The Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners By Elise Meadows by School of Art, George Mason University

The Basics of

Polymer Clay for Beginners

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Dedication

In memory of Bill Meadows, who always made me smile.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to my family who helped with the creation of this book, and for all the support.

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Table of Contents Introduction......................................................................................9 Protect Your Space...........................................................................11 Part 1 Getting Started..................................................................13 Chapter One-Different Types of Polymer Clay & What to Buy?.....15 Chapter Two-Tools to Get Started...................................................17 Chapter Three-How to Condition Clay?..........................................21 Chapter Four-Basics of Blending....................................................25 Chapter Five-Basics of Baking........................................................29 Part 2 Techniques to Try...............................................................33 Chapter Six-Techniques to Try.........................................................35 Part 3 Projects..............................................................................37 Chapter Seven-Get Started with Jewelry......................................39 Conclusion........................................................................................59

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Introduction to polymer clay: Polymer clay can be a very exciting hobby, fun for creative people, or for someone who just wants to try out polymer clay. Polymer clay comes in multiple colors, that can be blended into new colors or added to other materials to create interesting effects. Items to add include (gold leaf, paints, powders, and glitter.) Polymer clay is a great alternative to regular ceramic clay. This is because ceramic clay must be baked in a kiln at high temperatures. A firing kiln can also be very expensive which is why polymer clay is more appealing for most people. Polymer clay unlike regular ceramic clay can be baked in your home oven at 275 F. In this book I will be showing and discussing what polymer clay is and the possibilities of what can be created with it. Polymer clay is made from many materials including plasticizers. Polymer clay is flexible and versatile. That can be baked in a regular home oven and is an excellent material for making all kinds of jewelry. The projects in this book mainly focus on jewelry items like (earrings, beads, and pendants). The first thing to do is choose your polymer clay needed for your desired creation. The trick to choosing your polymer clay is to find a brand that works for your purposes. What do you want to accomplish? Some polymer clay is good for sculptures, and some are meant for jewelry. To find a polymer clay that works for jewelry, find something that is especially easy to work with (soft and moldable but not super sticky). Polymer clay can be an exciting and fun hobby with lots of possibilities.

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Protect Your Space: When using polymer clay, it is important to protect your space while working. Polymer clay can get sticky when it warms up especially when it is being conditioned and can stick to your hands and various surfaces. It is advised not to work with polymer clay on fabric, the clay will leech into the fabric and can stain it. Make sure you keep it off your clothes to avoid clay stains. Because of this, a few options on how to protect your space and hands are available. To protect your hands, it is preferable to wear plastic gloves. If it does get on your hands, it can be washed off. Depending how soft the clay was when you were working with it, it can be harder to scrub off. One option to protect your table would be to make your piece on a cookie sheet. This makes baking easier because the cookie sheet can go directly into the oven. Another option is a plastic tablecloth on top of your table or workspace.

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Part 1 Getting Started

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

CH1 Different types of polymer clay and what to buy? Not all polymer clay brands are created equal. Some brands of polymer clay are better to handle than others. The best brand for these projects and the best for beginners is Sculpey Premo. Most people begin with this because it works with a variety of projects, it’s easy to work with, retains details, and is known for its strength and flexibility. Start with this brand if you are a beginner or just want one brand that is very versatile. Sculpey Premo comes in a wide variety of easy to mix colors and is widely available at craft stores and online. My second choice would be Fimo Professional, and is absolutely not needed to make the excellent pieces in this book. It is next up if you want artist quality clay and is slightly firmer. It is higher quality but for the projects in this book Sculpey Premo works fine. Brands to Avoid include Sculpey III. It is soft, sticky, holds fingerprints, and can be very brittle after baking if your project is thin. These qualities make it a poor choice for making thin types of jewelry. Other brands to avoid are Original Sculpey and Fimo Regular for making jewelry.

Finished piece with sculpey premo

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Sculpey premo

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

CH2 Tools to Get Started! The following list are the tools that will be needed or will be helpful for the projects in this book. Keep in mind it is not necessary to buy everything on this list at first when completing the projects in this book.

Sculpting and Shaping Tools-

These tools are for sculpting the clay into finer details and creating special effects.

Rolling Pins-

You will need something to roll out your clay, this is especially helpful for flattening the clay out evenly. An acrylic roller is best, it is easier to clean than wood.

