Hot Glass Bead Making 101- Highly Recommend!

This past semester was a crazy one. I really wanted to focus on creating more art and trying new mediums of art. I received my town's spring continuing education classes and immediately registered for this Hot Glass Bead Making 101 Class through Studio 34 Creative Arts Center; www.studio34jewelryartslearningcenter.com/.

I was all excited and raced there from work one day only to find that it had been canceled due to a family death (completely understandable). However, I found out that the Studio never received my registration and when I contacted the school continuing education department they said they never received my registration and check. Long story short; I had to pay the bank $35 bucks (!) to cancel the missing check which was pretty much the cost of the course $34 plus $10 for materials. Needless to say I didn't want to repay to take the class.  I mentioned my dilemma to the owner of Studio 34, Marilynne Lipshutz and she immediately said that I would not have to pay a second time. She told me to pick a class time I could come to and then just pay the material fee. This was such an incredibly kind gesture in a world that often times isn't this generous.

I went to the class a couple of weeks ago and I have to say I was a bit nervous about using the torch and melting glass, but I had an amazing time. Once you get the hang of it you just want to continue to create. One of the things I loved most about this experience is that the glass changes colors when it's melted so you really never know how it will turn out until it comes out of the kiln a day later.  

I really want to go back and take another glass making class. I think my mom would enjoy this so maybe it will be something we do on one of our Girls Weekend's!

I learned how to make heart beads and ended up making a keychain with the heart bead for my mother for Mother's Day. I also made my sister a keychain (but forgot to take a picture of it and just mailed it to her today-oops).

Here's the 5 beads I made in about an hour.

Mother/Daughter Adventure in Enamel Pendant Making

I decided to get creative for my mom's birthday present this year. She enjoys being creative but there's not a lot of opportunities to take classes in her small hometown area. So, I purchased through the Memorial Art Gallery's Creative Workshop program an enamel pendant making class for her for when she came up to visit and I we both took the class together to celebrate her birthday. http://mag.rochester.edu/creativeworkshop/ I should tell you that neither my mom nor I have had any experience with enameling with glass which is what this class was about.

We started our day with massages at Onondaga School of Therapeutic Massage,http://www.ostm.edu/ and then headed to the afternoon pendant making class taught by Yvonne Cupolo. yvonnecupolo.com This is my second class with her (I made the Sterling Silver ring at her class last fall- see earlier blog for details). I like that the classes are small and the teacher has a lot of patience for all of us first timers. When you think you did something VERY wrong and ruined your piece she always found a way to fix it and make it better.

We even got to create more than one piece. My mom made herself a necklace and earring set and I made a necklace for me and one for my sister who lives out of state and couldn't join in the fun but I wanted her to be a part of this special day.

My mom and I loved the class. Designing your piece is so much fun and easy that we could have spent tons more time there creating and trying different techniques and designs. Would highly recommend this type of class to others.

Handmade Sterling Silver Ring

In keeping with the intention of continuing to explore and create art, I decided to sign up and take a Sterling Silver Ring making class through a community art shop. This class was through the Memorial Art Gallery Creative Workshop;http://mag.rochester.edu/creativeworkshop/. This was my first time going to this community art center.

I've always wanted to create a ring myself out of metal; but for those people who know me my attempt to audit a graduate level jewelry and metalsmithing class turned out to be a big flop. I did complete a solder plate before dropping out (mainly because the class was completely over my head). This was a big disappointment to me because I just wanted to make a simple ring. So when I found this community class online where you make your own ring in a one day 3 hour class I signed up!

I found out that I had learned something from that graduate level class. I understood the language, general technique and wasn't afraid of the torch any longer. The actual material to make this ring was one piece of 16 gauge sterling silver wire for $5.50! The demonstration was about an hour so I made the ring in about 100 minutes from start to finish. Below is the final product. I was very pleased and really excited about the outcome. It looks and feels professional!