OH NO, Lions in the Jewelry Studio

Tomorrow is a Weather Day for the kiddos so their bedtime got a wee bit extended....Woohoo, it was party time in the jewelry studio. Hey, who invited the LIONS???? The kids know they MUST wear shoes/slippers in the studio because of scrap metal and glass that migrate to the floor!!!

These darling slippers belong to our youngest, Sir Blake, who loves to make fused glass experiments when there is room on the kiln shelf. As you can tell he is a little ham who loves to "show off" for the camera! There is a reason we also call him Monkey Boy! :)

His fused glass experiment is with aqua turquoise colored glass, a dark blue dichroic cabochon and some green glass dots he found in my scrap shoe box (aka experiments that didn't turn out quite the way I thought they would!) I'm doing a large run of dichroic window art glass pendants for a custom order.
I can GUARANTEE you that he will wake me up at 7am if NOT earlier to see if we can open up the kiln yet to peek at the design. Glass has to cool slowly and the kiln should not be opened up until it comes to room temperature or you run the risk of thermal shocking the glass (cracks happen!).
I will post a picture tomorrow of his experiment after it comes out of the kiln.

Inspired to create "glittery" jewelry by the book Kira- Kira

I recently read the 2005 Newberry Medal winner, Kira-Kira, by Cynthia Kadohata. This book is targeted for middle school age kids ( my daughter and I like to book club).

Kira-Kira means glittering in Japanese and is used in the book to describe anything that Katie likes.

The Kira-Kira Collection which will be available later today features some of my favorite "glittering gemstones" (amethyst, peridot, tourmaline, smoky quartz, iolite , aquamarine...) wire wrapped to created sparkly earrings and pendants.