description

Everyone’s heard of the old fable or story of stone soup: want to make some jewelry? Well, I’ve got a great rock for a necklace, but do you have some junk chain? A few baubles? Little odd objects you’ve been wanting to make into charms? You get the idea….Spend a day learning many, many various jewelry (and mixed media) techniques, with emphasis on thin stone, shell, and stick drilling/grooving, both with the dremel and hand drills, as well as the “Nina knot” wire wrapping for necklace links and clasps. You’ll come away at the end of the day with a necklace/bracelet combination constructed of found objects that you’ve brought from home and gathered on the beach, and will be able to incorporate trades gathered from new and old friends you’ve met at artfest throughout the week. I’ll also demonstrate, for any of you who may have a shed deer antler you’ve found in the woods (not, I hope, from hunting?) how to make a simple bead or two with the use of a jeweler’s saw, drill, and dremel engraver.

Stone Soup

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bio

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kit fee: $0        supply list

• bent needle-nosed pliers, round needle-nosed pliers, and wire snips (all small sized)*
• small hammer, and small bench block* if you have one
• cutting helix pad to prevent marring table surface and to absorb hammering
• assorted junk chain; mismatched odd lengths are fine
• 15 feet 20 gauge wire; if ordering silver, be sure to get dead soft; copper is a much cheaper alternative*
• 6 feet 24 gauge wire*; if ordering silver, be sure to get dead soft (silver wire is available from
• riogrande.com or firemountaingems.com); copper is fine
• up to 10 ¾” wide strips of thin fabric (any kind), your choice of color
• scissors
• fisker’s hand drill, if you have one (can be found at michael’s in the sewing section); I’ll bring mine, as well as small clamps for securing item to table while you drill dremel, if you have one; I’ll bring mine, and I’ll provide use of diamond drill bits (stone and glass drilling)
• metal ruler
• masking tape, small amount
• assorted small treasures, i.e. THIN stones (please, no big ones as they take too long to drill and will wear out drill bits), shells, THIN beach glass, beads, small bits of driftwood
  
  
• *all items with asterisk can be easily ordered from volcanoarts.biz, via paypal. Please, do NOT wait until right before artfest to place your orders, so that Christine will not run out of supplies and you are forced to come empty-handed to class. Thanks!

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is a self-taught jewelry and mixed media designer living in the beautiful western mountains of north carolina... single mother of two nearly grown wonderful young men (robin, a junior in college and roy, a freshman), and companion to aspen, the wonder-springer spaniel (13 years).