Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well this Sunday. Today I have a fun project to share that is a bit different for me, some earrings! I have had some dangly earring bases for a while that my mother had given me and I figured it was time to put them to good use. I thought it would be fun to combine this idea with something else I don't use too often, polymer clay. Below are the main supplies I used for this project: a variety pack of polymer clay, some clay cutters, head pins which are used for beading, the earring bases, clay tools and some tiny little beads. Not pictured but also very important are a variety of jump rings! I decided that I wanted to go for a marbled effect with different clay colors so I started by cutting up a few clay colors into little pieces. I then rolled and squished the clay together until I had the effect I wanted, making sure not to overwork it so that the colors would just bleed together. I went for 3 general designs with this batch: stars, suns/moons and some pairs with the phrase "hi there" on them. The stars were cut out of the red/yellow/orange/white clay I showed above. For all the pairs, I used a pointy tool to poke a hole through the top. For the suns and moons I made the suns out of some yellow/orange/white clay and the moons from some gray/white/black/blue clay. I also added some texture to these with some of the clay tools I had. I also ended up adding some orange paint to the little ridges on the side of the suns and some white paint to the valleys on the moons. For the final pairs, I used purple/green/blue clay and also used some tiny little letter stamps to make impressions in the clay. The stamps I used are actually meant for banging letters into metal, but they worked here. You could also get the same effect by pressing rubber stamps into the clay. Once these had been cooked and cooled, I added some white paint into the indents to make them stand out more. I did this by brushing a thick layer of white acrylic paint over the indents and then quickly wiping away the excess with a wet paper towel. I cooked the clay according to the package directions and let them cool fully. I then went over all of the clay pieces with a thick coat of the varnish I always use, DuraClear. I used a high gloss version for this project. In terms of the hardware pieces needed for each pair, I ended up using 2 earring bases, 2 head pins, 2 smaller jump rings and 2 larger ones, as well as 10 small beads. I came to the conclusion that a little detail of 5 beads was the perfect amount for each earring. In case you are not aware of what a head pin is, it is a piece of wire with a flat end that stops the beads from coming off. The little beaded detail on the right is 5 beads that were slid onto the head pin with the non flat end bended over to create a loop. I then used some wire cutters to get rid of the excess wire on the head pin. Then it was just assembling the earrings using the jump rings and some pliers! My mother also had the smart idea to put them on these cute little tags that we punched holes into. She was also nice enough to cut some toppers that I could put on top of the little bags I planned on putting each set it. Here is an example of what a fully packaged set looks like: Here's a close up of each type of set I made so you can see the details! These are now up on the Etsy shop if you are interested! I had a lot of fun making these and trying something a little different for me. Let me know what you guys think in the comments below!
- Rebecca P.S. Today's photo on the homepage is from Pexels user Antoni Shkraba: www.pexels.com/photo/a-person-kneading-a-clay-dough-6694683/
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AuthorI am a 28-year-old crafter from New Hampshire! Archives
October 2024
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