Rubber Mallet-

This is mainly used in the rubber mallet method to condition the clay by placing it in a Ziplock bag and smacking the clay. A mallet is only needed if the clay is too hard for your hands or a pasta machine.

Sculpting and Shaping tools

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Rolling pin

Pasta Machine-

If used, this machine should only be for clay and can’t be used for food again. It allows for easing clay conditioning. To condition clay with this machine, run small pieces of clay through it.

Cutters or Blades-

These are a thin metal rectangular blades, and it can be straight or curved and used for cutting blocks of clay. Caution: Some of the blades in certain brands tend to be sharper than others.

Cookie Cutters and Forms-

These are used after clay has been conditioned, rolled out, and flattened into a sheet. They come in multiple sizes and shapes to achieve different effects in your pieces.

Cutters, forms, rolling pins

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Special Glue for Polymer Clay-

This special glue is for gluing items to the clay pieces after they have been fired in your oven. Jewelry glue works best for these projects.

Stamps-

These are in the form of rubber silicone sheets that have designs stamped into them. They can be placed on flattened clay and a rolling pin is used on top to press the design into the clay.

Sand Paper-

This is used only after the clay has been baked to smooth out sharp edges. Fine grit sandpaper works best. Finished pieces can be sanded wet or dry.

Jewelry Making Pliers-

These are special pliers used in jewelry making mostly to open and close Jump rings.

Jump Rings-

A small ring of metal that can be opened and then closed with jewelry pliers, mainly used to attach pendants to a chain or earrings to an earring post.

Earring Post-

The piece of the earring that goes in your ear, it can be glued on after the clay earring has been baked or inserted into the earring before being baked.

Glue

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Bead Racks-

These racks suspend your clay bead so that none of the sides of the bead touches the surface that the bead is being baked on.

Molds-

Clay can be placed on a mold for different desired affects during baking.

Worksurface or Cookie sheet-

The surface that the clay is being worked on. A metal cookie sheet is the most common method since the unbaked clay can be placed directly into the oven after being formed. Most people line the sheet with parchment or baking paper.

Silicone Baking Mats –

An alternative to baking parchment paper and can be reused multiple times.

Polyurethane or Glazing Materials-

These are used only after baking to give the clay a shine. Polyurethane also protects finished pieces.

Storage-

Plastic storage bins work great to keep different colors from touching. Use parchment paper or ziplock bags to separate them.

Bead racks

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

CH3 How to condition clay? Hand Rolling

Conditioning clay is needed to be done when the clay is too firm to work with or straight from the packaging. When clay is firm to the touch it has usually been sitting around for a bit and needs to be warmed up to be usable again. Hand rolling is when you condition your clay by hand without using any tools. You roll, press, and squeeze the clay in your hands to warm it up into pliable workable clay. Hand rolling also keeps the clay from getting brittle. Conditioning clay by hand rolling can be hard on your hands but this is a really nice way to get started. The harder the clay the more conditioning is required.

Hand rolled clay

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Rubber Mallet Method

Clay is put in a Ziplock bag resting on a towel. Take the mallet and hit the clay until it is soft enough to work with. This is only necessary when the clay is too hard to condition by hand or a pasta machine. If it cannot be conditioned right away with the usual methods, the mallet method can be done first.

Ziplock Bag in Pocket

The Ziplock bag method is exactly as it sounds. The clay is put in a Ziplock bag and then in your pocket. This warms up the clay with your body heat. Another way to condition the clay with a Ziplock bag is when conditioned clay is put with firm clay inside the bag together. This allows the conditioned clay to slowly recondition the firm clay just by sitting next to each other.

Zipock bag method

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Pasta Clay Machine

This is the easiest way to condition clay. It is much easier than using your hands. Be gentle with your pasta clay machine by starting with the largest setting on your machine. Cut your clay into smaller bits don’t put the entire block into the machine at once. As you condition using a pasta clay machine slowly dial down to the smaller settings as you go. If your clay is crumbling, keep running it through the machine until the pieces come together. Avoids folds at the top, this creates air bubbles that get trapped in the layers of clay. Folds at the bottom and sides are fine. Keep folding over and over while continuously running through the pasta machine.

Pasta machine

Pasta machine dial close up

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Pasta machine conditioned clay

Clay going thru pasta machine

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

CH4 Basics of Blending: How to Make Custom Colors?

