Gemmies Design Studio is a fun craft kit for children aimed at ages 6+. It allows you to make crystal creations such as cute dogs, teddies, fish and more. It also comes with a storage unit and station to make your designs on meaning it’s an all in one craft kit that children will enjoy.
The kit comes with a design station that has a pull out drawer underneath. This is comes divided into sections to store your beads in. There are also gem style pots on top to hold further beads and loops. There is a removable light up stand that requires two AA batteries. Other accessories include six design cards, a tool to stretch your loops and various packs of beads and loops.
My daughter who is 8yrs old enjoyed following the design cards and putting the correct colour and combination of beads onto each loop. She found it easier and preferred to use the included tool to do this, but I found it easier to just use my fingers, either method works fine though.
Miss M could easily make small combinations of beaded loops but did require a little assistance from me to join some of the bigger sections together to make the final creation, so I do think that younger children would struggle too, although I do think that 7-8 years can do the majority of it themselves.
What I found amazing though was that from a flat section of loops covered in the gem beads, you then fold it round and join particular beads and a recognisable 3D shape appears which really does look really fantastic. So that you know where to join the beads there are bright orange beads that you place initially within the pattern but are then removed when you make the join. This is a really clever idea and makes it simple to know where sections join up.
My daughter loves her new Gemmies dogs and they take pride of place in her bedroom. You can display them on the included light up stand or they will stand on their own elsewhere. I think this kit is really clever and very different to any other craft kits we’ve tried.
We’ve absolutely loved Gemmies and think it’d make a great gift for anyone who loves to craft and loves their gems! I think it’s lovely that you get to make something to keep and it is something that will last. The beads are secure and the finished designs hold together very well. Why not try a kit like this out for yourself?
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.