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Any suggestions for a good glass jewelry project for a nine-year-old? I will be visiting her, bringing a small kiln. I was thinking we could make many pendant blanks..first making frit balls, then using stringer bits. also a little tiny kiln-carving. any other ideas? thanks in advance.

Many nine year olds can do any project a beginner adult can do, so I wouldn't be limited by the age. Even something as simple as stacking scraps on top of a base piece will be fascinating to this age group. You may find that you have to help a bit with the cutting, especially at first, but it's not unusual for nine year olds to be able to cut glass as well as some adults.

Don't limit yourself to jewelry. One project that goes over well is to cut 3" or 4" squares and have them make coasters. You can just use scraps randomly or, even better, use frit or scraps to create images (like mosaics) or faces on the base tiles. If necessary, you can glue the pieces on, but when we do Christmas ornaments (another nice project) with kids about this age we don't glue, we just let the kids place the pieces in the kiln themselves so they can adjust as necessary.

excellent, Brad. thanks so much!

Nina, I did a party for my neighbor's 10 year old daughter. Had plenty of pendant-sized blanks pre-cut as well as lots of stringer, dichro bits, and frit balls. Gave each girl a little cup of diluted white glue (cheap non-aerosol hairspray works well too) and a toothpick. Placed all the bits in muffin tins, and the blanks on paper plates. They had fun gluing and creating their mini masterpieces, making designs like flowers, bugs, and pizzas on the round blanks. I fired everything to a tack fuse and then attached bails or magnets. I found their attention span was about an hour and a half. Have fun!

fabulous suggestions, Valerie. is anyone surprised you were so prepared? thanks also for the heads up on estimated attention span..that really helps. we will be there three days and I didn't know how much she might be up for. of course, it's mid-summer, and there is the lake to swim in. this is a good project. for her brother, some coasters, I think.

Depending on the age of the brother, I find that boys tend to like to make bugs (you can add copper legs before firing) and monsters (as magnets). Or, kids like to decorate their backpacks, so zipper pulls are fun too.

thanks. the brother is a few years older than her. and is very much into geology. so I am thinking maybe learn about copper/sulphur..bring turquoise and fv frit, let him see what happens. he keeps his rock collection neatly organized on a shelf above his headboard.