Of the two that we made, this one looked the best
I was so taken with a post of Mari's recently, that I decided to copy it emulate her.
She is, after all, a world-class grandmother (among other equally stellar attributes).
I speak of the time she made baked clay necklaces with her grandgirlies.
I had to buy only a few extra supplies
Dagny was coming over last Thursday and I knew she would love doing this, so on the day before, I made preparations.
This involved a trip to Hobby Lobby, where I bought bake-able polymer clay, a package of jump rings, two tiny rubber stamps, and an assortment of mini inking pads.
Dagny loved working with the clay
I had everything else I needed already at home: parchment paper, a collection of small cookie cutters (although it took me a while to find them), toothpicks, several colors of waxed linen cord, and lots of beads.
And of course, an oven.
I told Audrey to make sure that Dagny brought along her new Rainbow Loom for making bracelets out of tiny multicolored rubber bands, so that we could do that too.
The Rainbow Loom ... for all ages
This was just going to be a big old craft day.
(The loom was a gift from Mari herself, sent promptly as a get-well present when Dagny broke her leg at the end of June.)
Turns out that both Audrey and Erica had already tried to help Dagny make a bracelet, but had become bumfuzzled at one point and given up.
She was busy pressing ink right into the rolling pin
I was confident that I could get them all over the hump.
Haha. I thank you not to snicker.
Well anyway ... let's talk about the clay-baking craft first. To make necklaces.
The light colors did not make the bold statement she was looking for
First we assembled our supplies on the table: the clay, the cookie cutters, the rubber stamps, the little inking pads, the waxed linen cord, a toothpick, the jump rings, and two rolling pins -- one plain, and one embossed with a design.
I also grabbed a few of my bead boxes (my spin on the project, since I like to inject beads whenever and wherever I can), and my needle-nose pliers.
It's how we roll
I broke off a chunk of the clay and gave it to Dagny to start pounding on and rolling out.
While she did that, I set the oven to 175 degrees (as specified on the package of clay).
It was really easy. After the clay was rolled out, I showed Dagny how to ink a stamp and make an impression. I did the first one and she did the second one.
This project was at least twenty-five percent trial and error
Then we chose a shape for her necklaces and I pressed out the first two, using a round cookie cutter.
Brandishing the toothpick, I made a hole in the top of each clay disc.
I popped them into the oven on a tiny tray lined with parchment.
This was the shade of blue that changed everything
They baked for about twenty-five minutes, and I took them out.
In no time, they were cool and hard enough to work with.
Meanwhile, Dagny was playing with the clay and pressing out more and more shapes.
Dagny was riveted by the possibilities in the clay
I showed her how to ink the embossed rolling pin with one of the inkpads, and roll out a fancy design in the color of her choice.
She chose blue, and soon the remaining clay had turned a shade much lighter than the ink color, but still blue. It was an unusual blue, very beautiful.
Dagny continued to roll out the blue clay and press shapes using the tiniest of the already tiny cookie cutters.
She had lots of colors to choose from
She did it so many times that in the end, there was an infinitesimal heart and only a pea-sized piece of clay left over.
Dagny put a hole in the wee blue heart, which for some reason was (or became, in the process) misshapen. It looked like Ember had done it. We laughed about that.
Then we put all of those shapes into the oven to bake, and I went to work turning the first two discs into necklaces.
I should put her to work making fancy cookies
Simples. Am I right?
Well, maybe for you. But I managed to break the first one while trying to get the jump ring closed.
I hate attaching the jump ring! Aaaarrrrrggghhhhhh!
The last blue heart was on the small side
Ugh. We had one disc left intact, and I managed to get it put together, embellishing the cord on either side of the jump ring with a few seed beads.
I think Dagny wanted the necklace to hang maybe a few fingers-width below her collarbone, but since I was using cord and not chain, I had to tie it off and it needed to be big enough to go over her head.
Success proved elusive on the first try
That made it a longer pendant, but still pretty, and I told her that I knew Erica had some chain that could be used to make her remaining designs into shorter necklaces.
We ended up completing two pieces, and I must say that the second one, with the embossed design rolled into the blue clay and cut into a flower shape, turned out prettier than either of us expected.
We turned our attentions to the Rainbow Loom project
Dagny seemed to approve of our results, so we cleaned up all of the necklace making paraphernalia and turned the oven off and got out the Rainbow Loom.
Part Two of Craft Day, as it were.
Using the printed instructions and eyeballing the part of a bracelet that Dagny and Audrey and Erica had already made, I soon became so confused that we decided to start over.
I was the helper while Dagny was the looper
Audrey had mentioned YouTube as a source for more detailed instructions together with some virtual hand-holding, and I took her up on that excellent idea.
We soon found a video of a lady making a simple bracelet with a Rainbow Loom.
Clearing off the loom and organizing our rubber bands into colors, we began. I started it but Dagny placed all but a few of the bands for the first part of the design, onto the loom.
The next step beyond the triangles threw us
Then came the hard part, where you use the hook to drag certain strands out and pull them around and hook them onto another post, being careful to bring out the right ones and attach them just so, and ...
Well. I tried but maybe I was tired by then and maybe it was sweltering in the kitchen (I forgot to add, we could have baked those clay necklaces out on the sidewalk, had we been so inclined, it was that hot outside), but I developed a sizable case of the yips and had to give up.
Dagny was glad to close the lid on that until she got better help
I texted a link for the helpful YouTube video to both Audrey and Erica. Here, I said. You're going to need this.
Then I added: I did the hard part for you. Laughing face emoji.
Dagny and I boxed up the Rainbow Loom with the partially completed second bracelet still in place, hoping that someone -- or two someones, working together -- smarter than either of us will be able to finish it.
I see now that we could have made a better impression
I should say here that I'm glad that one of the crafts was easy enough that I could see it through.
And I'm also glad that the other craft is hard enough to be a challenge for Dagny. And her mother. And her aunt. It will develop their characters.
Dagny wearing one of the necklaces
As for me, the next thing I baked was edible and turned out pretty great. I'll be sharing that with you later in the week.
And that is all for now except to say, it's time for me to go swimming.
Stay cool and be sweet, my friends.
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Happy Monday :: Happy August
