Polymer Clay

I've recently become hooked on trying something new. It's making beads and pendants out of polymer clay. The possibilities are endless. I've begun making canes, from which you would take a thin slice and make a bead or pendant. You would then bake it, sand it, sand it some more and then sand it again. Then buff it and then polish it. So these are some of my first canes and the some of the beads that I've made from them. Mind you these are the first ones and they are not sanded or buffed and polished so they will have some fingerprints on them and the holes will not be perfect. When they are done though they will look gorgeous darling, I promise!!


This is a simple jelly roll cane. It's done in turquois, teal and white. You can see in the picture there are two spots where there are air bubbles. A definite no-no in using polymer clay.


These beads were made using the above jellyroll cane. They turned out pretty good!


So believe it or not, this is the second flower cane I've ever made. I am so impressed with how it turned out! It is a gerbera daisy that I learned from Cindy Lietz, The Polymer Clay Tutor. She broke it down into steps and made it so easy!


These beads are made from the gerbera daisy flower cane pictured above. There are large lentil beads (they are actually too big, but live and learn, the next ones will be smaller) using the above cane in two different sizes. The round beads are using the gerbera cane and also a translucent cane done in a gold/yellow color. These are okay, but the slices of the translucent cane should have been much thinner. Again, next time! The yellow beads in this picture are made from a burgundy base bead and slices of the yellow translucent cane.


This cane was made using a mixture of all three colors of the jelly roll cane and adding some goldleaf foil. You can see a faint marbled texture with specks of the goldleaf inside. There is a big chunk of goldleaf at the top of the cane.


These lentil beads were made from the above cane, however all of the marbling effect is gone and just the goldleaf is visible. They look a bit dingy right now because they haven't been through the sanding process yet, but I when they do, they will look quite nice.


This is a nice marbled cane that I made from the scraps from making the other canes. I love the marbled effect.


These beads were made again from scraps. I love the way the translucent clay is in chunks with the goldleaf. The shapes didn't turn out as round as I'd have liked, I must have been distracted or something (maybe too much wine, LOL)! That's okay though I'll find a use for them in something.


More scrap beads. My boys love these beads. They say that they look like camoflage beads. These haven't been throught the sanding process yet either.


This cane was made from scraps from the gerbera daisy cane above. It will make a really nice center cane for another flower cane or a nice cane for a kaleidoscope cane. As you can see from the picture below, this was made by simply twisting and twisting until the stripes on the outside are nice and tight. You never know what treasures are lurking inside your clay.




These beads were made from the cane above. I love the marbled effects on the outside of these beads. When they have gone through the sanding process they will be beautiful beads for a necklace, bracelet or earrings.


This cane is a kaleidoscope cane. It's my first one and it turned out okay. It's kinda cool looking, but eh, I'm sure more inspiration will come along.


These are some earring pendants that I made from a background or fabric sheet of clay. I used another kaleidoscope cane that turned out kinda cool looking.


Using the same fabric sheet, I tried some beads that had a different look to them. They turned out rather nice and I'll probably make some earrings with them too.


I had previously purchased some polymer clay beads and made a book thong using them as a focal bead. Well, I sold out of those beads and I couldn't get anymore. Soooo...I made this cane to replace those beads. It's not an exact replica, but it's pretty close to the original bead.
Here is my bead:

Here is the original bead:

Not exact, but pretty close!!