Tag Archives: instructions

Charmed, I’m Sure!

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Professor Flitwick is going to be thrilled, because this post is all about charms! When we learned that Malaysia, one of our awesome high school summer interns, was a huge Harry Potter fan, we just knew this kit was hers to test! Accio bracelet!

The “Harry Potter Clay Charms” kit by Klutz is intended for ages 8+ and retails for about $25. Contents include an instructional manual, 7 types of clay, a sculpting tool, a mini marker, a bracelet and hardware, a small bottle of glaze, and a paper display stand that looks like the Hogwarts Express.

The instructional manual was particularly good, chock full of full color photos, ideas, and instructions for making up to 29 characters, objects, and creatures from the famous series. I will now turn the post over to Malaysia, and don’t miss the interview with her at the end of the post. Take it away, Malaysia!

Upon opening this kit, I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of materials and inspiration provided to make these charms! The booklet gave great tips on handling the clay, tips on making shapes, and even color mixing for certain shades. As for the clay itself, the quantity for each color ranges, with blue being the least, and black and gold having the most. I’d suggest letting the clay sit out for a few minutes at room temperature to soften it a bit before handling, but it wasn’t too hard to use.

The first charm I tried my hand at was Hermione Granger, and after twenty minutes spent on her hair alone, I was regretting my decision. While she was the only human character I tried, I think it’s safe to assume the others would be of similar difficulty. There were a lot of components to the human characters, so save them for last – or first – depending on your level of patience.

Most of the other charms were fairly easy, and seem fit for the hands of someone 8 and above. Aside from the mandrake, the rest of the charms were quite simple and easy to make presentable, or resemble the photos from the book in some way. I’d recommend working with darker colors first, then progressing to the lighter ones, because once they mix…there’s no undoing it! Also, some of the coloring can rub off onto your workspace or your fingers.

Back to the dreaded Mandrake: while adorable and misleadingly simple, it’s actually quite hard to get right! Turns out, it’s a bit of a challenge to make balls of clay look effortlessly perfect as this plant. I tried using the clay shaping tool provided with the kit for a bit of assistance, but I wasn’t too successful. By this point, there was a fair bit of clay stuck onto the blade, which was stubbornly difficult to remove. The other tools (marker, charm hoops, and glaze) were simple and easy to use. Dr. Dana cooked the charms in her oven, I glazed them, and then I attached them to the bracelet:

Overall, this charm kit has earned a ⅘ star rating in Muggle terms. It’s hard not to have fun trying to perfectly recreate these beloved icons in clay form, or even just to laugh at your mistakes! So, in wizarding terms, I’ll have to give this an E in their O.W.Ls for Exceeding Expectations!

We absolutely loved having Malaysia in the office this summer, laughing and talking about Potter. So naturally, I couldn’t let her go without asking a few Potter-related questions…

What House are you?

Slytherin, proudly.

What’s your favorite book in the series and why?

Half-Blood Prince. With Voldemort really coming back, it’s a bit funny (and relatable) to see Harry and the other students balancing their teenage lives while also trying to plan on defeating He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. On a smaller note, I think it’s one of the first times we see some vulnerability in the haughtier characters like Draco, which really just puts it into perspective that this magical, whimsical world we all love is going to take a darker turn.

Which character do you associate with the most and why?

It’s probably cliché, but Hermione Granger. I can be a bit of a know-it-all at times, even when it seemingly backfires. And even to this day, one of my worst fears is getting a bad grade…or worse, expelled.

Which charm in this kit speaks to you the most, and why?

I liked the Deathly Hallows charm the most, it’s an instantly recognizable sign of the Harry Potter universe, without being too elaborate or difficult.

Chicka Chicka Classic

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Climb little alphabet, climb! You know those letters, you know that coconut tree, and you know this beloved book. We added a simple dynamic pull string effect to an iconic classic, and the results were boom-tastic!

We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, written by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault; illustrated by Lois Ehlert (Simon & Schuster, 1989). The alphabet letters are feeling playful as they race and scamper up the coconut tree. But as it gets more and more crowded, they discover it’s not all fun and games!

You’ll need:

  • 1 paper towel tube
  • 1 small box (ours was 4″ x 4″ x 2″, but you can cut down a square tissue box)
  • Brown and green construction paper
  • 6 wood or foam beads
  • String
  • 3 wooden letters (paper works too!)
  • 3 small paperclips
  • 3 brown pom-poms
  • Scissors and tape for construction
  • Markers for decorating
  • Hot glue

First, the coconut tree! Wrap your paper towel tube in brown construction paper, then add green construction paper fronds to the top. Hot glue brown pom-pom “coconuts” under the fronds, then hot glue the finished tree to the top of a small box.

Next, hot glue 3 foam or wood beads to the top of the tree. Then thread 3 individual pieces of string through each bead:

Tie one end of the string to a bead, and the other end to a small paperclip. Next, decorate your letters with markers. We used leftover wood letters from this project, but paper works just as well. Slide the letter onto the paperclip, then pull the bead to watch it climb the tree!

You might ask – why not just permanently tie the letter to the string? You could definitely do that. But we wanted the kids to have multiple interchangeable letters (conveniently stored in the box base of the tree). This way, they can follow along with the story, and send different letters up the tree as they’re mentioned in the story!

Stained Glass Stories

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Color and concept came together at Stained Glass Stories, our most recent community event! It was connected with our current exhibit, “Once Upon New Times: Reimagining Children’s Classics.” In the exhibit, you’ll find old tales presented in new (and sometimes very unusual) formats. We decided to play with that idea and distill a famous book or character into a single image created in stained glass.

