It is not necessary to have special skills and knowledge of the sculptor in order to learn how to make jewelry from polymer clay. All you need is a few pieces of this material, a minimal set of tools and creative inspiration. Everything, you can start creating.
Tools and materials
First of all, you will need polymer clay itself. This is an art material very similar to children's plasticine. From it you can sculpt various crafts. Its peculiarity is that after heat treatment it hardens and becomes similar to plastic. Therefore, polymer clay is also called plastic.
Of the tools useful:
- plastic or ceramic plank;
- rolling pin or any substitute for it;
- stationery knife;
- Toothpicks
- foil.
This is the minimum required set. It can be expanded to infinity depending on the styles and techniques of working with the material.
For additional decoration, acrylic varnish can be useful (you can also use ordinary colorless nail polish), acrylic paints, pastel.
If you are going to create jewelry from polymer clay with your own hands, then be sure to buy accessories for them in a handicraft store: chains, rings, pins, earring hooks, clasps. Also get simple tools for working with wire: wire cutters, round-nose pliers, and thin-nose pliers. This will greatly facilitate the process of creating exclusive jewelry.
Further in the article, we will consider several simple techniques using already finished products as an example, to show that it is not difficult for beginners to create polymer clay jewelry at all.
Elementary Beads
We learned to roll ordinary balls as a child, working with plasticine or ordinary mud in the yard. But these are, in fact, excellent blanks for beads.
We take polymer clay of any color (maybe several), divide it into equal parts and roll the beads. So that they are exactly the same, you can take advantage of this trick: first roll out the plastic with an even layer, and then cut circles in it with any mold, for example, deodorant caps. The form itself is not important to us, because we will turn it into a bead anyway. Here the main trick is to take the same amount of polymer clay for each billet.
When the balls are ready, you need to use a toothpick to pierce through holes in them so that you can then string them on a fishing line.
The central element of the decoration shown in the photo above is made of several shades of material. To do this, break a few pieces of multi-colored plastic into small and not very crumbs and then blind them all together. Do not mix strongly so as not to smear the colors. Then roll out the resulting piece with a thick layer and cut out the desired element from it with a mold.
To ensure that the edges of the workpiece are free of sharp edges, first place plastic wrap on the plastic. In the process of extrusion, it will create semicircular edges in the product. With the central hole, do the same, but take a shape of a much smaller diameter for this.
After baking polymer clay, you can collect the original necklace.
Simple earrings
If you like original jewelry, then make the most varied earrings for yourself. For this you need only a little imagination.
In the photo above, pretty playful pepper-shaped earrings. They are done in minutes. Ornaments made of polymer clay are interesting because they do not require a lot of time and effort for their manufacture.
Making such earrings is extremely simple. Blind what you like best - pepper, carrot, orange, strawberry, raspberry - and hook them on an earring hook (after baking, of course). Do not strive to make them exactly the same. The beauty of manual work lies precisely in the fact that some discrepancies in two identical elements are allowed.
Tortilla Necklace
Such an ornament looks unusual and rich, and you can make it pretty quickly, although it will have to do a lot of monotonous work.
The process looks like this: you need to create a lot of polymer clay cakes. To do this, the plastic is divided into pieces, make balls and roll into "pancakes". Here it is not necessary to ensure that the edges are even and the layer is even. It is in this negligence that lies the charm of the whole product.
The polymer clay jewelry shown above in the photo consists not only of flat cakes, but also of one central bead. You can also do it, but you can do without it. If you want, you can insert several such beads. It only depends on your preference.
Make a set
And even creating this jewelry made of polymer clay, you can complement it with earrings and a bracelet. With the latter there are no problems at all. String the prepared cakes onto an elastic band and tie it. Everything, decoration is ready.
Earrings are also quite simple to make. Take a long bijouterie pin with a head, put a small bead on it, as on a necklace, and on top - a few cakes (choose the height yourself). On the free end of the pin, make a loop that connect to the earring hook. That's just how you made yourself an unusual set of jewelry for a new dress.
Summer bracelets
In the summer you always want something bright, juicy and colorful. Why not treat yourself to a variety of bracelets for different sundresses. The first of them is made all of the same blanks for beads, only their diameter should be 5-7 mm. Insert a short bijouterie pin with an eye into one part of the workpiece (you can trim the long one). On the opposite side with a toothpick, form blueberry noses.
Citrus mood
Small leaflets are oblong cakes with holes on which a vein contour is applied with a toothpick. This polymer clay jewelry is assembled on a chain with a clasp.
Such bright lemons and limes are made in a slightly different technique called sausage (or kane). Roll out a yellow sausage about 5 mm in diameter. Wrap it with a thin layer of polymer clay of white color. Roll a little more so that the two layers stick together.
Cut the workpiece into 6-8 identical parts and blind, creating a cylinder, which also needs to be covered with a layer, but already of yellow polymer clay. Now start rolling it into a long sausage, trying to evenly stretch it along its entire length. When you cut the workpiece, you will see a citrus pattern on the cut. Cool the sausage a bit to make it firm and cut well.
Now it can be cut into citrus pieces to create such an unusual bracelet, earrings and even a summer necklace.
Macaroon Workshop
In recent years, this French dessert has won the hearts of most of the inhabitants of our planet. So why not make an ornament out of these cookies?
The photo above shows a detailed master class on how to easily and quickly create a “sweet” bracelet. The basis of this jewelry is polymer clay. With their own hands, novice craftswomen will repeat this work without much difficulty. It will take a little time, but the result will surprise everyone around.
Decoration for dishes
Do you think this is unrealistic? But after all, every house has mugs with unusual patterns. So why not make yourself a unique cup that no one else will have? And you can also make an unusual spoon with decor for it.
To do this, you need to purchase a mug without a picture and a teaspoon in the store. You will also need a special kind of plastic - in liquid form. It will help to make an application of polymer clay.
Making an imitation crochet, as in the photo above, is easy. This will help you to cope with the master class in the video below. You can cut out a heart with a cookie cutter. A hat is made on the basis of the same bead, only in the form of a cone.
The peculiarity of decorating mugs with polymer clay is that the pattern that has not yet been baked must be glued with liquid plastic. It can be cooked together with dishes. Nothing will happen to the mug, since the baking temperature does not exceed 130 ° C. But in the end, you get beautiful dishes, copies of which no one else will have, if you so wish.
Decorating spoons with polymer clay is a great way to create a special atmosphere both in everyday life and on holidays. You can make them thematic. For example, on Halloween, New Year, Easter, birthdays (especially for children), you can set the table with beautiful cutlery with elements corresponding to the celebration.
Conclusion
Polymer clay is a fertile material for the realization of your creative imagination. You can make anything from it, the main thing is to learn new techniques and come up with your own. You can engage in such creativity with your children, because sculpting it is no more difficult than clay.