Let me just start off by saying that I am a broke college student. There. I’ve cleared the air. As a broke college student, it doesn’t matter how many hours I work at my part-time job, I still have a hard time making enough money for holiday gifts. I have a large family and a great group of friends, so it stretches my budget a little thin. Everyone knows that as a college student, I can’t give them great gifts, but it makes me feel bad. So, in the fall semester I took a one-unit jewelry making class. The professor/ visiting instructor taught me know to use a jewelers saw to make really cool pieces of jewelry. We also learned a little bit about metal smithing and how to integrate that into jewelry. Since it was a class, we didn’t have the best materials to work with, but it gave us the experience with working with certain jewelry making supplies.
Right about the time of mid-semester, the instructor gave us a bunch of projects to complete. She asked us to come up with five or six gift ideas for the holidays. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. I was able to use the schools resources to create personalized gifts for six people: that knocks off a huge list of people. I was able to make about three amazing pairs or earrings, a necklace with a metal pendant, and two bracelets. Whew! It was a lot of work, but I’m proud of them.