Magic Made by Hand

RONNIE: I think a toy that everyone seems to have made were the Enchanted Jewels. Who didn’t want at jewel?! But it was the manner in which each of you designed and crafted your unique magical jewel that truly inspires us. I want to tell you the story behind my set of jewels. You can learn more about my story in our about page, but for now let’s talk about the wonderful memories I have of my grandpa and I. Grandpa Joe was always keeping busy! I think it was more of a retreat from Grandma, but you would often find him in his work garage outside. Inside the garage there was a treasure trove of artistic pieces that he crafted by hand. He loved to paint by number, and he would make wooden frames to showcase the artwork. It was combining the paint by number and the woodcarving that gave me the idea of how to create the jewel set. One summer we started with the basic Enchanted Jewels – Sun Stone, Moon Stone, and Heart Stone… and it just grew from there! I first used either a trading card or a still image from the series to draw out what the jewel looked like. I transferred my illustration onto a block of wood. Grandpa took the piece of wood and delicately, and in the instance of the snowflake and some others, very intricately cut out the shape. Then using the vast selection of acrylic paints, I painted each Jewel to be almost the exact color from the show. To the Enchanted Jewels, I used a glitter paint coating to add an extra layer of “magic” to the jewel.

And we didn’t stop with the Enchanted Jewels, or even the Crown Jewels or Wizard Jewels! Grandpa even helped me make Merlin’s staff and the One Jewel! We never did make a Jewel Box though… I wanted to. Grandpa also helped me make a wooden Crystal Carriage for my favorite Tamara doll. He measured the dolls to ensure that they would fit inside of the carriage, we designed a heart door and heart finial for the top of the carriage. And from mom’s sewing bin, I found red cloth to use as curtains. I used Ninjara, the white snow leopard from the Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic doll line, to pull the carriage in place of the bear. Ironically enough, along with my favorite line of 90’s Disney Princess dolls, Greg helped to create and design the Tenko dolls too. It is really fascinating how so many of these toys and shows are interconnected!

Another thing that Ronnie made were “official” VHS covers and stickers for the VHS tapes that we recorded in SLP, with one season per of episodes per tape. (Note the long run time on each tape!)

Chris had this to say:

When I was young, I didn’t get all that many toys, especially action figures. But for Christmas and Birthdays I would often get a Lego set. My favorites were those from the Castle subline, which could often double for mythical adventures, including of course Jewel Riders. I had a set of riders I made from horses and random people parts and armor to match each of the six Jewel Riders. They would have lots of adventures beyond the show, and later sets I asked for would fit in neatly with the Jewel Riders-themed play.

Friend of the site Lisa also had homemade memories to share with us…

I have good news!  My mom came through on finding the picture of me dressed as Tamara.  It’s a little embarrassing because it’s a costume I made entirely by myself when I was 8 or 9, so it isn’t very good.  I did buy and cut up the fabric for the top half, but the skirt was just an old girl scout skirt that I cut to look closer to the shape of Tamara’s.  The arm bands were made of construction paper, and I had my posterboard Heart Stone, but you can’t see it very well in the picture since I was trying to pose with my hand on it, so it covers up a lot of it.  It definitely pales in comparison to the costumes I made when I was older and learned how to sew.

Could you also share this one I made of Sofia the First to show how much I’ve progressed as a cosplayer? You don’t have to, but it would be cool to see them next to each other since that was probably the first costume I’ve ever made, and I did a lot more since then and have gotten much better at it.