To make custom colors you will need to blend two to three or more colors together till you get your desired blend. Options include gold, pearl white or silver and which can be added to make any color an iridescent blend. An iridescent blend means the clay has a sparkle or a shine. Adding black clay can be used to darken a blend. Only a little bit is needed because black is a very strong color. White clay can be blended to make pastels.

*Tip: Mix Your Own Special Blends: When mixing your own polymer clay blends, you can achieve any color.* One way to do this is to start with the larger packages of Sculpey Premo and blend your own colors. With polymer clay blending, it is hard to get the same color exactly each time, which is what makes blending with polymer clay colors interesting. It will be a little different each time even with the same clay, especially If it is not the exact amount of colored clay you used before. Keep mixing your colors bit by bit until you get the color blend you want. Make a tear drop shape of each color and make a skinner blend, put the two teardrops through the pasta machine for the best effect. A skinner blend is a kind of rainbow effect with one color blending into another.

Custom color blend

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Custom color blend

*Tip: Some colors of some brands can become darker after baking.* Color Theory and Blends to try for Beginners

When you look at a color wheel, colors sitting next to each other usually blend the best. For example, yellow, blues, and greens blend well together, as do purple, blue and pink blends. Another method is to blend similar colors like red, orange, and yellow. When blending colors, it helps to experiment with it by slowly adding colors to shift your color blend bit by bit. Remember, nothing should be wasted. Keep all your blends, even the mistakes, which can be used as fillers later in other projects. Adding black or brown to make a muted color is one option to tone down a bright color. Adding white makes it paler in color. Add white or an iridescent pearl to make pastel colors. Adding gold or already glittery and shimmery colors also make for an interesting blend. If you don’t have access to gold leaf this is another option to making something shimmery. However gold leaf can be more visible in a finished blend.

Custom color blend

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Marbling by Blending

This is another way to condition. Cut pieces of the clay and individually roll them into little logs. Pick the colors you want to use and roll them separately into snake or log like shapes. Lay the snakes next to each other and twist them together, fold over and continue rolling until you are happy with the results, or your colors are marbled to the point you like. As you are rolling you can add other snakes of clay to your blend until smooth. This method is great for creating a rainbow effect with the colors you choose. Your piece should resemble a candy cane.

Blending With a Pasta Machine

This method is the same as conditioning your clay with a pasta machine, the only difference is you are putting more than one color in the machine. Put your clay through the machine fold it over and put it through again until you get your desired blend. Beware of air bubbles in your clay.

Marbled clay

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Skinner Blend

shifts smoothly from one color to another. A skinner blend looks like a gradient with one color slowly blending into another. This effect is achieved by running two teardrop shapes of clay together through a pasta machine several times. This method is used to create a rainbow effect with the clay.

Blending With Gold Leaf

Adding gold leaf Is an excellent way to add a shimmery gold texture to your bead. One easy way to do this is to lay the gold leaf on your clay and run it through your pasta machine.

Skinner blend

Gold leaf blend

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

CH5 Basics of Baking: How to decide on baking times?

When baking your polymer clay remember to bake your clay long enough. Under baking can leave your clay brittle and easily breakable. The quality of your clay projects is better when you bake it longer. When properly baked, the clay should be flexible and hard. Look at the clay package for the correct baking temperature. Most brands require the clay to be baked at 275F for 15 min or so per ¼” of thickness. Make sure to place your rack far from the heating element. The middle rack is usually the best for this. Don’t bake food and clay at same time to avoid contamination. It is okay to bake the clay longer than the recommended time. The most important thing is that the temperature is accurate and not too hot which can burn the clay. If your clay is burning, bubbling, or getting a darker color your oven may be too hot. To avoid baking at the wrong temperature, use an oven thermometer. Using a foil pan lid during baking can prevent burning. It circulates the air and shields the clay. Make sure you cool your clay down slowly. Wrap it in a towel or leave the oven door open while it cools. You can remove and add other items during baking, but most people let the clay cool completely before removing it from the oven. Let it cool completely if you plan to drill holes to keep the piece from cracking.

Finished piece

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

What Materials are Best to Bake On?

Your baking surface needs to be smooth and flat so the clay won’t stick. Parchment or baking paper or nonstick mats, acrylic sheets work best on a cookie sheet when baking.

