Out Of Our Hands is sponsoring a new class in July: Horse Hair Earrings!

As you saw in a previous post, we had a great time learning how to make porcupine quill earrings. You get to see what goes into creating something by hand, plus you go home with a new piece of jewelry.

Here are the details:

Horse Hair Earring Class

Sunday, July 13 from noon to 2 p.m.

at Out Of Our Hands, Emmaus, PA

Class Fee: $45

Please contact me or Out of Our Hands at 610-965-4806 to register.

While we’re on the subject of horse hair, click out the Horse Hair Jewelry tab along the top of the page. I finally added the horse hair earrings to the page so they are available for custom ordering.

Also notice the changes in the product descriptions. Each product is named after a horse I’ve known during my life. In the future I hope to include photos of each of these horses, but given some of them are steeds I met 20-some years ago, I have to do some digging to do.

Remember the days of film cameras? Push the button, advance the film BY HAND. Then wait ages, no eons for the film to get developed and sent back to you in the mail (the anticipation alone, made me stare down the mailbox for days). Then, the big question: are the photos good…no heads cut off or blurriness.

Yup, those were the days before digital cameras and many of my four-legged friends were captured this way. So after I wade through that huge box, I hope to add those critters to the site.

In the meantime, enjoy your summer. I know I am!

The first day of June saw four friends come away from Out of Our Hands with handcrafted pairs of porcupine quill earrings. Above, Melanie and Ann Marie work on gluing and adding the ear wires.

I taught a Porcupine Quill Jewelry Workshop at the Emmaus, PA, store on Sunday, the first of many workshops to come at Out of Our Hands.

Each lady created a unique version of my single quill earrings with stone chips. We had a lot of laughs and learned a little about porcupines and porcupine quillwork while chatting about growing up in the area. Two of the women and I graduated from the same high school. We’re amazed that Emmaus has turned from the “boring” town of our youth to a quaint little place the people come to visit!

Shannon knots the thread before adding ear wires.

Coryn threads the needle for one last pass through the beads.

The women had such a blast, they want to take the horse hair earring class. I will be offering a Horse Hair Earring class at Out of Our Hands, as well, hopefully in July. If you’re interested in learning how to make horse hair earrings, contact me or Out of Our Hands to sign up. I’ll post more about the dates and times as the information becomes available. Click on my events page to find out more.

Proceeds from the raffle go to each of our chosen charities. My charity is Lehigh WildCare Wildlife Education Center. This nonprofit organization is near and dear to my heart as I have volunteered there over the past few years. As a wildlife educator I take non-releasable wild animals out into the public sector to educate people about wildlife and wildlife issues. Hence the red-tailed hawk pictured at left.

I have been involved in wildlife rehabilitation and education since 1996. I’ve worked with all sorts of animals over the years, from herons and owls to squirrels and rabbits to turtles and snakes, but one of my favorites is the red-tailed hawk. This beautiful bird inspired the name for my business. I’ll save the full story of how that came about for some other day.

As you’ve probably noticed by now, I’ve finally made the jump to the blogging world. For those of you, who have been to my web site before, you’ll notice a new and improved web site with blog component, plus a link to my Etsy shop. I’ll have horse hair jewelry, porcupine quill jewelry and fabric items up for sale in Etsy soon!