Crystal Princess Class by Diane Cook ADORN ME March 2, 2010

Take My Hand... that is what her card says. And take your hand is literally what teacher Diane Cook does. I am so honored to call this sweet gal my friend as well as my teacher. Diane is taught my first class at the ADORN ME ART EVENT in Houston, Texas & what a great start for my line up of classes. Below is my finished piece which actually is a take off of Crystal Dreams which was the class Diane taught Sunday (I had gone home on Saturday). My piece(you can see a full view of it later in this post) is laid next to the card that came in our hand out kit from Diane. Being the Queen of Bling that I am, this class appealed to me on first site. When you walked into the classroom the first thing you saw was this beautiful vintage mannequin covered in beautiful Crystal necklaces of all shapes & sizes(you can click on any of my photos to enlarge them).

And another view of some of Diane's work displayed on the counter. Notice the necklace she has laid on the vintage cigar box is similar to her piece that was featured in Belle Amoire Magazine.

And this photo shows some of the "LOOT" that Diane brought in for us to purchase for our necklace if we so chose to "shop" her treasure trove! Did I????? OH YEAH!!!!!! We won't be tellin "Honey" about that check. The vintage rhinestone piece in my necklace above came from here. THANK YOU Diane for bringing all of this to share!

This is a shot of her "Mani" dressed in both the Crystal Princess & Crystal Dreams necklace.

The Crystal princess is the shorter necklace & Crystal Dreams is the long but, more simple (simple meaning not as many piece's in the necklace not meaning not drop dead gorgeous) piece. Can you see the two different ones? Or do they look like one necklace to you?

A close up of Crystal Princess.

And two examples of different Crystal Dreams.

Close ups of above.

And here is sweet Diane just telling us all about it.

And the class in close attention to her using the bench block with her rubber hammer.

A little different look of my finished Crystal Dreams.

And below is the beginnings of my Crystal Princess necklace. I decided I needed longer head pins to connect these jewels to my chain. I learned to make my own head pins in another class so that is a perfect reason for me to stop right here & have this to work on here at home. I am a very goal orientated person & I hate it when I don't finish a piece in a class that I take. To NOT finish a piece in a class like this is the NORMAL thing. Usually students go to learn technique & then finish the project (yes, you are supposed to finish) at home. So the fact that I had a piece finished & I got to wear it at the Event & show it to you finished made me a HAPPY CAMPER!

Now, a little bit about the Event... This was an all jewelry event put on by Linda & Chuck who also do Art Unraveled. This was the first time for this event & they brought in big name teachers & top artists. This is the first large event like this that I had ever attended so I did not know what to expect. WOW is all I can say. Start saving you $$$$$$$$$$$ & vacation time for next year if you are a jewelry kind of girl. Go to the button on my side bar & see the big names that were in attendance here. I did learn that although I find the work of people like Thomas Mann, Keith Lo Bue, Richard Sally, Melissa Manley (the most amazing ROOMIE around) & others that do METAL WORK amazing... it is not for me. I have very double jointed fingers. Twisting & working that heavier metal is NOT something I CAN do. So, I can enjoy it from a far & do my more feminine girlie designs that I tend to LOVE best anyway. Stay tuned because I will be sharing other classes & things from the event in the post's to come. Thanks for joining me for your personal trip to ADORN ME. HUGS!