The GGA Project -- Day #116 "Crafty Plan B"

Today I had made some spur-of-the-moment plans with my best gal Nicole to go to a make-and-take art studio.  The idea there is that you pay for studio time and then choose from a number of art projects, which you can make and then take with you (okay, so maybe the name was a little self explanatory).


Unfortunately, when Nicole called the studio she learned they were hosting a class tonight, so the make-and-take thing was not an option this evening.


Next best plan:


Today's New Activity: Make-and-Take Jewelry, Courtesy of Nicole


I've mentioned before that Nicole has studio space at her house, which is abundant with about 10 years' worth of art supplies, collected during various phases of her crafting and artistic obsessions.  She does papercrafts of all kinds, paintings, quilting, and journal-making (to name a few), and apparently went through quite a jewelry-making phase, which I discovered when she brought out her box o' jewelry supply fun this evening.


A couple of things Nicole absolutely thrives on in her arty endeavors are variety and color.  I mean, this is a woman whose own personal journal looks like this (posted here with her permission of course):

When she learns how to make something new, she sets about finding gobs and gobs of supplies options to make the making that much better, so I always feel super spoiled when she lets me raid her stuff.  Today I discovered just how easy it apparently is to make a necklace pendant where there was none before!


We just needed these little pendant trays (I made two varieties, one that had a bubble glass cover, one that had no cover at all), images, and glaze.  I looked through pages and pages of images that Nicole has either found or purchased, as well as through some old sheet music to find words to use.

After a little bit of arranging and an overnight of drying, these were the results:

"Somebody loves me," because that's true (and I love the little guy image :)

"Dreams come true," because I believe that's true as well :)


Pretty cool!   I have to learn the tricks from Nicole on how to prevent the little bubbles from happening, but I'm really happy with this as a first attempt.  I got so excited I asked Nicole where she'd bought the trays (since I fully intend to make some more of these pretty little things), and she directed me to a shop on Etsy.com called Sun and Moon Crafts, which sells the part of the pendant (the main part, actually) that I'd have no idea how to make happen on my own (the tray and glass covers), thereby making the whole thing much simpler than it would be if I'd been attempting to be an actual jewelry maker.


I was so thrilled after discovering this new craft I was all wired when I came home, just daydreaming about where to find images to make more pendants.


Hey, homemade pendants for EVERYONE this Christmas!  :)