Chainmail Jewelry Craft Party

When we celebrated National Craft Month in March, our own Muse employee, Carly Hodges, demonstrated how to make chainmail!  It was a big success and people seemed interested to learn more so we offered it as a class! 

Last night, Carly taught a very elaborate and complicated looking technique and made it easy!

She had many colors of rings to choose from.  And many people finished their first one and even made a second one! 

Here are the fun results!

Basic Books with Paper Pockets Craft Party

Sunday we spent a wonderful afternoon learning bookmaking with Susan Potash!  Susan brought all sorts of wonderful papers- handmade, recycled, prints & solids!

We learned a simple binding style so that we could spend most of our time learning the fun parts- the pocket making!  We created various pockets, pull out mini books and accordian folds to add to our books!

 Margaret let us raid her button cabinet for unique embellishments to our pockets and pages!

 We had three sets of mother-daughters!  It was so fun to see them work together and their final results!  We all had a great time & are looking forward to Susan teaching us another class soon!

Encaustics; Photo Transfer with Colored Pencil Craft Party

We spent a fun Sunday at our Encaustics Photo Transfer class!  Margaret taught us many techniques!  We learned how to photo transfer on various materials and the art of encaustics (collaging with hot wax!)
                                 
 We got busy choosing our collage materials and cutting out our designs. 

 

Lori decided to draw directly on the encaustic with pastels!  Next she added strings to the wax!

Two sisters having fun crafting together...

 Here are the amazing results!  I think some of these artists will be taking up a new hobby!

Chakra Jewels Craft Party

Last night we made Chakra Bracelets in Chrissy Gemmill's Craft Party, "Chakra Jewels".  Besides learning the fundamentals of wire jewelry making, we also learned the deeper meaning of some of the colors of jewels!

 

 The class quickly learned all of the skills necessary to complete a bracelet of their own design!

 Chrissy organized the bead choices by color.  Each color represents a different chakra.  Students could create balance by using all of the colors or pick colors for the chakras that they most wanted to represent.

 

 Here are the finished results!  It is always fun to see how differently they all come out to be!