How Its Made

I love shows about how things are made. It always boggles my mind just how much work goes into making something as simple as bubble gum or sewing needles. Since I've been busy, busy, busy making necklaces for the spring tour I thought I'd do my own rendition of "How's It Made"~which may or may not be interesting to you.

The MM guys are kind enough to let me sell a line of jewelry inspired by their songs at their concerts. I've been doing it for a few years now. The necklaces are not heirloom quality pieces, but I have a lot of fun making them and they seem to sell well at the shows (maybe because they're cheaper than a t-shirt?)

I currently have six designs. Here are two examples, the oldest and the newest:

So here's the process:

First, I print the necklace design on ShrinkyDink paper. That's right...ShrinkyDinks. This is before...

Then I bake them for about 2 minutes in the oven. The plastic shrinks to 1/3 its original size and becomes 9 times thicker. This is after...

Next I color each piece and bake them a second time for the glaze to cure. (Not too many details here...sorry..."trade secrets")

Finally, I assemble the necklaces and package them. The insert usually includes some of the song lyrics, with the exception of this one. The new album that comes out in May is called "The Generous Mr. Lovewell" and the concept is that the fictitious Mr. Lovewell goes around showing the love of Christ through his deeds of service and encouraging us to do the same. Bart says,

“For some of us, it means that we need to put hands and feet on our ideology and rhetoric. For others, it means that we need to continue in doing well, but to not stop there. We need to let people know why we are called to make a difference. Our prayer is that this album would mobilize the body of Christ to encourage people in word and deed.”

(In that vein, we are donating $1 of the proceeds from each Mr. Lovewell necklace to the orphan care ministry in Peru.)

Well, that's about all there is to it...not nearly as impressive as watching how bubble gum is made...