Heads up -- The July Gem Expo & MetaExpo are on their way...

...soon, soon, soon. Both shows will be held the last weekend in July in Toronto at the downtown Hyatt Regency Hotel on King Street. TWO BALLROOMS full of gems, minerals, crystals, jewellery, findings, holistic and metaphysical practitioners... plus plenty of courses by experts in their fields to learn about crystals and jewellery-making.

If you're an absolute beginner to jewellery-making you've come to the right place. I will be teaching the two most basic jewellery-making techniques -- how to open and close a jump ring, and how make two kinds of loops -- on Friday evening, time TBA. Learn to make a rosary chain loop, aka simple loop, and a wrapped loop. Everything flows from this.

You will have a pile of pendants, glass, semi-precious, metal and lava (aromatherapy/diffuser) beads and findings to choose from. Take home a mixed metals and beads necklace and earrings. Materials and class notes are supplied and included in the course cost.

Since I only have a few tools, if you have them, please bring the following four tools. If you need to buy them, the easiest way is to use Michael's 40% and 50% off regular priced item coupons. Generally speaking, pliers and jewellery-making tools are items that rarely if ever go on sale. Hardware store tools and pliers are not suitable, nor are the travel-size sets of small pliers.

Basic jewellery-making tools L to R: Bent nose, chain nose, round nose, and angled flush cutters (with the really pointy ends). Note the pliers with blue handles, those have cushioned, hand-friendly ergonomic handles. The ones in the centre are Michael's "sparkle" pliers. They're fine to use, but upgrading those is on my shopping list.

Go to The Gem Expo website or The MetaExpo website, subscribe and get immediate notification when the classes are posted. One admission gets you into both shows.

Got questions about this and my other classes? Email me here.  Thanks for stopping by!