Jewelry Making with Teen Boys at Orion Shelter

Of all my jewelry-making workshops at The HOME Project, the one I was most unsure about was at Orion Shelter.

I had already seen how quickly creativity took over at Little Pugad, where the younger children ignored my plans and invented their own necklaces, bracelets and key rings. But I wasn’t sure the teenage boys at Orion would have any interest in sitting down with boxes of beads and charms.

I was wrong.

Once we spread everything out, the boys began looking through the materials and figuring out what they wanted to make. They chose their own colors, beads and designs, putting combinations together that I never would have thought of myself.

Before long, the hesitation I had felt about bringing jewelry making to a group of teenage boys seemed unnecessary. They were engaged in their creations and, when they finished, they proudly put them on.

At each shelter, I had arrived with the same basic supplies, but the workshops never looked the same. The children and teens made them their own.

At Orion, I learned something else too. I had been worried that I had chosen an activity the boys wouldn’t like. In doing so, I was making an assumption about them before I had even given them the opportunity to decide for themselves.

All I really needed to do was put the materials on the table and see what happened.