DIY Polymer Clay Statement Necklace

Ever since I tried polymer clay for the first time with these Polymer Clay Rose Earrings I've been thinking of more ways to make some creative jewelry projects with clay!

This time around I decided to make a necklace. Here's my final result:

DIY Polymer Clay Necklace



I had so much fun making this necklace: normally I buy all my beads or components for my jewelry and try and work them into a design, but using the polymer clay allowed me to actually make my own components and added a whole new level to the design process! I'm such a jewelry making nerd.

What really helped make this necklace was this little puppy:
The sculpey clay conditioning machine. It's basically a pasta machine - it let's you run the clay through flatten and make a sheet of the same width.

For this necklace I used a gold color clay from the Premo Accents line by Sculpey.

I started by conditioning the clay a little and rolling it out of the block it was packaged in.

Then I fed the clay right into the clay conditioning machine and it flattens and smooths out the clay all to one width. This machine comes with a clamp to clamp the machine on to your workspace to keep it from moving while you are working with the clay - it fit perfectly on one of the ends of my craft table.

After I had a sheet of clay ready, I used these mini metal clay cutters to cut out a bunch of pointed ovals (ok, I'm sure there is a real name for this shape but WHATEVER it is is escaping me at the moment...)

After all my shapes were cut out I used a needle to create a hole at the top of each shape.

All ready to get baked!

And here they are after the oven. Set and ready to get made into something pretty!

For this base of this necklace I used a gold cable chain.  I cut one length for the base of the necklace and another for the bib.  I added a third strand as an after thought so you will need a total of three cut chains.

This is where that little hole comes in handy! To be able to use my little polymer clay pieces, I needed to hook them onto a jump ring like so:



Use needle nose pliers to attach the jump ring to the center of the necklace chain.

Continue attaching the clay components:

Do the same for the smaller piece of chain

Attach the smaller chain to the longer chain above the clay components using jump rings (it helps to try the necklace on during this part to get a good idea of how it will lay)

And, after trying it on I thought it would look cute with one more layer of clay component!

Attach this third chain onto the same jump ring you added the second chain onto.

Here is how the completed bib should lay:

Lastly, attach a clasp to the back using jump rings and needled nose pliers.

I must say. I'm a little be proud of myself for how nice I think this actually turned out.  Like, I made the whole dang thing! I think it looks pretty good :)

And there are still so many opportunities I can explore with polymer clay.  I've been making jewelry for like...10 years now??? So it's so fun to be able to try out a brand new technique and see what kind of new ideas and projects it will spark!


Have you ever made anything with polymer clay?? What should I make next?

I'll be linking up to these parties:

9 comments

  1. That is so cool! I never knew you could make your own charms from polymer clay!

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  2. Great necklace!You made it to looks easy!!!
    thanks for a tutorial!
    hugs

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  3. I work with polymer all the time. I've never seen that machine though. I've always done it by hand, with a rolling pin, which takes a long time. I'm going to have to try to locate one of those.

    http://www.newlymynted.blogspot.com

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  4. This is mind blowing!! Never thought of making anything like that on my own! Clever use of clay.

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  5. I just bought a whole bunch of polymer clay a while back and still haven't done anything with it. I really like this design idea. Its amazing how big of an impact one simple shape can have.
    ~Kelsy
    http://loooseendscraftblog.com

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  6. Wow! Cant believe you made those with clay! Great job :)

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  7. The necklace turned out so darling! I love the color!

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  8. I love this project! What a darling necklace! I would love it if you would come and link this up at my link party
    Dandelion Wishes Wednesday. I'm also pinning this :)

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  9. This is amazing! Looking at the list of tutorial makes me scream! Thank you for sharing!

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