Bring Your Husband To Class Night

My husband is such a good sport. He has put up with my “need to create” for the last 29 years. He is very patient and easy going even though I know that sometimes he doesn’t understand my craving for crafting. He doesn’t say much even though a lot of the time my jewelry making tools and bead stash are sitting on the kitchen counter. I have a day job, so the only time that I can really create jewelry pieces are in the evening or on the weekend. I hate to put everything away and then have to “dig it out” again.

I have a craft room but do you think I use it? I can barely walk into that room. I NEED TO GET ORGANIZED! If I say it often enough, maybe the little craft elves will visit me and clean up my room. I just can’t bear to part with anything - you just never know when you might need it…. I have remnants from many of the craft projects from the past and “potentials” for the future. “It’s a good deal” or “they might run out of it”, is what I find myself saying as I slip the “must have item” into the shopping cart. And if I go into a bead store without a list, it’s all over. I need to have my list with me and I try to stick to the list for the absolutely needed items. And if you’ve been to a bead store recently, you know the feeling – almost hyperventilating, with all the ideas & creativity flowing around you. That’s how my “bead stash” was born!!

I’ve sidetracked from my Blog title…. As I’ve mentioned in my previous blogs, I teach jewelry making at our local high school, Adult Ed program. I really enjoy teaching. The hard part is trying to be creative within a time limit. I usually try to plan in advance which projects we will make in the six week session and have demo’s made up to show the ladies the first night. Things don’t always go as planned.

This last semester, I had all of the projects made up except for the one we were going to do for the first week. I had ordered all of the supplies but didn’t get to make the demo until the Sunday before the Tuesday class. It didn’t look difficult so I figured I’d be okay. We were going to be trying our hand at stamping & texturizing metal – a new technique for all of us!

I had seen a cute free project idea for the pea pod pendant on a copper chain. I drew out a leaf pattern as instructed and traced it on to the back of the copper sheet. I hadn’t purchased any special metal cutters because my husband is in construction and has tin snips, which we thought would work. Problem – you can’t make turns while cutting with tin snips – only straight lines. Here I am rushing to Wal-Mart in hopes that they have something strong enough to cut the copper sheet. Fortunately, they did and we proceeded, or should I say – he proceeded to cut out 16 leaf shapes. Then, he had to drill two holes at each end of the leaf as the instructions required.

The next steps were fun – stamping the words SWEET and PEA on the now trimmed up piece of copper and texturizing it with the special hammer. When I went to bend the leaf shape into a pod, I ran into another problem – I didn’t have the strength to bend the copper. My husband had to use one of his “carpenter tools” to bend the shape in half vertically. My flat nose pliers just weren’t able to do the job. After that, I was able to finish up the pendant on my own – (big deal, there were only a few small steps left). He actually had 3 hours into this project already.

The final problem came to me the night before the class. It dawned on me that if I couldn’t bend the leaf shape into a pod, most of the other ladies in class wouldn’t be able to either. I asked my husband if he would come to class just long enough to bend the copper shapes – now how many husbands would do that? So the next night, he gave me an hour to get everyone to the same point on their pendant and showed up at class for about 15 minutes to take part in MY project (yeah, who are we kidding….). I told the ladies that it was “Bring Your Husband To Class Night”! They got a kick out of his coming to their “Ladies Night Out” and thanked him for coming.

I bought him a Peanut Buster Parfait after class to thank him for all his help (it really didn’t compare but he does like ice cream)!

They're trying to tell how to feel

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY (:


HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY (:

Was supposed to iceskate tgt at kallang.but went kbox instead ((:

zhu chao at bukit timah! curry fish head, gong gong and kang gong! hehe

Kumihimo Brings People Together

These beautifully Kumihimo braided necklaces have a tradition dating back over 1200 years. They were used originally by Samurai’s to tie scrolls and clothing. Today they are still used by the Japanese for the narrow belt of the wide obi sash that wraps around traditional kimonos and as jewelry, key rings, and embellishments on clothing and dolls.

I really have enjoyed making these braided necklaces and bracelets. The satin cord comes in so many beautiful colors. The technique is not difficult to learn. I really find them relaxing to make and the stresses of the day are forgotten once I get into the braiding of the cord. They really end up being quite a conversation piece.

The ladies that I teach in my jewelry class might disagree if you ask them about making bracelets using the same technique but using wire instead of the satin cord. In the first semester of the jewelry class that I teach at our local high school adult ed program, we made a satin necklace in the ladies' choice of colors. Some finished them off with a pewter pendant or a beautifully decorated silver tube from Thailand. It was their first introduction to the art of Kumihimo and after the initial trip around the special foam disk, they were feeling pretty comfortable with the braid. They left the class with a brand new piece of jewelry to wear the next day and show off to their friends and be able to say with pride that they had made it themselves!

The second semester, where many of the same ladies had returned for another six-week session, feeling more adventuresome, they had insisted that we make a Kumihimo braided bracelet that I has shown them during the first semester, made out of thin silver or gold filled wire. They started with the same enthusiasm as in the previous semester, but that was short lived.

They discovered that the wire was not as easy to work with as the satin cord had been and there was much sighing & complaining going on for the two hours that we were together. This project also required them to add a glass bead to a certain wire strand in each of the braided sections. This also caused them some grief. This project ended up being a "homework assignment" for most of them and probably won't be something that they run out and make another one of any time soon. I assured them that the next one would go that much faster, but I didn't get any takers.

They weren't totally discouraged, though, because most of them are returning in the fall and have already requested another Kumihimo project; this time another necklace with satin cord but adding beads in the center for a different look. They like the technique but don't want to deviate too much....

Kumihimo was also responsible for the meeting of another crafter from my hometown and the two of us collaborating together on seven necklaces that are on both my and her websites. Her name is Sharon Carpenter and she has a business called Kaleidoscope-Kreations. Her website is http://www.kaleidoscope-kreations.com/ She is the designer of beautiful dichroic glass pendants.

Laurie, a previous student of mine, as well as being a good friend, met up with Sharon one day and was admiring her pendants that she had brought to school to show the teachers and staff. Sharon happened to mention that she was struggling with what to put her pendants on to make up as complete necklaces. Laurie knew that I had just finished teaching the class on making Kumihimo cord necklaces and mentioned my name to Sharon, asking her if she knew me.

We had never met before but ironically enough, a week later, we both happened to have tables at the same craft fair. She came over to my table and introduced herself. She asked to see my Kumihimo necklaces and loved the cords and thought that they would be the right size for her pendants. I happened to have materials there to braid with while at the fair (imagine that) and made up a cord that day that we slipped perfectly into one of the bails on her pendant and our first collaborated necklace was created. After that she gave me six other pendants to make necklaces for and they now appear on each of our websites!

I also just finished making Kumihimo bracelets for my niece, who just graduated from high school. She is one of a group of five girls who have been very close friends during their time at high school. Three of them were graduating and going off to parts unknown. They had previously all been on a class trip to Canada for their French class earlier in the year and had really enjoyed themselves. They referred to themselves as "The Canadians".

My sister, Donna, thought it would be a nice idea to give each of them a matching bracelet in the school colors, with a silver Canadian maple leaf charm. On the bracelets of the three that graduated, I put an additional charm with a graduation cap and 2009. Donna gave them to each of the girls after the graduation ceremony; they were thrilled. Even though they will be separated and might go awhile without seeing each other, they just have to wear their bracelet and it will bring memories of their good times to mind.