but it would have been easier had i thought about this in advance, so i’m telling you now so you can learn from my mistake.

once it was complete, N was thrilled to try it on. she said it looked like “what a hula dancer would wear in the fall.”

we have so many more jewel-like kernels that i’d love to make a multi-strand harvest necklace for myself, and perhaps a bracelet for N.

we’ve done some bead crafts before, but N wasn’t ever as into diligently stringing beads as she was today… when my self-proclaimed beader went to WURK.

we got out our trusty alphabet beads to make a baby bracelet for a newborn friend (and a big sis bracelet for the newly-minted big sis.) we like to mix these with our mish-mashed bead collection on stretch cord to make funky trinkets as gifts.

we’ve also used these same combos to make allergy-alert bracelets – remember? N picked out some beads she loved, and we also made her a name bracelet for herself today.

(knitted sweater a la my mom)

as i was working on the baby bracelet, i noticed that N was rooting through the letters, and had picked out a stash of beads and was stringing them happily on the other side of the table. honestly, this wasn’t going to be a blog entry craft until i saw what was going on.

it wasn’t until i was finished with the baby bracelet that i realized what she was doing – too sweet!

customized jewelry is quite a perk of having a 3-year-old who can spell the names of her family members.

batgirl, the beader

i proudly sported my mommy bracelet all day long!

way better than silly bandz, yo!