Decorations made of polymer clay

Polymer clay for the manufacture of various interesting decorative items was applied relatively recently, but aroused great interest among the applied masters and very quickly gained popularity. This material is extremely plastic, pleasant to the touch, has a dense and at the same time very silky structure, differs a wide variety of colors. In addition, if you need to get the right color, the clay of different colors blends easily to the desired uniform shade.

Of clay fashion beautiful bouquets of flowers, bright and translucent petals which are difficult to distinguish from natural, so they are gentle and beautiful. Extremely original, fashionable and modern are obtained decorations made of polymer clay: beads, bracelets, earrings. The technology of making flowers and ornaments can not be called very easy, and most importantly, mastering it without video examples and step-by-step instructions is difficult, so you need to turn to printed publications, or find a video course on the Internet. We'll tell you about the simplest technology that allows you to make very beautiful jewelry from polymer clay quickly enough to have an idea of this kind of applied art.

How to make jewelry from polymer clay

Any work begins with the preparation of the material. To make jewelry from polymer clay, the material is purchased in shops for artistic creation, or via the Internet. Polymer clay is represented in a large number of different brands. Each species has its own technical characteristics and is designed for various things. The most common and universal is the clay brand Fimo, there are also Cernit, Kato, Sonnet. Before choosing a material, you need to carefully study the packaging, which indicates all the necessary parameters.

As auxiliary tools, you will need: a knife, a stylus (a thin wooden stick with a sharp end), a rolling pin, glassware for baking, a smooth waxed surface for the manufacture of the product, a protective varnish, and, at last, various attachments for ornaments (thick threads, chains, Fasteners for earrings, hair bands, etc.).

1. Let's start with the simplest decoration. It will consist of flat colored elements assembled into the product (necklace or bracelet) using metal chains. We need clay of different colors, the more, the better. We take a piece of clay of the same color and roll out of it "sausage". Then this "sausage" is rolled into a cake of clay of a different color, then sequentially in several more cakes of different colors. Thus, we get many multi-layer clay "logs" of the same thickness and length (the total number of them must be a multiple of three).

2. From the "logs" we glue "woodpile", consisting of three elements in length and three rows in height. Between the clay fields lay thin strips of black clay. A layer of dark clay wraps the woodpile along the sides. As a result, you should get a cube, four sides of which are dark, and two end faces - from bright colored circles, with black interspersed in the junction. The resulting blank with a roller is lightly pressed on all sides, forming a more dense and elongated bar. Then the workpiece is slightly cooled and cut into squares of the same thickness. The remaining uneven pieces roll in the form of beads, they will also be useful in the work. In still soft details, carefully insert thin metal rings for the subsequent fastening of each other.

3. All billets are placed on a baking sheet or glass flat plate and bake for 15-20 minutes in the oven at a temperature of no more than 130 degrees. After the details of the future decoration of polymer clay cool down, they are covered with a layer of varnish, which will give greater brightness to the color and protect the product from damage. Then we connect all the individual parts together with several chain links, and fasten the fastener.

Having mastered this technology and "sensing" the material, in the future, try to make other, more complex, jewelry from polymer clay. With your hands you can make very beautiful, exclusive things that will become a bright and unusual addition to a summer dress or knitted sweater.