Life in Watercolor: Fingerprint Bead Party!

I have wanted to have this party since summer....I have planned and analyzed the best way to make it happen for months...It was wonderful! Almost 30 of us made Fingerprint Bead Jewelry, sharing our prints and fellowshipping for about 4 hours.

Although the project is pretty simple, what gets complicated is the coordination of how many beads per person as you don't know who will want to have who's bead and what type of jewelry they will make. Some chose beads based on color and others on who made them. I thought at least one person might make a piece of jewelry with just their own prints to give as a gift, but I don't think anyone did.

To help plan, our family made fingerprint bead necklaces for a few relatives and ourselves. Even my husband gave us his prints :D These necklaces above are made from our family prints...

We planned the party in 3 phases... the bead printing phase, bead finishing phase, and the jewelry making phase.

Bead Printing Phase:

Use 0.15 oz of black Sculpey clay (yes, we weighed each bead);
Roll it into a sphere; Insert a jewelry eyepin (the ones with the loop on one side) through the center
Rub PearlEx Pigments on your index finger and thumb. Press the sphere into a flattened circle (see photos) and carefully remove your fingers. You should have left a nice clean imprint; We had both series 1 and 2 of the PearlEx pigments. I had everyone write their name under the color they chose;
Place the beads into a glass dish on an index card (we put names on the cards to keep them identified);
Bake according to the clay's directions;
Cool the beads.

Bead Finishing Phase:

Use gloss varnish to make the beads shiny (this is optional);
Dry with a hairdryer if you are in a hurry -- we were :D
Cut the straight end of the eyepin and make a loop on that side to match the other side.
While some of us were working on this part, Alexis taught many of the ladies how to make paper boxes (pictured at the top)... Everyone was able to take their beads in their paper box to our jewelry making stations set up with all the findings and a wide array of beads.

Jewelry Making Phase:

Some connected the beads with just a ring, adding a pendant is beautiful...(right)
Others added beads in between the fingerprints...(left)
Imagination -- most anything goes as these black beauties are simply magical!