Our event featured six original windows, a mini project for kids, playful light tables, and a little peek at the glass art of the University Chapel. We were also delighted to host artist Karen Caldwell from Sunflower Glass Studio. Read more about Karen (including an interview!) towards the end of the post.

We’ll start with our window gallery, which featured The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Lowly the Worm in his apple car, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, The Rainbow Fish, and Puss in Boots.

Five of the windows were drawn by talented artist (and Scheide Librarian and Assistant University Librarian for Special Collections) Eric White. The one exception was the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom window. That was me! Since working with real glass was out of the question, we used Gallery Glass brand non-toxic window paint ($20 for a pack of 8 basic colors) and imitation non-toxic leading ($14 a bottle). Instead of glass sheets, we used acrylic, which was lighter weight and much safer. A 12″ x 16″ acrylic sheet runs about $5 each on Amazon.

To create the windows, we enlarged Eric’s original drawings, printed them on 11″ x 17″ paper, then traced them onto the acrylic with Sharpies. Next came the window paint, and after that dried, the leading. Here you can see the windows in progress…

Another terrific thing about using acrylic is that you can drill holes in it. On event day, we used self-adhesive hooks, fishing line, and S-hooks to hang the windows.

A few words about the window paint and leading. Yes, window paint is technically paint, but it is thin and sometimes requires multiple layers. We found it works best if you skip brushes all together and squeeze the paint directly onto the surface in a thick layer. And the imitation leading can be fairly viscous. So get ready for some serious squeezing.

Because of cost and mess, we couldn’t give kids individual bottles of window paint. So we came up with a plan for our mini window project that worked really well. At the event, kids received a 5×7 foam carrying/drying tray (125 for $19 on Amazon), a 5×7 acrylic window (20 for $13 on Amazon), a small color palette (8 for $20 on Amazon), six Qtip “paintbrushes,” and a color menu.

The paper menu correlated with an acrylic menu we hung by the window, so kids could see how the colors appear when they are dry. At the event, they could choose up to 6 colors.

The color menus further correlated with paint bottle holders I made out of box tops and paper cups. This helped me and Katie locate colors fast, and also kept the bottles upright.

Kids then took everything to worktables where Sharpies were waiting in bins. They used the Sharpies to draw on the acrylic, colored it in with the paint, then took it to the drying tables. Our system totally worked…we had ZERO paint spills or accidents and the kids were really delighted with the little color palettes.

For caregivers who didn’t want to navigate paint, we made small copies of four of the custom windows, and had a coloring table with washable markers.

But in an interesting twist, some folks brought the coloring sheets over to the worktables and traced them onto their little windows! Below you can see a gallery of some window art, including tributes to Eric White’s fabulous creations!

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We couldn’t have a stained glass event without mentioning the beautiful Princeton University Chapel, which is not only one of the largest campus chapels in the world, it also houses some truly stunning stain glass windows. Katie put together a display honoring “The Poetry Window,” by Rowan and Irene LeCompte, which features the likenesses of Virgil, Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, Blake, Eliot, and Dickinson!

The surprise runaway event hit, however, were the light tables. These were 3 LED light tracing pads we purchased on Amazon. We bought large 11″ x 16″ pads, which cost $40 each, but there are definitely smaller cheaper one available. The light pads were paired with translucent shapes and tiles (about $9 – $13 a set, depending on the style), Katie also spotted a super cool pack of 12 transparent geodes (Amazon, $25).

I know the figures I quoted above can be budget-busting, but we did purchase the light table supplies for use at future events and programs. We’ve already rolled them out at our baby social hour, and plan to bring them to community events as well. EVERYONE loves these. Even adults!

The grand finale at the event was Karen Caldwell from Sunflower Glass Studio. She generously displayed her works, tools, did live demos, and chatted about glass techniques from the Middle Ages to modern day! Below is an interview with her, interspersed with photos of her event display.

Hi Karen! Please tell us about yourself!

I have been working in glass for almost 50 years, creating my business Sunflower Glass Studio in 1978. I came to my love of prisms and beveled glass as a young child, amazed of the rainbows passing through beveled glass in the movie Pollyanna. When I started designing glass in the early 80’s, one of the first investments we did was to purchase a beveling machine, to create spectacular windows.

How did you come to work with stained glass?

Through my college studies of art and horticulture, I worked in several different areas of employment, always doing work with my hands. It was a logical move when I secured a job assembling large Tiffany-style hanging shades, and then started free-lancing my designs back to the company. Within a few years, my partner, and then husband Geoff stated working with me in the glass studio. Throughout the decades, we adapt styles, techniques and skills to doing many types of glass fabrication, in the cold and warm methods of glass (stained glass, beveled glass, painted glass and fused glass).

How many step are involved in the creation of a window?

There are generally four to five distinct steps in creating a window: designing; selection of glass; cutting each piece of glass; soldering or leading the pieces together; final finishing steps.

What is the most difficult part of your craft?

The most difficult part of creating a window is the designing. The balance of a piece, and the color combinations are all the most important parts in the piece. From there it is mainly a matter of creating a stained glass puzzle into a window.

Do you have a favorite piece, and why?

My favorite form of glass is my newest art form – fused glass. I love working on my flower designs and trying to create a two-dimensional flower that appears the be
3-D. The fused glass botanicals that I create gives me must more freedom in the design aspect, compared to stained glass designs. Since I make each botanicals part in thin wafers, then compose the design and through a long kiln-firing to bond the pieces to a base glass, I do not need to be concerned with the background pieces. In stained glass, I always need to make sure the positive and negative pieces are cut-able. In fused glass, I just need to make sure the windows are balanced and flow.

Many thanks to artists Karen Caldwell and Eric White for contributing your incredible skills to the event. We appreciate you so much!