Toine's Polymer Clay Jewelry

It's fun to create jewelry with polymer clay, whether it's a necklace strung with faux pearls (Premo Pearl) and colorful beads (Translucent Fimo Colors) or these Africa inspired pendants that were made from black Premo and Fimo metallic powders.The second one hangs on a chain which was entirely made from an equal mixture of Premo and Sculpeyflex. Diane MacCallum explained how to make those at a guild meeting in Burlington, MA. She used gold Premo. The links are formed by wrapping a strand of clay around a knitting needle. Cut all the links at once. Shape half of them and bake them. Shape the other half of the links while at the same time connecting the baked links and bake the whole chain. The chain on top with the big links is a bracelet. 

When I attended a meeting of the Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild, Jody Bishel demonstrated her TLS (Translucent Liquid Sculpey) techniques. This square pin was made with gold Premo. I divided the square into four with strips of Premo and filled each individual square with TLS that I tinted with acrylic paint. (Jody recommends pigment powders or oil paint.) After curing, more TLS was added for extra depth.

The lady bug and spider measure 1.5 and 2.25 inches respectively. Just bend wire (two intertwined strands of telephone wire for the lady bug and red brass wire for the spider) into legs and attach them with tls to the bug's body. The dragon flies were a little bit more difficult to create as their wings (bent from red brass wire) had to be attached to their bodies inconspiciously but firmly. The one on the right has open wings, while the other one's wings were filled in with white translucent Fimo and TLS.

I also like to make bracelets. This one has fruit and vegetables on a silver chain. Colored paperclips were clipped apart, inserted in the uncured produced and bent at the top to form loops. During curing the plastic around the metal cores melds with the clay, forming a strong bond. Premo lends itself well to simulating bakelite.

For the rope bangles I used the clay gun with a clover-shaped hole. A mixture of Premo and SculpeyFlex results in strong, slightly flexible bangles, making it easier to slip them on and off, particularly because you don't want to make your bangles too big.