Big Bead Necklace and Two Thirds Cane in Polymer Clay.

Create a beautiful necklace of your own in polymer clay with an added bead tassel. All the details you need are written below here, but first, sit back, relax, and watch as the process unfolds.

The music from the video is English Country Garden by Aaron Kenny and Waterfall by Aakash Gandhi, both available from the YouTube Free Audio Library.

You can use the YouTube video settings to slow the first forwarded parts of the video if you want to watch at a slower speed. (The music will also slowdown.)

If you like my work, then please do have a look at my website, http://www.fionaabel-smith.co.uk/ and follow me on Facebook   / fiona.abelsmith   and Instagram.   / fionaabelsmith.artist  

I also have a number of Polymer Clay Tutorials to buy in my Etsy shop, PolyOriginals - https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/PolyOrig... .

To find out how to condition polymer clay, here is a link -    • Conditioning Polymer Clay Quickly - some tips  

Here is the link to creating Skinner Blends -    • Basic Skinner Blend Tutorial from Polymer ...  

Go to 1hr 10 minutes of my Tiered Trinket Box video for reducing a cane -    • Tiered Trinket Box in Polymer Clay, a Tuto...  

When I condition the clay using my pasta machine, I use setting 3, I do the Skinner Blend through setting 2, the very thin strip of clay for the blend is put through setting 9, and for the covering layer of Black I used setting 7.
If you do not have a pasta machine you can roll the sheet of clay between two even stacks of playing cards. Setting 9 on my machine is 1 playing card thickness, setting 7 is 2 cards, setting 3 is 5 cards and setting 2 is 6 cards thickness.

The Polymer Clay I am using is FIMO Soft, but all well known brands of polymer clay will work well with this technique. I have used 1/2oz (14g) of Silver and Aqua as one blend, Black and Silver as a second blend, and Gold and White as the third blend. The thin layer of clay is 1 oz (28 g) of Black.

To create the large veneer, I added the slices of cane onto about 1 oz (28 g) of scrap clay rolled through a thin, No. 7 setting on the pasta machine.

For the blue/bronze cane option, I used Blends of Pacific Blue and Aqua, Peppermint and White and Bronze and Gold. The thin sheet of wrap around clay colour was Windsor Blue.

For the green/blue cane option, I used blends of Brilliant Blue and White, Tropical Green and White and Sunflower Yellow and White with a Black outline.

Equipment.
• I work on a flat nonporous ceramic tile and bake on a smaller tile. I curved a piece of card for the bead to sit on while it cured.
• I use a polymer clay blade to slice the clay, and a clay roller/brayer roller to roll it.
• I condition and create thin sheets of polymer clay by using a pasta machine dedicated to Polymer Clay use.
• I use a 4mm Cable Needle (something similar will do) to smooth any joints between clay slices.
• I covered pre-made forms available from @_g.f.art_ and added a thin layer of liquid clay to the form first – PVA glue would also work. Link - (https://www.facebook.com/commerce/pro... )
• I created my own paper template to fit one side of the pre-made form.
• I measure the clay cane using a freely downloadable measuring sheet from www.printablepaper.net. I use the 4 squares to 1 inch one, which I laminate. You can also download a cm one.
• When I bake/cure my clay, I always tent my tile in aluminium foil, which helps protect the clay should the oven spike in temperature.
• Once baked/cured, I varnished my bead using Cernit Transparent Gloss varnish. @theclayhubuk ( https://www.theclayhub.co.uk/ourshop/... ) I used a scrap of wire through the bead to hold it while I varnished.
• I finished the necklace with complimenting colours of glass beads and silver plated beads – available from all good bead shops, strung on 5 Head pins, which I cut to size and added a loop at the top, using cutting pliers and round nosed pliers. I buy my beads and findings from https://www.spellboundbead.co.uk
• I used 0.8mm gauge wire threaded through the loops at the tops of the tassels, up through a large bead, then the polymer clay bead and then added a large bead at the top, cut the wire to size and added a loop at the top of that.
• The necklace was finished with two long silver beads on 2mm Black Buna Cord which I cut to size. I added Leather crimps at either end, plus 7mm jump rings and a lobster Clasp.
• The cutter I used to make the earrings was from @kalyandklay https://www.kalyandklay.com

Thank you so much for watching.