Video #221: I’ve bought real coral beads before, but would love a video sometime on how to make faux coral. Lots of fun! ~Rose-M
According to many sources online, some of the hottest Jewelry Trends of 2011 are dramatic, layered and earthy looking jewelry.
Popular materials include mixed metals, stones, bone, wood, coral, chains and pearls. The colors are both spicy and exotic… as well as soft and cool.
As I have probably said a gazzillion times before, the cool thing about polymer clay is that it can mimic just about any material, even organic materials such as Bone, Jade, Wood and even Coral.
Inspired by polymer’s ability to imitate, and my love of all things natural, this week I came up with a simple technique for making very realistic looking exotic Red Coral that can be used for making hand cut Heishi Beads.
So, coming up tomorrow (Friday September 16th, 2011) in the Vol-040-2 members video at the Polymer Clay Tutor Library, I will be demonstrating how to create your own natural looking Faux Coral Heishi Beads to use in all kinds of jewelry making projects.
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Please Note: A general prerequisite for all of my weekly tutorials is that you have a good understanding of the polymer clay basics, including: conditioning clay, using a pasta machine, clay blade and other simple tools, making Skinner Blends or Teardrop Blends, baking clay, as well as sanding and finishing. If you need help in these areas, my Polymer Clay Beginners Course will get you up to speed quickly. There is also plenty of free information on this blog. Use the search box at the top of the page to find articles on specific topics.
Supplies & Tools: Video-040-2 Faux Coral Heishi Beads:
- Polymer clay in the following colors:
– 5044 Red Translucent Premo Sculpey Accents. (alternatively you could mix your own red translucent clay by mixing a tiny amount of a Red Clay of your choice into a larger amount of White Translucent clay).
– 5383 Alizarin Crimson Premo Sculpey (optional but recommended).
– 5026 Pomegranate Premo Sculpey (optional but recommended).
– 5033 Orange Premo Sculpey (optional but recommended).
– 5382 Cadmium Red Hue Premo Sculpey (optional but recommended).
- Pasta machine (optional).
- Bead Rack and Piercing Wires.
- One Sided Safety Razor Blade or super sharp Clay Blade.
- Cutting surface.
- Black or Brown Acrylic Paint.
- Stiff Bristle Brush.
- Paper Towel.
- Sanding and buffing supplies (optional).
- Water.
- Rubbing Alcohol (optional).
- Small Zip-loc Bag.
- Soft Artist Brush for Glazing (optional).
- Sculpey Gloss Glaze (optional).
- Small drill bit for enlarging holes after baking (optional).
The full version of the Vol-040-2 Faux Coral Heishi Beads video will be posted in the Polymer Clay Members Library on Friday September 16, 2011. But if you would like to see a sneak peek intro clip right now, scroll down the page a bit to the video player below.
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The full version of the “Faux Coral Heishi Beads” preview video shown above, is now available for purchase at the Polymer Clay Library in the Volume-040 Back Issue Package.
Customer Feedback About Membership Value:
Thank you Cindy and Doug for a most wonderful year of fun, artistic, brain storming, happy go lucky, low cost, tutorials and blogging. The LIETZ TEAM beats them all at everything you could possibly think of. The two of you slammed it out there with a year of the most exciting PC Fun and Talent all wrapped up into a package anyone can afford. No excuse to pass this up. If you only knew. Try it and the only regret you will have is that you have missed so much for so little money. Come on and join the best PC tutor ever. UUUUUUUGGGGGGGS. ~Peggy-B
I love my purchase of the entire set of back issue videos! What a joy to have a “tutor” instead of flying by the seat of my pants, wasting time, money. ~Bonnie-B
Cindy, I so enjoy your videos and look forward to every Friday to see what new thing is happening. I’m impressed with how you take complicated ideas and present them in ways that are easy to understand therefore making them easy for me to attempt to duplicate. I am a teacher also and I know what it takes to pull a lesson together… alot goes into each lesson just to get it to a proper presentation. Now if you were to decide to do more complicated techniques I would be willing to pay more as it would only be fair. Just my thoughts! ~Jayne-S
The following topics are included in this week’s Polymer Clay Tutor Library, Faux Coral Heishi Beads video tutorial:
- See examples of loose heishi beads and those strung into a stunning mixed media necklace design, with earrings to match.
