Our open day on Saturday was a massive success, raising nearly 400 pounds for the NSPCC - 48 pounds of which came from the children's jewellery making we ran. Harriet and I taught the children how to make a selection of items using brightly coloured beads and retro hair accessories! Harriet donated all the materials and all the money went straight to the charity.
Here is our first prize winner; Melissa aged 12, who made three items - a tiara, a wired bracelet and a pair of hair grips. We were so impressed with her highly developed eye for colour. The tiara is quite a tricky project, keeping the wire taught and the beads tightly twisted onto the base. After initially showing her how the construction worked, she finished it off entirely on her own which is fantastic. She chose pink and purple helicopter beads and elegant pearls for a Lady Gaga inspired design! She also made this pair of hair grips and reinvented the design to create a butterfly shape and the end result was gorgeous! Again, she chose a lovely selection of beads that worked fantastically together. She won a sketchbook and drawing set exactly the same the designers here at Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design use, so hopefully we'll have a jewellery designer in the making!
We were only going to have one prize winner on the day but both Harriet and I were blown away by the advanced skill of little Livvy, aged 3, so just had to award a second prize too!
She made this lovely 'upsy-daisy' hair band with pale and bright pink beads and also a lilac and orange elastic bracelet. Unlike most children her age, she made conscious decisions about the beads she choose and mostly stuck to one colour in a row – perhaps another future jewellery designer! We were so impressed with her remarkable colour sense and manual dexterity at such a young age, and particularly when she concentrated on these pieces for nearly an hour! She clearly loved it.
We had such a lovely time and the children seemed to really enjoy themselves too. Here are some more of the best pieces and the children hard at work!
Jodie
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