Third Grade Thursday Super Bling!

Sometimes I do things purely for my own amusement, like have third graders make some serious bling:

It's all related to my Egypt unit, and this that I found in the back of my cabinet:

Which after a google/Amazon review I found out isn't made in the turquoise color anymore and right on the package it says not to mix while eating, drinking or smoking, which means it was probably printed in, what, 1983????  
Egypt paste comes as a powder that you mix with water.  After making something with it, you let it dry and fire to cone 06, and it self-glazes.  Sounds great, except--not easy to mix.  If I do it again, I'd mix it a week or so in advance, because the consistency of it was much better after a few days.
I had borrowed some molds from the art museum, so I had my third graders squish some into the molds (and immediately wash their hands).

I learned after a few times to pop them out before they dried for less breakage:

When I fired them I was AMAZED that it actually worked! The top shelf was all shiny and turquoise and wonderful . . . not so much for the bottom shelf, where some of them only glazed on the bottom (?!) Not sure why that happened, but I had more than enough for our rings:

To make the rings themselves, I made around 90 elastic circles and glued small wooden circles (that I had bought in a mixed bag for another project, this was the size too small for the other project) to them:

Then I gave each student a square (about 1.5" x 2-3") of gold sticker paper that came in a remnant box (if you've never ordered a remnant box, you totally should, they're awesome!).  I had them fold their gold papers in half, gold to the inside, draw a large shape with Sharpie (I told them to touch every side, but you know if you're experienced that only about half followed that direction), cut it out, peel the backing and stick them together.  I then hot glued their shape to the elastic they chose that fit them (there was a variety of sizes), and hot glued the [fired] Egypt paste amulet to the ring.  Students then got two glitter glues to add even more shiny:

I used apple shipping trays for them to dry--
had the students write their name on the tray.

Glitter glue takes FOREVER to dry (or overnight, depending on your viewpoint).

This project really does fulfill some curriculum/state requirements (like making a wearable piece of art or jewelry), but I do love me some 8 or 9 year old with huge honkin' blingy rings!