Polymer Clay Tutorial - How to Make a Fluid Acrylic Polymer Clay Pendant/Necklace Parts 1 and 2

Hi All, hope you enjoy trying out new techniques.  This is a 2 part tutorial.  In Part 1, you'll learn to use fluid acrylic paint and ink to create a polymer clay veneer to use in making this summery pendant.  The DecoArt Media fluid acrylic I used is so luscious.  In Part 2 you'll learn to make the beaded knotted necklace for a great look.  Thanks for joining me in my studio to learn polymer clay and jewelry making techniques.  Hope you enjoy.

Get the stringing diagram:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2h9AZ7gLoZhdWM2T0hGendkSmc/view?usp=sharing

Neat tools and materials for this project and your studio:

Cool Tools - Jewelry Shape Template - Cushion
http://amzn.to/2nIAW4a

Cool Tools - Jewelry Shape Template - Fat Rectangles
http://amzn.to/2nrpaZU

Wolf Pliers - these pliers have grooves for consistent loops
http://amzn.to/2o2vZns

Deco Art Media Fluid Acrylic Paint, 1-Ounce, Cadmium Orange Hue
http://amzn.to/2od6dKr

Deco Art Media Fluid Acrylic Paint, 1-Ounce, Cobalt Teal Hue
http://amzn.to/2nrqmwl

Clay Yo Texture Sponge:
https://prairiecraft.com/kato/CY-TS.html

Tools

Pasta Machine
Oven
Clay Blade
Jewelry Pliers - round nose and chain nose
Wire Cutter
Craft Knife
Jewelry Shape Templates - either Cool Tools or make your own with card stock or plastic
Texture Sheet
Straw - cocktail size
Knitting Needle or other needle tool if needed to help with knotting
Hand Drill - size to match bail
Baking Form - 3" glass vase


Materials

Clay - Sculpey Premo! - Bright Green Pearl and Peacock Pearl
Paint - DecoArt Media in Cadmium Orange Hue and Cobalt Teal Hue
Liquitex Ink - Gold
Krylon Pen - 18K Gold or other pen to add striping
Stringing Material - I used cotton cording; 9 ea 24" strands
Pinch Bail - 1 ea
Jump Rings - 2 ea, 6mm and 1ea 9mm, or size to fit
End Cap - 2 ea 4mm, or size to fit cords
Wire - 22 gauge, 2ea 4" pieces
Hypo Cement or other glue for necklace ends
Beads - 28 ea 6mm or size of your choice to match stringing material and clay;  I used 3 colors of acrylic beads; Color A (Blue) 12 ea; Color B (Green) 8 ea; Color C (Orange) 8 ea
Genesis Medium Thick Extender or Liquid Clay
Varnish - Varathane water based varnish


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Disclosure:  All opinions are my own.  I participate in several affiliate programs. That means I receive a commission when products are purchased through links posted on my videos. (At NO additional cost to you.) This allows me to bring you more videos!  This is how I earn compensation by sharing tips, techniques and projects with you.  The affiliate programs I use include Simon Says Stamp, Amazon and Michaels.  These are stores I shop at for the products I use.

Polymer Clay Tutorial Faux Leather, Faux Rivet Pendant

Polymer clay tutorial for a faux leather, faux rivet pendant.  Learn to make this polymer clay pendant with a faux leather, faux rivet look.  This versatile pendant can be strung on a variety of materials.  We'll use polymer clay, scrapbook brads, a cool texture plate and paint for the patina.  Go casual with this pendant or dress it up.  Hope you enjoy.  Thanks for joining me in my studio.

Here's the link to my DIY marking template:  https://youtu.be/CTfJIOETth4

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Product Links:

Ateco Round Cutters:  http://amzn.to/1TodKwT
Darice Embossing Folder:  http://amzn.to/26VHrPY

Visit my Amazon store for the products you need to build a great polymer clay studio and complete the projects in my videos.  Sweet Willow Designs Store:  http://astore.amazon.com/sweewilldesi-20

Tools
Oven
Pasta Machine
Cutters - 1-1/2", 1" and 3/4" (Ateco Cutters)
Texture Plate - Darice Embossing Folder "Fall Leaf Background"
Needle tool
Paint brush
Hand drill or electric drill
Light bulb - round vanity style

Materials
Clay - Premo! any color for the center cabochon, bronze or other to simulate leather
Scrapbook brads - small 7 ea, color of your choice
Jump ring - 9mm or large enough to accommodate bail or stringing material
Bail - large enough to accommodate stringing material
Necklace finding

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/SweetWillowDsgn
Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/SweetWillowDsgn
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/search?q=SweetWillowDsgn
Blog:
http://www.sweetwillowdesigns.blogspot.com

Disclosure:  All opinions are my own.  I participate in several affiliate programs. That means I receive a commission when products are purchased through links posted on my videos. (At NO additional cost to you.) This allows me to bring you more videos!  This is how I earn compensation by sharing tips, techniques and projects with you.  The affiliate programs I use include Simon Says Stamp, Amazonand Michaels.  These are stores I shop at for the products I use.

