Kidlet Tutorial
 

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Tips for head:
in Step 2 - Try cased or striped stringer for hair - it looks great!

Step 4 - Poke tilting upward in the corner of each mouth to create a cute, cheeky grin.

Step 6 - Poke downward with a tungsten pick and it will give the kidlet a nose, almost.

Step 7 - After adding black dots for eyes, slightly flatten with a tool

Tips for body:
Step 2 - alternately, you can squish it into a lentil shape or even a cube for more variety.

Step 4 - add one large dot for each hand and two smaller stacked dots for each foot

Step 5 - make sure everything is melted in sufficiently because there is nothing sadder than a kidlet with one foot missing. Trust me on this one. :o)

Congrats! You're done! You now have your very own kidlet! Wire them up on a headpin and you've got yourself a nifty little pendant!

Finished Kidlet:
http://www.loribeads.com/lorikidlet.jpg

If you make them to sell, please be kind and let them know where you learned it! And don't forget to tip your waitress! :biggrin:

Lori, how awesome of you to share!!!! I love your kidlets! (hehe especially the one I have :grin: )

Those are cute Lori! Thanks for taking the time to do this for everyone. :)

You're welcome! I should say that I originally did this tutorial last year and the kidlets have evolved a bit since then. I usually do them with lentil shaped bodies now. And you can get fancy with their outfits, too! Here's some examples:

I think my little girl would love those! If you come do a bead show in portland, or. let us know so I can come check out your stuff in person!

Thanks Misha! I've never been in a bead show but if I'm up there, I will let you know!

Lori, do you always make all the pendants boys?

*ducking*

-Su

Thank you Lori! I treasure my little kidlet that you gave me in Portland at the Gathering. It's hangin from my charm watch. They're such cuties!

pat

I usually don't get into the whole "cute" thing (or much sculptural work at all), but I think this is just the kind of thing I need to work on. A good friend of the family is retiring after 30+ years of teaching kindergarten, and I think a bunch of these made to resemble her final class would be a great gift....

Thanks for the tutorial!

OH LORI !!
I too hate overusing the 'C-word' but those kidlets are sooooooo %^$#@! CUTE !! :D I know a certain MiniMe who will want a couple of those, so thank you very much for that tutorial. You are a sweetie. :)

Thank you Lori....great tutorial! Your kidlets are adorable and I'm dying to try one now. :biggrin:

I have to add my thanks too, my kidlet, is the first thing I wore that I made myself on the torch and I always get compliments about it..I work with kids, so it goes with almost everything i wear...

And almost a year later, I just made another today for a friend..I used the Tab press and I tried to do a plaid body in the school colors...it is still cooking..

Lori,

What glass color do you use for the face??? Also what tool do you use to indent the smile? What type of glass do you use for the hair? Is it a made cane of some sort? Sorry for all the curious questions, I hope you don't mind :-)

Melanie

Hi Melanie!!!! I use 260 - light pink for the face and dot on 256 dark pink for the cheeks, sometimes. I use the tool shown below for making the smile. You can use a tungsten pick for poking the eyes (ouch!). The hair is usually made with an encased stringer - just take a pastel rod and encase the end in a transparent color, heat and pull. Some of my favorite colors of hair cane are ivory encased in medium amber, pastel yellow encased in dark amber (rootbeer) and dark brown encased in dark amber. Good questions!

Lori, thanks so much for sharing!!!!!!!!!!

Lori, thanks for sharing!! Your kidlets are just too frickin adorable. And you make it look sooo easy. :-)

Lori thanks so much for sharing. Your newer kidlets have great hair. I'm working on them as I have a friend with 11 grandkids and would like to make them for a bracelet. I should be pretty good at them after 11....haha.

Those are absolutely adorable!
I just love them.... You do make it look soooo easy.

Thanks for sharing...

Robin

Judy - it IS easy! Give em a try!
Pat - 11 of them? Oh my goodness! You are going to be GREAT at making them!
Hi Robin! Thanks!

Bump!!!!

These are so darn cute. I'm thinking I'm going to make them as Christmas gifts for the peepes I work with. I can make each of them to look like them. How fun will that be. Now I have to go find key chain tops.

Thanks Lori for sharing your darling little Kidlets.

Kidlets, they're brilliant! Thank you for the great tutorial!

I made some of these for a local exchange, the theme was R/W/B for Independence Day. The little girls all had pony tails with a 'scrunchy' to get a color on there, the lentil was shaped with red/white or blue/white depending on the color of the scrunchy. They all thought I was the most clever thing, but I had to give them the link to Lori's tutorial on her website to give credit where it was due. Cindy

How cute! I've not seen this tutorial before.

-Ona-

Wow! I'm so glad to see my old tut revived for another go round. :D
Anybody have any pictures of the kidlets they've been making? I'd love to ooh and ahhh over them.

Beautiful beeds.I must try this small cuties.:-)

OMG I'm so glad someone posted in this thread or I never would have seen it. I know someone who is having her first long awaited little boy. She has been trying for so long. I am going to make her one of these cute little babies! Thanks so much for the information. What a great idea.

Lori, your beads are the greatest; they have such character...thanks for the tutorial.

Sandi

I just wanted to say Thank You Very Much to Lori for taking the time to make this tutorial. I also wanted to share pictures of how my version of the kidlets turned out. The girl in pink is a b-day gift for one of our granddaughters who will be turning 4 years old tomorrow. The other girl is mine. I loved how she turned out.

These are AWESOME!!!! I love the lips!!! So cute. So very cute!