Heavenly Glow at THE CHURCH

Any time you have a chance to go see Debbie & Shea GO!!!!!!!!!!!! They put on the most amazing Art Events (all events go under the name A GILDED LIFE) in their home (go HERE for a a post about this special place & another event)which is a beautifully restored Church. This is what this heavenly place looks like at night when the lights from within GLOW. The table where we sit to craft sits directly behind those amazing window that Debbie redid herself. The balcony you see through the window on the far left is the same balcony you will see in photos on the inside of The Church. That balcony is actually where they have their amazing studio. Can you imagine being so BLESSED to live & work in this beautiful place? HEAVEN ON EARTH I'M SURE!

This event was a very spur of the moment, special invitation surprise. Kaari Meng of The French General was coming to town to work with MODA FABRICS (she designs for them) & Kaari had called Shea & said "Do you want to do a class" which of course Shea said "YES" There was less than two weeks notice & all was put together. Kaari taught one class & Shea another. Below you see both of these cuties as Kaari is discussing the different tools. See the balcony about their heads? That's the studio.

I had seen Kaari's blog & a number of articles on her in different magazines. But, I didn't know much about her or The French General Store. The store is located in Hollywood. It is only open on Mondays. On one side of the store are all of the fabrics that she has designed or bought in France & sells out of the store. On the other side of the store are containers of all sorts of goodies form making jewelry. Many of these items are vintage. I asked Kaari about buying things from her online & she said she really doesn't sell anything but her kits online. She said she really doesn't want to be a supply house. She LOVES designing necklaces & putting the kits together & she will stick to her true LOVE. She urges us to all come shop with her on a Monday while visiting Los Angeles if we want to purchase different items. She says it is a LOT of fun to see all the goodies she has on hand. Kaari has just written a new book called Treasured Notions.

This is what a Kaari Meng Kit would look like. I had just dumped mine out on my cutting matt. All the little bits & pieces complete with hardware to put it together.

A close up of Kaari. She was so sweet. Very kind & patient as a teacher. We were a lucky group of 12 girls all laughing & creating together with her kind guidance to see us through.

Here is my friend Dana's necklace with the center part put together.

And this is a close up shot of an apron made of some of Kaari's MODA Fabrics that one of the girls made. And the amazing CROWN PILLOW that Stacey made for Shea. Look at the hand work that went into this beauty.

This is a shot of my French General Necklace on my mannequin although it is not finished because I ran out of jump rings. Can you see the two tiny pink pearls on the bottom chain? Well there are about 20 more that need to be added. And there are many more bobbles to hang on the middle chain. In the photo below you can see close up of the top chain that was all put together learning the rosary bead method. Each section had a teal bead, a square pink bead & another teal colored bead all wrapped together & then the next section was assembled & linked to the first. Until we had 7 different sections of 3 separate set of the three beads. In between each set of 3 was a vintage Green Glass Ring. A bit time consuming.

I will try to get to the bead store & pick up some more brass jump rings to complete this next week.

And now for the class that Shea taught... I LOVED THIS CLASS! It is difficult to photograph because it is small, & it is beveled so the light wants to reflect off of it in a crazy glare. But the pendant is a one by one done on beautiful paper by Graphic 45 I had not seen this paper before & I fell in LOVE with it. Click on the name & go to their site. AMAZING STUFF! Anyway, they gave each of us an entire 8 x 8 pad to keep as a gift for the evening. Thank you Shea, Debbie, & Graphic 45!!!!

The pendant then had a TINY pair of wings we cut out followed by many other steps to make is a pearlized beauty. We took a strip of medal & punched our WORD in 2 mm letters. DO YOU KNOW HOW TINY 2mm really is??????? TINY!!!!!! So tiny that the shards of the fine German Glass Glitter stuck in my word. My word was GRACE. When finished it was all set & surrounded by the amazing rhinestone & pearl trim & the beautiful Swavorski Crystal smokey colored drop that Shea had set for each of us. STUNNING don't you think? NOW, THIS is my style of BLING! LOVE IT!

Remember the Twisted Sista necklace I have been working on from ADORN ME? Well, I wasn't happy with the bezel I had for it, I think it is too casual & also it is finished in silver (& nothing else in the necklace is silver) so, I put my new Gilded Life drop on the necklace. What do you think? Hubby doesn't like it. I kind of do & kind of don't. Click on the photo to enlarge it & give me your opinion.

What a fun time we had & a huge THANK YOU to Shea & Debbie for inviting me. Also, for Kaari giving us the opportunity to get to meet her. Check out her book & her site to see more of her goodies. Have a great week.