Metal Pans

When using metal pans, it is important to cover with something, a few options include cardboard that allows air to pass underneath the piece. Metal pans can get hot and risk burning the clay if nothing is underneath your polymer clay piece. When Polymer clay is baking it can pick up the texture of the surface while your piece is in the oven. So, if the surface is smooth the clay can adapt a glossy finish. A rough surface will give the clay a textured finish. If a specific finish is what you want, plates or glass will give you a glossy finish while baking paper or a file folder will give a textured finish.

What materials should you stay away from when baking?

Avoid rubber or plastic to prevent melting. If you are using paper to bake on don’t leave your clay piece on it for too long because the paper will stain and absorb the plasticizers from the clay that can affect your piece by weakening it.

Parchment paper

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

How to prevent breakage in your baked pieces?

Make sure it is completely baked. Other baking tools to be used: bead racks, oven molds, etc. Bead racks are useful when baking to keep rounded pieces from rolling off your baking pan in the oven. If you don’t have a bead rack a paper accordion can be your solution. Remember to use an oven thermometer in the oven to be sure that the oven is the correct temperature. Ovens can run too hot or too cold. What to do if you are using two or more different types of clay with different baking times? If this happens bake it longer, but do not raise the temperature. The temperature being too hot is what burns clay not how long you bake it.

Storage:

Blended, conditioned, and flattened clay can be stored in clear sheet protectors or zip lock bags. Your polymer clay can sit in a zip lock for weeks to months and will have no effect on the clay. Ziplock bags also maintain the moisture in the clay so that it does not need conditioning every time you want to use it. It also keeps the clay free from dust and lint.

Polymer clay back instructions

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Bead rack

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Part 2 Techniques to Try

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

CH6 Techniques to Try! Using Sandpaper:

Fine grit sandpaper is to smooth baked clay edges, and it can be sanded wet or dry. The colors look better sanded and they can look more professional. If you use the wrong grit of sandpaper, it can scratch grooves in the piece. Automotive sandpaper made by 3M works great because it can be used wet or dry. It needs a super fine grit of sandpaper to work on polymer clay. Start with 400 or 600 grit sandpaper, (the numbers get bigger as the grains get finer). The finer sandpaper you use, the smoother the piece becomes.

Wet sanding:

Fold your sandpaper and put it in cold water. You can add dish soap to help sand your piece.

Sandpaper

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Pasta machine guide

The first step in any clay project is to condition your clay. This is made easy and quick with a pasta machine. It smooths out your clay and helps create different color effects.

Using stamps and cookie cutters

Use plastic wrap on the clay before punching with the cutters. Plastic wrap gives the clay piece being cut out more rounded and cleaner edges. Cookie cutters can be used to punch out shapes in your polymer clay.

Marbling designs

Marbling designs are the most common technique in polymer clay. It is called marbling due to the finished look that resembles marble. Using Acrylics with polymer clay Opaque white or translucent clay is a good place to start with this method. Shiny finishes and polishes like polyurethane are excellent for adding a shiny porcelain finish to your piece. Polyurethane also protects your piece.

Stamps and cookie cutters

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Part 3 Projects

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

CH7 Get started with Jewelry: Earrings, Pendants and Beads Marbled Earrings

Take a marbled piece of clay it should look like a candy cane and make it into a spiral or swirl. Then you are going to take your rolling pin and roll it out flat and smooth. Take your shape or cookie cutters to punch the shapes of the earrings from the clay. If they are going to be dangle earrings, add a hole at the top for the earring hook. If this will be an earring stud the earing post will either need to be poked through before being baked or glued on after baking. The glue for this project is industrial strength E6000 glue. Before gluing, coat the earing with polyurethane. (Optional)

Spiral candy cane

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Rolled out clay with the cookie cutters on top

Marbled earrings finished piece

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Dot Pattern Earrings

Pick a color for your background we will be using this as a base. Pick two to three more colors to add the design for the background. Flatten and roll out your background color into an even slab of your desired thickness for in your earrings. Take your two to three design colors and break off little round dots of color. Place these dots on your base and make a design. Then take your roller to flatten your design to your base. Use any cutting tool to punch out your desired shape earrings. Circle cutting tool is best for this project. At this point you have two options for your earrings. First option is to make studs with a small circle cut from this piece. To make studs you will need an earring post added before baking by inserting it in your clay Option two is gluing the earring post on after baking.

