And a good time was had by all....

Well, I hope so anyways. I had fun! :)

Yesterday I went to Art As You Like It in St. Cloud with a group of friends. It was really fun, and I highly recommend it. You can paint pottery, with ornaments starting at five dollars, or make glass pendants and earrings, also starting around five dollars. (Do pay extra for the large bail tho- it is worth it to be able to change necklaces!)

We went to make pendants. As two of our group were from out of town, I volunteered to make necklaces to go with them and mail them after they are fired. It was fun to see how different personalities go about pendant making. You have a large selection of bits and pieces and rods and glass dust to choose from, plus you can decide what size you want the base to be. I will take pictures our finished pendants when I get them, and you can see several different techniques. Jodi used a metal butterfly on hers, with a colored base and clear glass over the top. Amy did the "frit", which was interesting. She outlined the bases with the super thin rods of glass that you can snap to length (stringers) and then painted liquid glue in the center and filled it with jagged clear tiny pieces of glass. To finish, she sprinkled colored glass dust over the top. I am really curious to see how it comes out! I didn't get a good look at Elizabeth's, but I think she took clear bases and arranged a few colored shards on top of them. Mine was the most complicated looking. (but, as usual, I was first finished- not cuz I am great, but I don't spend time thinking about being creative- lol, I just do something!) I started with a clear base and did a 3x3 "9 patch" of aqua and lime green. Then I put 3 lime dots on the aqua squares in a diagonal line. (I hope to put the bail on the corner so it is a diamond vs. a square.) Then I added pieces of the stringers in bright yellow, making an x on the center square. I was hoping it would look kinda plaid-ish.

I went in thinking I was going to do purple and pink... but saw the finished colors of the aqua and lime and had to do it. :)

The magic happens when they fire it, so you can't be sure what it will look like until you pick it up!

We were the only ones in the store, so we could laugh and talk and hog all the glass and had a great time. :)

Don't forget to take time out to be creative, have fun, and just hang out with friends!

Anne