- Discussion of the tools, supplies and techniques needed to create these simple and stunning polymer clay beads.
- Find out how simple it is to make this realistic hand cut bead, and how easily it can be adapted using other polymer clay faux techniques.
- Learn cool tricks for highlighting the texture on the faux coral heishi beads and getting that lustrous shine!
- Plus, with some creativity and ingenuity, there are many ways to come up with other unique designs of your own.
The full version of the “Faux Coral Heishi Beads” preview video shown above, is now available for purchase at the Polymer Clay Library in the Volume-040 Back Issue Package.
OOOOOOOOOOh! They look fantastic, more faux, love it, I can’t wait for tomorrow.
Love the different colorations used in these beads. I think they would look great in some Christmas jewelry also.
LOVE This! I would SO wear this necklace-just wonderful :D
I also hope you are going to give us a few hints on how to use the components that hold and hide all the many wire ends–can’t recall what the’re called at the moment–argg
looking forward to tomorrow – sherry
Hi Sherry! Are you talking about bead caps/cones? I agree, they look gorgeous, and do a fabulous job of hiding the “not as pretty” ends of necklace strands. Cindy has shown us a perfect example here with her beautiful piece, for sure! Hopefully, she’ll share some of her fab tips…I know she never fails to show (me, at least!) something new!
If Cindy didn’t go that route in the video, I can tell you how I do it: basically, you have to “end” each strand…then combine them, as much as possible, using knots, crimps, jumprings, etc. The goal is to get those ends together in a tidy little bunch (that the cap will cover.) Then you use wire to loop through the “finished” ends…then wrap to secure. Finally, thread the other wire end through the bead cap/cone, sliding it over the top to hide the ends of the strands! Use a wire-wrapped loop to join the “capped” ends to the rest of the piece (the rear chain, in Cindy’s necklace.) And, Voila! Of course, the exact process always depends on the stringing materials… Not sure if that helps, but I can give you more detail if you like. I’m hoping to soon — finally — be able to post my photos (and SHOW the stuff I’m always rambling about, LOL!)
Yes–Bead Cones– I couldn’t for the life of me think of that ;) Thank you also for the very well explained use of them– you have a way of drawing pictures in my mind
Where can I find the Bead Cones that you used on this finished piece. They are such a nice bell shape and have some detail too. I checked on the RingLord site that was mentioned for some of the components but didn’t find them there
Nice tutorial!
Try firemountaingems.com or Riogrande.com
Hi Bette, I got my bead cones at Shipwreck Beads. Stay tuned… there is going to be more about the bead cones coming soon. Not this week but maybe the next? Wink, wink…
Love the Heishi style beads! I think they look great with polymer clay. Looking forward to this video, Cindy! Beautiful color!
Like I always say-I get as excited about the pieces representing the technique as I do about the technique itself. This week is no exception. I’m seconding Tantesherry’ request for a how-to on hiding the ends. Love it! Can’t wait!
I’m so excited to watch tomorrow’s video. I can’t do any claying now as our house is a mess. I’m trying to sort and pack as we are moving to our new house Oct 14th. The colors in the necklace are just my colors, all the earthy tones. I love them! Cindy, I think you mentioned using soft flex wire for the earring. Did you knot it or use a crimp?
I paused the video on the earring…it definitely looks like she used a crimp on the smaller (upper) loop of the SoftFlex. What a clever earring design!
I love coral and can’t wait for tomorrow to get here to view the full tutorial. The necklace is fantastic!
Gorgeous coral heishi’s, Cindy! I haven’t ordered any of the new Premo translucent clays — figured it would be just as easy to “make my own.” I guess I’ll wait for the video to see if doing that will be satisfactory (or if I want to add Red Trans. to my shopping list!) I’m looking forward to this video…it actually seems like two techniques — Faux Coral AND Heishi’s. I have a feeling I’ll want to make the Heishi beads in lots of other “faux’s”, as well as regular clay colors. They make such awesome spacers, after all. Can’t wait for Friday!
Hi Kat. I love these Heishi beads and am going to make them in lots of colors too. Very useful size and shape. I’m even going to use the same method of mixing the colors as Cindy does but I’m going to use other color ways. They may not look like authentic anythings but I bet they’ll be pretty.
