New Skill- Jewelry Making

We are especially lucky to have a family member (mine and Jenny's Grandpa, Joey's and Kam's Great-Grandpa) who makes jewelry as a hobby and generously offers to share his time and resources.

(This picture was from awhile back. Just look how short Kam's hair is.)

Between Jenny (who took a jewelry making class in high school) and Grandpa, the kids and I have no shortage of teachers. Jenny lets the kids use her wax gun to make designs, which she and Grandpa then cast for them.

Jenny helped Joey make me a beautiful and simple little ring. I love how it looks like a twig wrapped around my finger.


(As I'm looking at this picture of Joey holding my ring, I'm struck by how much her hands look like mine. She looks so grown up here. Which I realize is a strange thing to say about a picture of a hand. But it's true.)

And Kam made a design that became this necklace for his Gram's birthday.

And yes, we let the kids work with the wax gun even though it is pretty damn hot.



This is mostly because we agree with Gever Tulley when he encourages parents to let their kids try moderately dangerous activities, "Trust me, they are going to learn things that you can't get out of playing with Dora the Explorer toys." (Note- head over to that link if you want to hear his Ted talk on the subject. It's a good one.)

They also love to use the flex shaft for polishing the piece after it's been cast.

For now, though, the adults sprew up the pieces and do the actual casting.

Yes, I too am working on some pieces, but since they're gifts, I'll be sharing them a bit later.