Ever wonder how they make cool stones into jewelry, or how functional items like buckles, rings, belts (or guitar straps), wallets, primitive knives, keepsake boxes are done or made—and with flair (like woodburning, scrimshaw, stamping and tooling)? Ever want to try and make really cool gifts—or just something for yourself? Come experience the stone finding and grinding that is the trade of lapidary, make stones into wearable art, and make really cool objects out of rock, wood, glass, antler, and leather—and perhaps even precious metals. We are going to try and offer some cool metal work this year too, incorporating (maybe) pmc clay, silver sheet, wire, stamps, and soldering! Come experience the world of leather, antler, wood, glass, rock, and silver and bronze and leave with some really cool stuff that you’ll have for the rest of your life!
💎 Learn how to finish these rock/stones using machines, as well as make them wearable through various methods. Using other types of machines to manipulate various materials (saws=wood, etc…)
🧪 Find out where really cool stones or wood come from, and what family of rock or gems that they belong to, as well as learning about chemical composition and what makes a stone look or appear like it does.
✨ Leave the project with several pieces that you can wear, sell, use or give as gifts. This should include bezel settings (quantity is price dependent), chains, snaps etc… The amount of these items will be budgeted as one total per student and we will be going to a couple of stores to purchase after the stone has been made—they type of metal will obviously affect price. PMC clay is cool, but a bit pricey as it is the true metal (i.e. silver/bronze), after it has been fired!
Your fee will cover almost all of the supplies, unless you really want to buy something that we don’t already have or can afford through the schools budget for the project—or things that we would need to complete your individual project because it is really something different. We will be focusing more on the making and finishing of all the objects, but no skills really required to participate other than following directions and patience—and of course being as safe as we can possibly be (you like all your fingers and eyeballs, right???).
Kids will work from about 9 am to 3 pm every day (including the full day on both Wednesday’s. The only exception is the last day (presentation day). If they need to start earlier and/or stay a bit later to keep pace that is okay, but those arrangements need to be made on an individual basis with the student and instructor. We do not supply any food for this project, so they would need to make sure that they have that covered during that time as well.
If you have any lapidary or jewelry making stuff laying around that you would donate or allow us to use, that also would be fantastic. Same applies for leather, antler (deer or elk) or wood based things (even some great old growth reclaimed items would be of use). Any woodworking finishing supplies happily accepted. If students are going to something very specific, and need specialty supplies for that, they will need to plan on purchasing those and bringing them to the project—the fee itself covers basic materials to make a most projects but cannot cover specialty items that double the budget for that expense.
Transportation per student: None provided to town
Supplies per student: TBD (see above)
Fees per student: $300.00
Food per student: Need to bring a lunch/snack daily