In Focus: Metal Handprint Ornaments for Xmas at Judy Garland Children’s Museum

The Judy Garland Children’s Discovery Museum in Grand Rapids is known for providing young minds with opportunities to learn while being creative, and Friday’s fundraiser for the museum provided that opportunity thanks to Twisted Metals, a local metal crafts company.

“We’re drawing out handprints of the kids, and then we’re going to draw them out and cut them out of metal,” explained Twisted Metals owner, Manda Tuttle. “And then they’ll make Christmas ornaments out of them for the kids for their Christmas trees.”

The first groups of children that came in to trace their hands also got metal turkey shapes that they could paint.

This project was not only meant to provide parents with a fun token of the event, but also as a love letter to the children’s museum itself.

“It’s really inspiring to me as an artist to be able to pass that along to these younger ones and let them really enjoy being artists and knowing that I’m an artist, and this is what I do for a living, and if they wanna be an artist, and they want to be doing that for a living, I’d love to encourage that,” said Tuttle.

Beyond inspiring young minds to be creative, Twisted Metals hopes this project will provide parents with a souvenir that can be preserved for years to come.

“We know that kids grow really fast and being able to be kind of stopping their handprint in time is really special,” said Tuttle.

Twisted Metals provides similar fundraising services to other organizations such as local schools around the Midwest.