
How to make a polymer clay necklace in an ethno style with a bright and original leopard print in green shades
Are you planning a party?The dress is chosen, the shoes are bought, the nail polish, handbag and makeup are waiting for their turn? But something is missing. Of course, jewelry! In order to become the star of any holiday, to feel unique and inimitable, accessories are necessary. For example, a necklace in an original and bright style. Among the modern mass production of many jewelry and costume jewelry, every woman still wants to find and wear something unique. At all times, jewelry made with your own hands stood apart, demonstrating the excellent and original taste of the hostess. Therefore, to become the owner of a beautiful necklace that no one else has, you can make it yourself. One of the most popular materials for creating high-quality and beautiful jewelry is polymer clay. Conventionally, it is divided into baked and self-hardening. Craftswomen choose the first for jewelry, it is also called thermoplastic. This is a very soft and pliable material that hardens at a temperature of 110 - 130 ⁰С. Thanks to the rich color palette, as well as many additional effects, such as metallic shades, fluorescence or glitter, plastic is winning more and more hearts of needlewomen every day. In this article, we will make an original necklace with a leopard print in an unexpected green color scheme. This is jewelry for free girls and women who are not afraid to be bright and original.Materials for work:
- Polymer clay (black, brown, white and green);
- Stationery knife;
- Acrylic or glass rolling pin;
- Small cutters of irregular shape;
- Black beads with caps;
- A line or jewelry cable;
- Lock for the necklace;
- Grinding plate (can be replaced with a nail file for polishing nails);
- Transparent glossy varnish for plastics;
- Needle or toothpick.
Before you start working, you need toKnead the thermoplastic thoroughly until it becomes soft and pliable. Since our necklace will consist of beads covered with a glossy shiny varnish, it is better to work with clay in gloves. Plastic is very sensitive to fingerprints. When the clay is kneaded properly, form a sausage from the brown plastic. Approximate dimensions are about 10 cm in length and about 2 cm in diameter. Now make a longitudinal groove in this sausage about 2 - 3 mm in width. We do not cut it, but press it with a toothpick or the end of a thin brush. Take the black thermoplastic and roll thin sausages from it. They should be equal in diameter to the longitudinal groove in the brown sausage. Place one such sausage in the groove, and arrange all the others along the brown cane. They should completely cover the brown clay (see photo).Now we mix a little white and moregreen clay. No need to stir until smooth. White veins should be visible in the green layer. Now roll out this white-green piece into a layer of about 3 mm and wrap our black-brown blank in a layer in one layer. Slightly compress the resulting cane. You should get an irregular lopsided rectangle with smooth corners. This is necessary so that in the future our "leopard" spots are not strictly symmetrical and identical, but are random, as in nature.
We cut our workpiece into 4 parts and fold themtheir cuts to the front side (see photo). Now we again compress the sausage to the original size and form an irregular rectangle. Cut the blank and get an almost finished print. If you want a smaller pattern, you can repeat the compression and cutting procedure again (see photo). But in this necklace we used a large print, so the necklace will look more original. Now we need to cut our rectangular sausage into pieces about 4 mm thick.
Now we take a layer of brown polymer claycolors and place our blanks on it close to each other. Go over them with a rolling pin. There is no need to roll them out thinly. It will be enough for the blanks to become one whole (see photo).
Now we take cutters of various shapes.If you don't have ready-made ones (they are sold in craft stores), you can use small baking molds. Another option would be to create your own molds. A tin can from drinks will do for this. It is easy to cut, and you can make a variety of fancy molds. So, cut out the future beads. If you worked with gloves, the beads will be smooth. In any case, you can polish them. Make through holes and bake our beads.
After they have cooled, we cover them with varnish,let it dry and string it on a double-folded fishing line or a jewelry rope. Alternate them with round black beads with caps. When everything is put on, attach the lock and go become the star of the party.