Much harder than it Seems...

As part of my ongoing quest to learn new crafts and explore my creativity, I recently attended some beading, soldering, and jewelry-making classes.

I learned a few things:

1. I don't have the patience for stringing beads together (one by one)

2. I really LOVE the design process... assembling the pieces, selecting the color scheme/theme...

3. My eyes are getting OLD! You mean I need Granny Glasses to see what I'm doing? No, I'm fine,Thank You.

4. Soldering is A LOT HARDER than it seems!

5. Don't quit your day job just yet, Mercedes!

I took a "making jewelry with stained glass" class at this fabulous little art studio called The Studio at Rush Creek... I wasn't really all that interested in the stained glass aspect of it; I was there to learn how to solder! The instructor was SO patient with us; a group of 8 who were all a bit overwhelmed with the possibilities (6 of us were teachers!). After all, HOW HARD CAN THIS BE?

Just for fun, I'd like to share some of my amateurish attempts...

..my first attempt... of course, I couldn't use a flat piece of glass (No, beveled glass for me, please!). Oh boy, I'm in BIG trouble.

...my 2nd attempt... I decided to press a dried flower between the image and glass; learned it's VERY easy to crack the glass this way! Also learned that its VERY hard to solder straight!!!

...the instructor was very kind and polite when I suggested making a HEART shaped pendant... ((GASP)) which required that I cut, shape, and sand the stained glass piece. Then I wanted a sticker on my piece, found it wouldn't adhere very well (this is when my clear nail polish came to the rescue!).

This 4th attempt I didn't have a chance to finish... but I'm already planning to go back for a visit this weekend and use their studio (only $6/hour to use their supplies/materials!) to complete this piece and practice on a few others. My new mantra: I WILL NOT LET THE SOLDERING IRON BEAT ME DOWN!

With a bit more success (barely), I attended a fabulous class at The Creative Connection Event a couple of weeks ago. Our instructor was Kaari Meng from French General, who was so fun and fabulous!

This is the piece we would be making...

The time allotted was 3 whole hours, and I thought that was a very long time.... until I started stringing beads (one by one).... and stringing....

and I couldn't get my hands to move exactly like Kaari's so that my loops and hooks were just perfect (I wonder why? ). Ok, so maybe this type of craft is not made for me.

This is my "almost" finished piece (I still want to add a few more charms to it). I guess 3 hours wasn't that long after all!