2020 is the year I got into the creative space of trying new things. Making my own bracelets is where I began. Easy enough, right? String the beads on the elastic and boom. You’ve got a pretty gemstone jewelry piece to add to your bracelet stack. As beautiful and stylish as they were, I tired of that process pretty quickly. I wanted a new challenge. Something that would take a little more effort, and something I could possibly sell. Enter polymer clay.
Polymer clay is a fun and simple way to create pretty much anything you want. Jewelry, accessories, dishes, magnets, candle holders. You really can get as creative as you want with it. For those who don’t know, polymer clay is a malleable paste of plastic base. It comes in almost any color, you can blend them, add glittery accents, change the color tones with ink – the opportunities are pretty endless, which is what I love about it!
If you’re interested in learning more about the basics of polymer clay jewelry- the tools you need, and the process of creating beautiful, unique jewelry pieces, then keep on reading!
**All images are personally taken photos of my handmade clay earrings. If you love the style and would like to check out more the link to my Etsy shop is included below.**
https://www.etsy.com/shop/SunflowerAndShores?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
GETTING STARTED: TOOLS
When it comes to creating with polymer clay, you don’t need that much. Are there a variety of sculpting tools, clay colors, and pretty little cutters you can purchase? Of course. But if you’re looking to stay on budget, you don’t have to have those to make beautiful jewelry. Here’s what I recommend you do need in order to get started, along with what you can also buy to expand your creativity.
MUST HAVE’S:
- Polymer Clay – there are a variety of brands you can choose from. The most popular seem to be Sculpey and Fimo, but you can also buy generic brands off of Amazon. After giving them all a try I will say, you can tell a difference in quality between brands. You’ll just need to experiment and see what you like working best with.
- Oven to bake your clay – You can use your kitchen oven or a separate mini oven, it really comes down to preference. Whenever I’m baking my clay I always try ensure the area is well ventilated and make sure to do it around times that I will NOT be cooking shortly after. Polymer Clay is not thought to be harmful but the idea of cooking something when there could be those lingering clay fumes doesn’t sit well with me. I’d rather do it in the off kitchen hours!
- Sanding tool – I’ve found that even after I’ve triple checked my work, there’s always minor imperfections or a little clay bubble here and there. Sanding your work after it has been baked and cooled is essential to having a beautiful end result. Here are a few sanding tools that I use
* Sanding paper
* A dremel
* Sanding stone - Cutters – To ensure that your earrings are symmetrical I do recommend having at least a few cutters for designing your jewelry. When I first got started I got the basic shapes – circles, diamond, triangles.. and I’d get creative with it. Cut a circle in half to make a moon like shape, or layer the triangles on top of each other to create a cool geometric dangle earring. If budgeting isn’t a thing for you, there are A LOT of cutter designs. Floral, shapes, tropical, boho, you name it someone’s selling it. Amazon and Etsy are great platforms to search for these on.
- Jewelry tools – When I say this I mean – pliers, earring hooks, and jump rings. Gotta be able to assemble your beautiful work once it’s ready to be worn right?!
- Something to roll out your clay – it’s not a must, but I do recommend spending the money to buy an acrylic roller. It just makes life so much easier when working with the clay.
Now that we’ve covered what the must have’s are, here are the additional fun tools you can also buy to enhance your polymer clay creating fun!
FUN ADD ON TOOLS:
- Cutters – like I said before, there are SO many different styles of cutters you can get. It can be very easy to get a little crazy and buy allll the cutters. Speaking from personal experience. The perks are that it gives you so much creative space to work with. The con is that you most likely will forget about a handful of the ones you’ve bought, and will stick with the ones you like and are most used to.
- Clay tools kit – This will come with items like an acrylic roller, and clay sculpting tools for molding, dotting, shaping, etc.
- You can also invest in extruders, molds (great for florals), metallic foil flakes (gives your earrings an added sparkle)
- Polymer clay roller machine (some people even use a pasta maker) – Again, not a total must have, but it really helpful for conditioning your clay, and ensuring that you get a flat, smooth, even surface to work with.
