My Girlish Whims: polymer clay

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:

Monday: CraftOManiac Monday, Making Monday Marvelous, Market Yourself Monday, Motivate Me Monday. Craftastic Monday, Just Something I Whipped Up,, Made By You Mondays, Making the World Cuter,

Tuesdays: Tip Me Tuesday, Tutorial Tuesday, Take-a-Look Tuesday, Show Me What Ya Got, Get Your Craft On, Homework

Wednesdays: Your Whims Wednesday, Creative Share Wednesday, We did it Wednesday, Sugar and Spice, Whatever Goes Wednesday, Show & Share,Lil Luna, The 36th Avenue

Thursdays: Strut Your Stuff, Hookin Up With House of Hepworths, Catch a Glimpse

Friday: Friday Favs on Naptime Crafters, Weekend Wrap-Up Party, Frugal Friday, Show and Share Day, Weekend Bloggy Reading

Saturdays: Whatcha Got Weekend, Saturday Night Special, Show and Tell Saturdays, Scraptastic Saturday, Positively Splendid

Sundays: Sundae Scoop, Sunday Showcase, Think Pink Sundays

I tried out a new craft this week and I'm excited to share the results with you all!

Polymer Clay Rose Earrings

I recently had the opportunity to try crafting with some polymer clay from Sculpey, manufactured by Polyform Products. I have ALWAYS wanted to try out polymer clay. I've seen some cool jewelry made with polymer clay before and thought it would be a great way to broaden my horizons with my jewelry making skills!

Sculpy makes a ton of different colors of polymer clay and various accessories, but for my project I just stuck to the basics and used one block of polymer clay and the razor blade from this accessory pack.

I kept things simple with this first project. When playing around with the clay I remembered how I used to make little roses out of play dough as a kid. With flower stud earrings so in fashion these days, I thought I would try to make a more grown up version!

To start, "condition" your clay. Start on a clean work surface (I used a cookie sheet) and get the clay moving between your hands. Form a portion of the clay into little pancakes

Roll one of the pancakes into itself like a hotdog bun (I'm using a lot of food to describe this craft - hah! I'm not even hungry either. I just ate like 50 peanut butter M&Ms) to form the center of the rose.

Then start wrapping the other little circles around the hotdog bun.

Keep wrapping until you get a flower shape that you like!

After you have the flower formed, use a razor blade to cut it in half so you have a flat back for the flower

I originally made two flowers because I thought I would have one good and one bad side of the flower when I cut it - but turns out both sides of the flower looked good after cutting it!

After your flowers are all made, bake them in the oven according to the package directions to set and harden the clay. After they are baked and cooled down, they are ready to be made into jewelry! I attached mine onto a set of earring studs using E-600 glue.

And voila! Your very own adorable set of rose earrings. These are totally an upgrade from the ones I used to make as a kid. I can actually wear them and look fashionable! However the concept was just as easy as I remember from when I was a kid. Gotta love crafts like that!