How To Make Pendants Out Of Polymer Clay – A Quick Tip

After making your beveled edge pendant, you will want to bake it so that it stays flat. Here's how: Tips for Baking Flat Sheets of Clay (video link will be posted soon)

Cindy, The Polymer Clay Tutor's last blog post..Sand Your Polymer Clay Beads! Or Else…

Cindy, You have no idea how useful this tip is to me! I have been using my dremel with a coarse sanding tip to bevel each and every one of my pendants! What a waste of my time, when all I had to do was break out the Saran Wrap! Thank you so much for being there!
Donna

Thank you Donna! Yeah I know, this is probably the only thing that isn't easier to do with your Dremel!

Cindy Lietz's last blog post..Dremel Multipro Tool for Buffing Polymer Clay Beads

Cindy,

For Valentine's Day, my husband decided to take me shopping (early) for all the polymer clay supplies my little heart desired. I've been designing jewelry with vintage pieces coupled with new beads…and I stumbled upon the idea for creating my own beads last week.

Been reading all I can find on the process, and came upon your site this evening. My head is pleasantly spinning! I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight!

Your work is amazing, Cindy, but even more amazing is your willingness to teach. Your site is better than chocolate.

And I really, REALLY like chocolate.

You are so wonderful to say that Seedplanter! To be compared to chocolate is my dream come true!

Hope you enjoy the journey of making polymer clay beads. It's a fun one!

If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to ask!

PS. Visited your blog today… it's great! I'll be back there often!

Cindy, thank you for adding yourself as a follower of Blogspired. It was fun to see your picture appear there!

I have an Amazon Kindle and when I can't sleep, I turn it on and browse your polymer clay blog via Bloglines, where I've added it to my list of blogs. My husband knows so much about polymer clay now, because I'm constantly relaying what I've learned. :D

I made my very first set of beads over the weekend, from a cane. Oh. My. Gosh. How do you spell "addicted"? I used three layers: black/white/silver. I'm in the process of making a bracelet. You have inspired me to really dive into this. Wow. It's a creative blast!

Your beads sound great! So good to see you are getting addicted… it's fun isn't it!

Those Kindles seem cool. Would be fun to browse blogs in bed, though that would mean I would never be off the computer. I like the idea of reading books on them. They look like a great way to have lots of books in one tiny package.

Thanks for your comments!

I just bought the AMACO beveled edge cutters to make pendants, but they don't looke beveled what am I doing wrong?

Hi Carmn! I don't actually use those bevel cutters since I usually just use a regular cutter with plastic wrap to get a beveled edge.

My guess is the sheet of clay you are trying to cut is either too thin or too thick to work with those particular cutters. Experiment with the thickness and see if that works for you.

Thanks! I don't know why I didn't think of that I think I am make my clay too thin. How do you use plastic wrap to make your beveled edges?

Actually Carmn it is in the post I gave you the link to. Just lick the Beveled Edges link by my name to read about it.

@Carmn:
I also have the Amaco beveled edge cutters. It seems to me that they are only beveled on the part that gets cut away. I've tried thick layers of clay and still just get a regular edge cut. Is there anyone out there who knows how to use these?

I'm sorry Carolyn and Carmn, I've seen those cutters available but haven't tried them. Seems to me I looked at them one time and decided that they probably wouldn't work. I would like to hear from others though. Maybe they just need to be used a certain way?

On another note, I just noticed that I told Carmn to lick the Beveled Edges link by my name instead of click the link, which is of course something entirely different! :-)

Cindy,

I thought your Polymer Clay Beginners course was well worth the price. I got some good ideas, like the saran wrap for making beveled edges. This improved my buttons immensely! I love the bonus videos.

Joan

@Carmn & Carolyn: I have the Amaco Beveled Cutters, as well; but I couldn't get them to work for me, either. We could all be missing something, or…the cutters DO NOT WORK!

This is a great tip! It also solved a problem I've been having. The seams from my cookie cutters were leaving a noticeable uneven spot on the edges of my clay. When I'd try to smooth out the imperfection, I usually ended up making it worse.

I put a torn open ziplock bag over the clay, pressed down with my cookie cutter, and the result was wonderful! I had a beautiful, professional looking beveled edge and the cookie cutter seam didn't leave a mark.

@Phaedrakat: They do make good 'picture frames'.

… With the pendants and plastic wrap – I was finding that I had a hard time getting them off my work surface without distorting them. So I took Cindy's tip one step further and put plastic wrap on the work surface as well as on top of the clay. After using the cutter I lifted the piece and just peeled the wrap off the back and this solved my distortion problem. One time I even flipped the piece over and used the cutter on the reverse side – came out beveled on both sides!

@Carolyn: I used the extra bit of plastic under my clay like you said above and it worked like a champ. What a great tip, this plastic wrap & Cutter method for bezeled shapes. Thanks, Cindy for this great shape-saving tip; thanks, Carolyn for taking it a step farther. And sharing…so nice!

I didn't have time to give my Amaco cutters a second chance today. What kind of picture frames do you mean, Carolyn? (I also thought you might be kidding.)

I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one who can't figure out how to use the Amaco beveled cutters. How can they produce a product that doesn't work? Has anyone had success with them? They don't seem to have a cutting edge to them and are too thick.

@Phaedrakat: to add a frame around a photo transfer – a layer of 'frame' on top of another piece of clay.

@Carolyn: Okay, I get it. That would take advantage of the "reverse beveling" you get with those dastardly cutters! Thanks, I can certainly put that tip to good use.

I'm still interested in finding someone who's been able to make the Amaco Beveled Edge cutters work. There must be a way. I bought mine years ago & they're still on the market. People are buying/using them… If you know the trick — Help! (Cindy's plastic wrap/cutter trick works perfectly for beveled edges. It just bugs me that I paid $ for something I can't use for it's intended purpose!)

@Maria: I overlooked your comment. That's exactly how I feel about the cutters, very thick! The thinner edge that you could cut with is upside-down. Weird product. There must be a trick to it, but so far, no one's telling!

My feelings exactly Phaedrakat! (Fascinating name,BTW- what nationality are you, may I ask?) I do use Cindy's wrap technique, but want to use these plastic things I paid $ for and which are still being purchased by others.

Hi Maria, I'm American (from Riverside, Ca.) — Phaedrakat is just my username. The name Phaedra is from Greek mythology (Zeus was her grandpa!) I ended up naming my cat after her…

I haven't had time to mess around with these cutters any further. I keep hoping someone will post "the secret" to using them. That would be great if we ended up not wasting our money after all, huh?