Our Design Your Own Jewelry Workshops are held in the most unusual of places. About once a month, we hold these fun sessions at the Cole Harbor Heritage Farm Museum. The overview picture below is deceiving because it looks rural but it is not. The city grew and eventually surrounded this 200 year old farm. There is a subdivision beyond the trees and behind where the photographer stood is a busy road lined with large stores.



The site is now managed by the Cole Harbour Rural Heritage Society which strives to preserve the area's agricultural and natural heritage. The museum receives little in the form of government subsidies and thus "relies heavily on community support, volunteers and visitors' donations." Our workshops help in this support as the entrance fees charged goes directly to the farm museum.



The farm museum runs a wonderful tea room service during the warm months of the year. They serve the most delicious lunches and teas at their Rose and Kettle Tea Room (above) in Harris House (below left). But when the tea room is closed for the winter, we get the full benefit of the long sunlit room.



In the summer time, Debbie and I run the more informal craft sessions in Giles House (above right) right amongst all the farmhouse artifacts! Giles House provides a fascinating look of how a farm family lived centuries ago. There is a fireplace for cooking, the ceiling beams are axe-hewn and the staircase to the tiny upstairs bedroom is very narrow and steep - no building codes in those days!





So now you know what our workshop site is like. We all have a tremendous amount of fun. Here are some pictures from a workshop not too long ago. Many of the beaders were from a local Red Hat Society group hence the tea room was awash with red and purple! Thanks Donna, the Queen of this Red Hat group for a couple of the photos.

Debbie and I were amused with the "deer in the headlights" look on many of the faces when I mentioned their beginner designs would be posted on the internet. But they all did well and the end results, like always, were amazing. As you can see from the pictures, they had a ball making their one of a kind jewelry.





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The Beading Gem's Journal

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