- Resin – this can be a tedious process, but in my opinion, it’s SO worth it. Resin gives your earrings a beautiful, glossy, finished and professional look. Resin is a process in and of itself, so you’ll want to make sure you do your research and follow safety precautions, but once you’ve got it down, the process is pretty seamless.
- Silk screens – I didn’t use these when I first got started, but now, I do use them occasionally. It’s basically a stencil and will leave a really pretty design on your clay slab. It can be of anything ranging from striped designs, to floral nature scenes. Makes for a really stunning jewelry piece!
MAKING THE EARRINGS
Onto the fun part..creating your earrings! That’s what I love about polymer clay. You can be as creative as you want with it, and each individual piece is unique in its own way.
STEP 1 – CONDITION YOUR CLAY
When you first unwrap your clay, most likely it’s going to be cold and stiff, making it difficult to mold. That being said, the first thing you’ll want to do is condition it. This allows it to be more malleable and a lot easier to work with. However you don’t want the clay to be over-conditioned as this can lead to the clay’s temperature being too warm, causing it to create this melted consistency that is very hard to work with.
This is probably the most “unfun” part, but it’s necessary. You can approach conditioning in a variety of ways. The 2 ways I prefer to condition are simply by using my hands – rolling, smooshing, squeezing the clay to get it ready to work with, and by using my roller to help get things moving along. I have seen a lot of people use their pasta or roller machines to help with this. I haven’t had the best of luck with that as my clay tends to tear and get stuck in the machine – but if it works for you, go for it!
After the conditioning is complete, you’ll want to roll out your clay into an even, flat slab. This is your workspace, and where a clay or pasta roller machine will come in handy.
STEP 2 – GET CREATING
Now we’re onto the fun part! Grab your cutters, and start styling your earrings. If you have one, I do recommend working on a ceramic tile. I got mine at our local home improvement store. The reason being that you won’t have to transition or transport your earring styles to a different surface when it’s ready to go into the oven. When I first started, I would do the transport and it’d create scratches, folds, and other imperfections in my clay work- which in the end wound up being even more challenging.
Once you’ve finished cutting out all of the earring shapes, it is helpful to correct any imperfections you see BEFORE placing the clay in the oven. Trust me, it’ll save you a lot of sanding time! After doing this your earrings are ready to go into the oven. I bake mine at 275F anywhere between 30-40 minutes. It really depends on the thickness of your clay. Some clay brands will include the baking temperatures on their packaging so I do recommend checking for that before baking.
STEP 3 – PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
You’ll want to let the clay cool down for at least an hour. Even after baking, it can feel and appear pretty malleable, so you’ll want to give it the time it needs to settle. Once it’s cooled and ready, it’s sanding time. Also an unglamorous side of earring creating but, without it your earrings can appear sloppy and unfinished. Sand paper is always handy for this, but I prefer to use a dremel. It makes the process much quicker and helps me to get into any hard to reach crevices. After sanding it’s important to also buff your jewelry. This creates a smoother and shinier appearance to the clay. I’ve seen some simply use a cotton ball to buff, but there are dremel buffing attachments that I’ve found to be a lot more helpful.
If you want to stick with the basics, then that’s pretty much it! All you’ll need to do next is assemble your earrings with a jump ring and earring hook.
I like to take it a step further when designing earrings. I’m all about that glossy look! It’s more eye catching and attractive in my opinion. I think it also makes the earrings look more professionally done. You can do this one of two ways. Either with polymer clay gloss glaze or with resin.
Now, I’ve used both before, and I have to say resin is the winner hands down. It’s trickier to work with and you have to ensure you’re being safe and taking the proper precautions when working with resin – but it’s so worth it and makes the earrings look so beautiful. Below is an example of clay earrings I made when I first got started. Here I used a clay brand’s glaze. The photo below it is an example of resin finished earrings. See the difference?!
And there you have it! The basics of getting started with polymer clay earrings. It may seem a bit daunting, but aren’t all things we’ve never tried before? The more you do it, the better you get at it. And you wind up with beautiful earrings for yourself, or to gift and/or sell!
If you decide to give it a try be sure to share your earrings and tag me on Instagram @honestlymommin
Talk soon.
Kath