Base color

Blended color strip

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Design color

Dot pattern earrings finished piece

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Dangle earrings

Punch out a big shape then a smaller shape in the center. You will end up with an outside shape and an inside shape that looks like a ring and a small circle. Punch a small hole in each to allow for a jump ring. Add an earring post to the circle part to make the earring.

Cut pieces for dangle earrings

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Dangle earrings finished piece

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Geometric Earrings

Make your desired blend. Roll out your clay, with any designs already on them. Punch two circles of two different colors, and then cut each in half. Take one half of each circle and swap so you will have two different colors for each circle. Punch a hole in the end. This is where they will be attached by a jump ring later after baking. Add an earring post inserted before or glued on after baking. This method could be done with any shape.

Cookie Cutter Earrings

Roll out your clay evenly and use your cookie cutter to punch out your earring shapes. Any desired shape can be used.

Rolled out clay blend

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Geometric earrings finished piece

Cookie cutter earrings finished piece

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Wave Earrings

Roll out a blend of clay. Add a desired texture with a stamp, or blade. Use a shape cutter to punch the outside shape. Warp your piece till desired into a wave shape. Make a small hole for your jump ring and bake.

Textured clay with wave pattern

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Wave earrings finished piece

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Line Textured Earrings

For this project you will punch out an even circle. You will then cut that circle in half, and then this will be your two earrings. Take a blade or sharp sculpting tools to make a fan design on the clay. Make a hole for the jump ring and bake.

Print Earrings

For print earrings roll out an even slab of clay. Lay your silicone textured sheet on your clay sheet and roll-on top of it to make your print in the clay. Take your desired shaped cutters and cut out your earrings.

Line textured earrings finished piece

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Heart Earrings Using Gold leaf

Make your skinner blend or a rainbow blend. Lay your gold leaf on the clay and run it through the pasta machine. Run it through the pasta machine slowly. Start with cutting two small chunks of clay, the bigger the chunk the bigger the earring. Make a tear drop shape out of conditioned clay. Make your heart shape out of the tear drop shape. Take your flat post earrings and stamp the shape into the back of the heart an indentation. After baking this indentation shows where the post will be glued on.

Tear Drop Earrings

make your desired color blend, add gold leaf to it. Run this combination through the pasta machine. Shape into teardrop, punch a hole towards the top for a jump ring. Or don’t and glue an earring post on after baking.

Skinner blend with gold leaf

Heart earrings gold leaf finished piece

Tear drop earrings finished piece

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Print earrings finished piece

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Lentil Earrings

This method does not need any sanding these pieces are naturally smooth. This method is great for using scrap clay. To use scrap clay, start by cutting your scrap clay into small pieces. Bring your scrap pieces together and roll together into a log keep it as tight as possible to avoid air bubbles. Roll this log over gold leaf and combine it together. Continue to roll until it is the width of a number two pencil. Cut even pieces. A ruler is helpful if you want a consistent size to your beads. Most people prefer evenly sized beads so the earrings match. Roll into a ball, and under an acrylic block at a slight angle on the table in a circular motion to blend these colors together. The bead holes can be made through the top or side. The bead can be warped into different shapes. These beads can be used in bracelets and earrings, or large for a pendant.

Clay cut into pieces into a log with gold leaf roll

Bead rolled under a acrylic block

Lentil earrings finished piece

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

*Tip: Always keep scrap clay. It can be used for filler later* Flower/Leaf Earrings

Take your desired blend of clay, gold leaf can be added. Make a teardrop shape and mold it to look like a leaf. A blade can be used to add the veins of the leaf. Punch a small hole at the top for a jump ring or leave a space for a flat earring post.

Gold Leaf Round Stud Earrings

These round stud earrings will have gold leaf inlaid. Condition your clay first by hand or using a pasta machine. Blend the gold leaf into your color clay blend of choice by running it through your pasta machine. Punch out your shapes with a cookie cutter or blade. Take your flat earing post and make an indent in the clay to show where the post will be glued on later. Bake your clay and glue the earring back to your finished piece.

