Polymer Clay Fish Beads Using Scraps From Faux Raku Technique

There's Never a Good Reason to Throw Out Left Over Bits of Polymer Clay:

One of the things I love about polymer clay is that nothing ever has to go to waste. Even the scraps can be put to good use. This little fish bead with the faux raku accent, is the perfect example of this.

For those of you who are members of the Polymer Clay Library, you will have already had the chance to see the Faux Raku Deep Crackle video that was posted last Friday. In that video, I showed you how to create a sheet of deeply crackled clay that could be wrapped around a core bead such as a tube bead, to give it the look of ceramic raku.

Near the end of that video, I told you to keep even the small scraps of the crackled clay to use in other bead projects. This little Fish Bead used as a dangle on a Copper Hookmark, was made using a small strip left over from that video.

This fish shaped bead was made using Black Premo Sculpey clay, formed with my fingers and smoothed out with a roller. Then a tiny strip of leftover faux raku was stuck to each side of the fish bead with a dab of liquid clay to secure it firmly.

The strips of raku had been sitting around for a day or two and I was concerned that cornstarch, dust or particles may have been on the back. So just to be sure it would adhere properly to the raw fish bead, I used TLS (Translucent Liquid Sculpey) to secure it. Studio by Sculpey Bake and Bond would have worked too. You could skip this step if the crackled faux raku sheet was fresh.

For a little textural contrast, the black area of the bead was sanded and coated with Studio by Sculpey Satin Glaze and the raised raku area was not sanded (or the finish would be removed) but coated with Studio's Glossy Glaze.

It just goes to show that even the tiniest scraps of any technique can be used to make great polymer clay beads. What do you do with your scraps?

BTW: If you have used your raku scraps in a clever way, and want to be showcased in a Spotlight Feature here at the blog, please email your photos to me along with some creative descriptions. This is your chance to shine!