Crafting Prehistoric Jewelry

When and Where?
On Saturday August 7th starting at 10:00am We will craft our pottery under the cool ramadas at the Willow Lake pithouse sites at Willow Lake. We will first meet in the Parking lot at the Heritage Park Zoo. This zoo will come up on GPS when using Google or Apple Maps to navigate.

What to Expect
After taking this class you will have a clear and precise understanding on how to carve shell and argillite. Jeff will first discuss how different prehistoric cultural used shell and argillite to artistically express their religious belief systems. Then students will learn how to select good pieces of argillite and discard bad quality pieces by running simple tests. Each student will carve pieces of argillite and shell to form beads, pendants, and effigies using similar techniques to what the Hohokam used 1,000 years ago. Once each student has their jewelry pieces made, we will string everything together using cotton rope grown locally. During this crafting process, Jeff will guide each student through the entire process so they don't miss a single step. As always, we encourage students to ask questions throughout the workshop.
