Silversmithing
One of the things I've always wanted to do when in Bali is make my own silver jewelry. But when I have traveled to Bali, I have either come with people who weren't interested in doing it or I spent all my money on baskets so I couldn't take any classes (eek, I loooove me some baskets).
Once we decided to move here though, it went to the top of my to-do list and gosh-darned, I was determined to make the boys like it too. I found the Pondok Pekak Library online who provides a slew of classes. And the best part is, you only need to give them 30 min. notice and they will pull the class together for you. So its more private, and definitely more "by the seat of our pants" that really is the Larsen style. So after driving for an hour (we didn't get lost!) we parked and headed in. We were even early!
One of the things I love about the tropics.... ENORMOUS beautiful green plants. This one was fantastic so of course we had to get a picture. And like I said, we were early, so we had the time.
One of the tricky things about a class like this is knowing what to make. When the sky is the limit, we tend to not even get off the ground. So the boys had to pull ideas from what they have been into lately. Kai chose this Ninjago image from his favourite character, who is, wait for it... KAI! He had been making cardboard cutouts for bracelets just the day before, so it was an easy choice. And now he has one in silver around his neck. Life is fun like that!
So you start out by drawing out your image and cutting it from a silver sheet or bending your item from silver rope.
Then you heat it up to weld the parts together. If you have those parts, that is. And hammer it out to make the shape you want. Cache made a ring and is forming the band.
You can personalise it by stamping something into it. Levi put his name on the back.
After you have it all together and its been soldered it needs to be boiled in a little concoction of water, lime and salt. This takes the black tarnish off of it. (Hhmmmm, I wonder if this would work on my other jewellery?) The lady used the soldering flame to boil our pieces in this little aluminium bowl. It started boiling quick. Like a minute or two.
And then when your happy with that you display, display display! Levi made a little Black Panther necklace with his name in the back. Kai made a necklace pendant of his Kai character. Cache made a $ ring. (its his calling card) and Ronin formed a ring from his initials. I made a ring too, but of course didn't get a photo. But its pretty cool. You can trust me on that.
One of the things about the library is they also throw in a food and drink at the end of your class. And they made the best Mee Goreng I've had so far (fried noodles). The kids weren't crazy about the watermelon juice but I think they are crazy for not liking it. It was lovely and refreshing!
We had a fun time, but some of the steps were over the kids abilities since they have never done it before. This was a bit frustrating to Cache because he would love to sit for hours and figure it out but the instructor would step in and just do it for him. He wasn't loving that. But it was nice not to be completely left to our own devices because nothing would have accomplished without her! I would have loved more vocal instruction and information on how to do things, but her English wasn't fantastic and of course we had a time limit. I think we will be doing it again but might try a different place to see what kind of experience we can have. I think I might have one or two boys who would like to keep going and learn more about it. But so far, it was a great way to get our feet wet! (and eat Mee Goreng too.)
The library offers so many other classes. Wood carving, dancing, music, cooking, and many more. Plus its a library too! It made me wish for just a moment that we lived closer to Ubud. But we do also love the beach so were happy where we are. There are just so many amazing things to experience in Bali. And so far, we are liking what we see!
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