How To Make Stud Earrings Match Your Polymer Clay Pendants Perfectly

Cool idea!

I often make cookie cutter type beads/pendants from sheets of clay with cane slices or mokume gane on one or both sides of it, and there's always leftover bits that are weird shapes, not big enough to make more beads. If it was plain clay I'd just ball it up and re-roll it, but as the clay has patterns I don't want to lose that.

Instead I carefully form the scraps into a log with as much of the pattern on the outside as possible, then use my bead roller to make swirly oval beads. They look pretty in their own right, and also tone in with the main project as well.

I actually get a bit frustrated when I'm making something that requires scrap clay, because I hardly ever have any scrap clay! I end up using new clay instead because all my leftovers seem to end up as swirly beads. ;)
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These are both great ideas Cindy.

I've got a question. Do you have any idea of where to get pewter sheets? I tried my local Michaels and nothing. Everything but pewter. Any ideas?

When I started making things with clay I loved doing pins and all the tiny pieces left became mini pins the same way you do your earings.
Putting many together made it fun to put on a bag, on the flap of the jean pocket, on a cap or a hat.
Great way to remember your different canes.
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@ aims

Just looking at options on leafing that need restocking. Hope these help!

Found three great sites for online ordering. The first is good old MisterArt.com. The second is a site called volcanoarts.biz. Tons of leafing and pewter metal findigs on the second site.

The third site is a jewel, gilders.com, which describes the original art form of gilding and has some wonderful products and pictures for inspiration.

Cannot get out to stores, so online ordering has become the norm. If you are at all hesitant, just get a credit card with a low max…say $200, and keep it just for polymer clay orders. It's easy.
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I was on a cane making spree last weekend and had bits and pieces left over. My favorite one was a blue cane with a antiqued gold wrap on each petal. Some of the bits and pieces that I trimmed off went into the bead roller and the rest went to earrings and a pendant using a technique from one of the recent PolymerCafe magazines using parts from fishing lures. The last bit was used to make a reel cover for the badge I wear at work. None of these projects takes much clay and now I have earrings to match my badge reel cover!
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Great idea for matching post earrings! Quite a bit of my scrap ends up as swirly lentil beads. Or I mix it to form a new color to use in another project. Because I use rubber stamps quite a bit, extra stamped pieces are put aside for mosaic tiles for later projects.
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@Silverleaf: I know what you mean about not having much scrap clay. I almost always use up everything from each cane or project I do, in a similar way to you. (It makes it so you have coordinated beads that way.) When I need scrap clay I often just whack the bad end off a cane and use that. Thanks for sharing your ideas with us!

@aims: Jocelyn did an excellent job answering your question. Hope you found that helpful!

@Jocelyn: Great tips! Like the credit card one too. It's a great one for nervous web buyers! Thanks for helping aims, I love that!

@Arlene: Sounds fantastic! Bet you look professional wearing your custom badge holder and earrings!

@intothedawn: I do that with the leftover stamped pieces too! I like the rough cracked edges as well. Think they look cool, like artifacts. Look great in mosaics too!

Hey Thanks Jocelyn! I will look into all three of these!

Love the credit card tip as well!