Cool Tools Alpha Disk Lettering System Un-Boxing Product Review

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Cool Tools Alpha Disc Lettering System Un-boxing and product review.  Join me in my studio to see how this new to me lettering system works.  I've been using the traditional metal stamps you can find at the craft store or Harbor Freight and really wanted something else with more variety in font style and size.  So, I came across a recommendation for this lettering system from Cool Tools.  You can order sets that include 5 different fonts and includes capital letters, lower case and numbers/symbols.  Let's see how these work.

I'm not affiliated or sponsored by Cool Tools.  All opinions are my own.  Here's the link if you want to check it out.  http://www.cooltools.us/SearchResults.asp?Search=alpha+disc&Submit=Search

Want to try polymer clay or see what I use in my studio?  Click the link to check out my Amazon store: Sweet Willow Designs Amazon Store

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/SweetWillowDsgn
Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/SweetWillowDsgn
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/search?q=SweetWillowDsgn
Blog:
http://www.sweetwillowdesigns.blogspot.com

Disclosure:  All opinions are my own.  I participate in several affiliate programs. That means I receive a commission when products are purchased through links posted on my videos. (At NO additional cost to you.) This allows me to bring you more videos!  This is how I earn compensation by sharing tips, techniques and projects with you.  The affiliate programs I use include Simon Says Stamp, Amazon and Michaels.  These are stores I shop at for the products I use.

How to Make Polymer Clay Fairy Door Earrings - #CACFantasyArt

Hi All, thanks for joining me in my studio.  Today' we'll make our own portal into the fairy world with the sweet polymer clay fair door earrings.  These simple earrings can be embellished any way you want by changing up the color and beads.

The legend is that these fairy doors are the portal to the fairy world and true believers can enter through these doors.  I hope you enjoy this project. See the tools and materials list below.

Kemper Klay Cutter - 3/16" 4 basic shapes - flower, teardrop, circle and heart  http://amzn.to/1MuNH4W

Visit my Amazon store as a resource for the products I use in my studio.  http://astore.amazon.com/sweewilldesi-20

Tools
Oven
Pasta Machine
Craft blade
Craft knife
Needle tools
Embossing tool
Jewelry pliers - round nose and cutters
Cutters - 3/16" heart and flower; 1" and 3/4" circle

Materials
Clay - Raw Sienna and various colors for flowers.  I use Sculpey Premo!
Paint - Burnt Sienna or other dark brown (optional)
Earring findings - 2 ea of ear wire, ear nut, eye pin and head pin
Beads - 2 ea

Facebook:
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Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/SweetWillowDsgn
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/search?q=SweetWillowDsgn
Blog:
http://www.sweetwillowdesigns.blogspot.com

Disclosure:  All opinions are my own.  I participate in several affiliate programs. That means I receive a commission when products are purchased through links posted on my videos. (At NO additional cost to you.) This allows me to bring you more videos!  This is how I earn compensation by sharing tips, techniques and projects with you.  The affiliate programs I use include Simon Says Stamp, Amazon, Dick Blick and Michaels.  These are all stores I shop at for the products I use.

SWD Polymer Clay Three Rose Necklace Tutorial

Hi All, welcome to my studio.  In today's tutorial, we'll make a polymer clay three rose necklace.  This necklace can be customized to be a family or commemorative necklace to represent your children or grandchildren, marriage or a departed friend or family member.  It's a sweet reminder of your loved ones.  This would make a great gift for a mother-in-law or grandma.  Hope you enjoy this video tutorial.  See the tools and materials list below the video.

Tools
Oven
Pasta Machine
Jewelry pliers
Craft knife
Needle tool
Paint brush or sponge
Hand drill
Paper template - see shape in video - 1.5" length x 3/4" width

Materials
Polymer clay - I used Premo! Sculpey in Spanish Olive for the leaves and a mix of Magenta and Pearl for the roses (the leaves were rolled on the thickest setting of my Atlas pasta machine, the backing sheet was rolled at #3.
Genesis Medium, Liquid clay or Bake 'n Bond
Sandpaper - 30-40 grit
Paint - Burnt Umber
Jump rings - 6mm approx or size to fit
Chain - 2 8" lengths
Clasp
Paper towel

SWD - Oh No! I Burned my Clay. Can this piece be saved?

