Valentine's Day DIY activities: Make charm bracelets, blown-glass art and more
Michelle Russo holds a custom embroidered sweatshirt of her dog Bentley at Hitch in Babylon on Jan. 19. Credit: Morgan Campbell
Keepsakes created by family members, partners and friends often hold a special place in our heart and even our closet or jewelry box.
For Valentine’s Day and beyond, partners, peers, parents with their kids and pet owners can create do-it-together gifts as teams. Make everything from glass-blown pendants to personal story bracelets and customized doodles on sweatshirts.
Rebecca Dolber, owner Rebecca Dolber R.E.D. jewelry studio in Center Moriches, listens to couple’s stories in her shop. If partners would like to create bracelets for each other, Dolber points them toward stones and charms that are reminders of how they met and where they want to go with their lives. “When you imbue the meaning of something into a bracelet, I think it brings it to a whole new level. People walk out of the store having experienced making jewelry together, which is invaluable,” says Dolber.
Here are three do-it-together activities with a lot of heart and meaning behind the creations:
Make blown-glass art at Long Island Glass
194 Morris Ave., unit 24, Holtsville
Tracy and Brian Plona, of Rocky Point, make pendants during a glassblowing class at Long Island Glass in Holtsville. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
Sign up for a glassblowing workshop and studio co-owners Joe Pecoraro and Brian Gonzales will guide you as you make glass pendants, bracelets or earrings. The class begins by using fire to liquefy glass to room temperature, then shaping the glass any way you’d like before it hardens. During the process, attendees will work with incredible colors. “We encourage partners to make something with their loved ones. While they’re making pendants, they’ll feed off each other’s energy as they’re figuring things out and getting to the next step. They can work with their partner’s favorite colors and trade at the end,” says Pecoraro.
Cost $165 per person for a roughly two-hour class
More info 631-730-7074, longislandglass.net
Create custom bracelets at Rebecca Dolber R.E.D.
426 Main St., Center Moriches
Dolber welcomes those who want to translate memories, milestones and personal mantras into meaningful pieces of jewelry. Choose from thousands of charms ranging from penguins to coffee cups to the Eiffel Tower and passports. Combine those charms with spiritual stones such as garnets, which represent profound love, or river stones, which remove obstacles.
Cost Charms begin at $5; Open noon to 6 p.m. Saturdays or book appointment during the week
More info 631-513-7768
Print your creation on clothing at Hitch
37 E. Main St., Babylon
Vice Gaglio, 8, from Babylon, and his father, Joseph DeBello, work on a Valentine's Day drawing to be made into a print at Hitch in Babylon on Jan. 19. Credit: Morgan Campbell
Do-it-together highlights offered at this shop include fingerprints of loved ones on pendants. Parents often bring their children into the shop, stamp all their thumbprints and place those prints on heart-shaped necklaces, notes owner Joe DeBello. Alternatively, you can turn a mold of your dog’s paw print or nose into a keychain.
As gifts, families can draw doodles in the shop and have those drawings printed or embroidered onto sweatshirts. Parents and kids can design and print separate drawings on their shirts, then swap. Partners can print or embroider their silhouettes, favorite song lyrics or love notes onto clothing, mugs or tumblers.
Cost Prices start at $30 for a custom tumbler
More info 516-519-2494, hitchlongisland.com