Leaf earrings finished piece

Gold leaf round studs finished piece

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Pendants Projects: The following Pendant projects will match in style to the earrings. *Tip: When making pendants it is important to plan and decide how it will be attached so it can go around your neck.* Print Pendants

To create a print pendant roll out an even slab of clay. Lay your silicone textured sheet on your clay sheet and roll-on top of it to make your print in the clay. Take your desired shaped cutters and cut out your pendant. (matches print earrings)

Print pendant finished piece

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Marbled Pendant

Pick your desired colors keeping in mind these will be blended. When cutting clay keep in mind the biggest piece of colored clay will be the most dominant in your blend. Cut a piece of clay from each color and work it in your hands till workable. Roll each color into a log, then roll these pieces together. Twist and squeeze these together into a snake. Pinch the two ends together and twist and repeat several times or until desired blend. Take one end and continue to roll into a spiral or a big Lolli pop. Take a marbled piece of clay it should look like a candy cane and make it into a spiral or swirl. Then you are going to take your rolling pin and then roll it out flat and smooth. Take your shape or cookie cutters to punch the shapes of the pendant from the clay. This clay that is left over can be used again. Just keep twisting rolling and punching new shapes In the clay. Keep in mind that each time the clay is reused the more blended the effect in the clay will be. (matches marbled earrings)

*Tip: When clay sticks to your work surface use the end of your blade to lift it up so the clay design is not warped.*

Marbled pendant finished piece

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Heart Pendant Using Gold Leaf

Make your skinner blend or rainbow blend. Lay your gold leaf on the clay and run it slowly through the pasta machine. Start with cutting a chunk of clay, the bigger the chunk the bigger the pendant. Make a tear drop shape out of conditioned clay. Make your heart shape out of the tear drop shape. Punch a hole towards the top to add either a cord or a jump ring.

Tear Drop Pendant

Make your desired color blend, add gold leaf to it. Run this combination through the pasta machine. Shape into teardrop, punch a hole towards the top for a jump ring or a cord.

Gold leaf clay blend

Tear drop pendant finished piece

Heart pendant finished piece

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Lentil Pendant

This method does not need any sanding these pieces are naturally smooth and slightly glossy. This method is great for using scrap clay. To use scrap clay, start by cutting your scrap clay into small pieces. Bring your scrap pieces together and roll together into a log keep it as tight as possible to avoid air bubbles. Roll this log over gold leaf and combine it together. Continue to roll until it is the desired width and cut even pieces of this cane a ruler is helpful if you want a consistent size to your pendants. The bigger the cut piece of clay the bigger the pendant. Roll into a ball, and under a acrylic block at a slight angle on the table in a circular motion to blend these colors together. These can have the hole made through the top or side. The pendant can be warped into different shapes.

Gold leaf rolled log

Cut cane

Pendant cane rolled under a acrylic block

Lentil pendant finished piece

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

*Tip: almost anything can be used as a shape cutter.* Gold Leaf Marbled Beads

Start by making a skinner blend and adding gold leaf. Run this slowly through the pasta machine. For the center of the bead, it can be scrap clay this will not be seen. We are going to cover it with the skinner gold leaf blend. Layer torn pieces of the skinner blend to cover the scrap clay.

Lentil Beads

This method does not need any sanding these pieces are naturally smooth. This method is great for using scrap clay. To use scrap clay, start by cutting your scrap clay into small pieces. Bring your scrap pieces together and roll together into a log keep it as tight as possible to avoid air bubbles. Roll this log over gold leaf and combine it together. Continue to roll until it is the width of a number two pencil. Cut even pieces of this cane a ruler is helpful if you want a consistent size to your beads. Most people prefer evenly sized beads in a bracelet. Roll into a ball, and under an acrylic block at a slight angle on the table in a circular motion to blend these colors together. These can have the hole made through the top or side. The bead can be warped into different shapes. These beads can be using in bracelets and earrings, or a large for a pendant.

*Tip: Beware of air bubbles when mixing scrap clay together*

Lentil bead finished piece

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

Conclusion

I hope this book helps with readers to start their own polymer clay creations. I also hope it will give new inspiration to people who have already started with polymer clay.

Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners

The Basics of Polymer Clay for Beginners By Elise Meadows

Articles inside

Conclusion

Part 3 Projects

Chapter Six-Techniques to Try

Part 2 Techniques to Try

Protect Your Space

Chapter Three-How to Condition Clay?

Part 1 Getting Started

Introduction

Chapter Five-Basics of Baking

Chapter One-Different Types of Polymer Clay & What to Buy?

Chapter Four-Basics of Blending

Chapter Two-Tools to Get Started