In the last video series I created a tassel pendant.  The ones you see are not my first attempts.  I originally planned a bright, summery pendant with bright yellow, orange and purple.  Almost a retro look.  Unfortunately, because the clay covering is relatively thin, I burned and scorched the clay.  The result was a sad, dark mess.  The piece was destined for the trash but really, with the time I put into creating it, and the fact that I liked the shape, I decided to see what I could do to save it.  So, I used bronze, heavy body paint, I antiqued it and added a bunch of Swarovski crystals for some bling. Added a gold tassel, and I'm happy with the result.  So, see what you can do to save those not so perfect pieces.  Here's the video on the process. Have you ever burned a piece?  What did you do?  Let me know in the comments.  Hope you enjoy the video.

Featured on Totally Tutorials - Custom Jewelry Display Stands

I submitted my tutorial for custom jewelry display stands to the Totally Tutorials site and they published it on April 20!  Check out their site for great tutorials of all sorts.

Experimenting with Color on Polymer Clay

I just recently purchased a couple of sets of Pan Pastels to color polymer clay.  I love it.  In this experiment, I created a leaf shaped pin with purple colored wire buds and applied several green and yellow Pan Pastel colors to raw clay with a soft paint brush and then cured it.  The Pan Pastel is very durable as it did not easily scratch off.

Once cured, I used purple Prismacolor colored pencils to add layers and depth of color.  Finally, I added some gold embossing powder to the edges and a bit sprinkled on the main piece to add a metallic tone and add texture.  I like the way it turned out.

This was my first time using the Pan Pastel and so far I'm very impressed with how it works on the polymer clay.  I'll be doing more experiments to test its durability and coloring abilities.

Polymer Clay Faux Knit Mitten Earring Tutorial

Let’s knit with polymer clay!  Join me in my studio as we make a polymer clay knitted “fabric” that we can use to make these cute mitten earrings.  You could also resize the mitten template to make a necklace, bracelet or zipper pull.  

You can find some free, downloadable Christmas templates here.  Copy the mitten template and resize in word processing or image processing software.  You can use any size that works for your project.  I re-sized the mitten template to 1” by .88” which is a good size for earrings.

I hope you enjoy this video tutorial.  If you enjoyed this video, subscribe, give me a thumbs up and leave a comment.  Thanks for joining me in my studio.  See the materials/tools list below the video link.

Materials

Polymer clay colors of your choice.  I’m using red and white Premo!

Paper mitten template

Eye pins – 2 ea

Ear wires – 2 ea

Jump ring – 6mm – 2 ea

Sandpaper – optional

Tools

Pasta Machine

Oven

Extruder with multi-hole disk (disk with 19 holes usually include in the basic set with Makins extruder)

Craft knife

Jewelry pliers – chain nose

Super Easy Polymer Clay Christmas Tree Charm

Hi All and welcome to my studio.  Today I’m doing a super easy project to make sweet Christmas tree charms that can be used for earrings, necklaces, bracelets or even a zipper pull for the holidays.  This is also a fun projects to do with the kids (supervision as needed).   Check out the video below for making the charm and a pair of earrings.  For more videos, subscribe to my YouTube Channel, give me a thumbs up or leave me a comment.  Thanks again for joining me in my studio.  Let’s get started (see materials/tools list at the bottom of the post).

Materials (Earrings)

Polymer clay – bits of green with a touch of black to tone it down if preferred, brown, red and yellow – I use Premo! as it is more durable

Embossing powder – chunky, snow type or you could use bits of white clay for the snow

Head pin – 2”, 2 ea

Jump ring – 6mm, 2 ea

Earwire – 2 ea

Tools

Oven

Jewelry making pliers/wire cutter for top loop

At Long Last - Rock Purse Tutorial Parts 2 and 3

In May 2011 I posted the first part of what was to be a two part tutorial on how to make a polymer clay rock purse, a decorative purse based on the Japanese inro.  I had intended to post a two part tutorial on YouTube but only got as far as Part 1 when my travel schedule got in the way of finishing the tutorial.

Well, more three years later, I finished two more parts to complete the series.  When I filmed, I had about 28 minutes of video which is way too long so I edited to create two more parts.  Part 2 talks about the design choices the maker considers for how to string and finish the rock purse and Part 3 gives the final finishing options.

I hope you enjoy the videos.  Go on over to YouTube to view and leave comments and subscribe if you are interested in seeing more videos.  Thanks for joining me in my studio.

Polymer Clay Silk Screen Necklace

Here's the necklace I created using the silk screened polymer clay from my demo in the last post.  I used scrapbooking elements including brads to lock the pieces together and eyelets to finish the holes where the chain joins the necklace.  The brads allows for the pieces to move so the main circles can be re-positioned. This would look nice with a white button down, peeking out of the collar.