paint cut paste

i hope all the mommas and grandmommas out there had a lovely mothers’ day weekend! just wanted to share a little handmade mom’s day treat with you all – these cute felt flower pins that N created for her grandmothers, her great-grandmother, and a couple barrettes for herself and friends, too!

first, i cut out a bunch of various flower shapes from our felt scraps. (do they make kid-friendly fabric scissors? N’s kid scissors just would not do the trick on felt, so i had to do this part for her even though she wanted to, unfortunately.)

N selected groupings of small, medium, and large flowers she liked together. (she commented that it’s just like choosing skirts for her flower fairies she loves to make!) she chose embroidery thread from our cutely-stored stash to adorn the background circles for each pin.

she began to whip up some added cuteness with the blanket stitch she learned at school. impressive! of course, she asked while doing it, “um, why am i sewing one piece of felt to itself, mommy? just to be fancy?” why yes, sweetie. fanciness is important on mothers’ day.

next up – choosing buttons for flower centers. buttons are always a hit over here.

N learned to sew on a button with this project, and she basked in the glow of accomplishing this.

we found some adhesive pins at michael’s to affix to the back of each flower.

here’s a happy recipient (N’s gwee!) sporting hers on mom’s day sent via pix messaging.

i hot glued the few extra flowers to barrettes that N has been happily sporting for a week… and she saved a few barrettes for gifts for her girlfriends.

happy spring equinox! lately we’ve been on a beading binge over here. in the late 90s, i was an avid beader. i sold some of my jewelry in a small shop in brooklyn at the time. ever since then, i just bead on occasion for random gifts, as i still have lots of supplies on hand (and rarely need to buy new ones; luckily, little beads go a long way!)

i decided to pull out the beading boxes again last week and make a few spring things for myself and as gifts. N got in on the action, too. first, i wanted to try my hand at braiding scrap fabric as a base for a wooden bead necklace, sort of like one i saw on pinterest (the braided part, at least) from the cakies blog (which is so awesome, by the way!) i started by tearing up some old fabric scraps.

once braided, i strung some large wooden beads onto them and sewed them closed using my sewing machine (though you could easily tie them or  hand stitch.)

the wood was fun to work with, so i whipped up a few wooden bead bracelets on elastic cord embellished with embroidery floss, too.

and N wanted to create a wooden necklace of her own using beads a friend gave to her and some indigo hemp.

i LOVE how hers turned out (and want to wear it myself, though it won’t fit over my neck.)

i had fun with some old seed beads, gemstones, and charms, as well. they were strung into some sweet bracelets, too.

N created a warm colors/cool colors bracelet for herself while i made these.

it was fun to bead with my daughter, side by side, and i love that she takes such joy in what has always been one of my go-to handwork activities. aaand, they make for cute gifts for friends!

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.