You said you haven’t ordered any of the new translucents yet. I was curious. Do you order clay when the weather is warm and, if so, have you had any problems after delivery, i.e. pre-curing from being in high heats during transit, etc? I’ve been waiting for cooler weather to bulk order clay as I’ve been worried about all this heat, especially here in Texas where I live.
Angela,
I know you weren’t asking me but since i have had some experience ordering clay in the summer months in Florida i thought i would share. I ordered mine from prairie craft (kato polyclay, big bars) and have not had any trouble with curing in high heat- though I almost always meet the mail man, if not I am there within an hour of it being delivered. Not sure if other shops would be different, or maybe ordering from UPS might be safer (more expensive, too, though). One other thing you could try is to have the mailman hold onto your package at the post office, rather than carry it with him on the truck all day? (not sure how close you are to him or her, but I can talk to mine and ask him to hold it at the post office if I am going to be late and don’t want it to sit in the mailbox for hours in the florida (or texas) heat.
Hi, Kat! Me, too! I haven’t tried the translucents either. But, Cindy, must have tried making her own and finds it works. I haven’t had a chance to play much lately. (Re-finishing all the hardwood floors! Hugh job!) So, the next three days I will have to live in my studio! (I know “poor me” :-) So, I will work on all the Fauxs!!
Bead Swap
Several people on this Blog have mentioned wanting to do a bead swap. I think it’s a GREAT idea and have offered to co-ordinate it. I will be starting a second round swap on Monday with additional names. Still have time to get in on the fun. All of the details and instructions are outlined in the comment thread at this post link: Bead Swap
WOW what a wonderful easy technique to make these beautiful beads. Once again the two of you have done a amazing job together. The rich color adds so much depth to the beads. The necklace you made Cindy is Awesome. It shows off your creative talents in every way . Can’t wait to work with these beads. You have challenged us to use our imaginations to yet another level. Thank you once again for a fantastic tute.
Doug I hope you have a happy birthday and a wonderful weekend with your lovely family.
Many Uuuggs to all fellow clayers.
Question for Doug. Have you ever worked with the polymer clay????
Hi All – Now that my picture is included in the web site banner graphic, I guess it is high time I started popping into the comments from time to time… so I set up my own Gravatar, and here I am.
Now to answer your question Peggy… actually I don’t work with polymer clay. Woodwork is my thing :-)
I’ll add the larger version of my Gravatar image at the end of this thread with some information for everyone about how to set up Gravatar’s of your own. It’s easy to do.
Thanks for this tute Cindy. I’ve liked the look of Heishi beads for a while now and am glad to see how simple you’ve made it to make them.
Your example necklace is just beautiful. I really like how you combined the different elements together and the matching earrings are the perfect touch.
Like Sherry said, it would be great to have a tute on using the various jewelry components. Maybe a fifth Friday, if it doesn’t work for a regular tute? I am a very visual person and learn so much easier if I can see it being done.
One other thing – fingernail length. Is there a secret to having longer nails and working with polymer clay? So far, I’ve had to keep mine very short or I end up marking the clay, even when I use surgical gloves.
Thanks again for all you do Cindy, I really appreciate you. And Doug, And Willow :)
OMG. The necklace you made is absolutely stunning, You never cease to amaze me.
A positive note about making the faux heishi beads you get the look and it is environmentaly friendly. Our coral reefs are being destroyed in so many ways.
I always wonder how Cindy’s nails always look so clean.
Anna
At last! I have always stayed away from red coral after reading that sometimes it bled, meaning that the dye wasn’t good enough. And how could anyone pass on this gorgeous color?
I am in love with this technique. I googled heishi beads and saw a variety of colors that could be achieved with the other faux techniques you have taught us. Lots to be inspired by. Thanks again Cindy and Doug. Oh, and I think Doug should answer Peggy’s question. We are all curious.
OK Jill… I replied to Peggy’s question above :-)
Love this tute too and know I will use it many times. Thanks for sharing the fact that you Googled heishi beads. Their history is very interesting. Quite an interesting history lesson on several of the sites that popped up. Native American culture is one of my passions and a trip to New Mexico would be most welcome, never know. Thanks again. Happy claying everyone.
Also, “Thanks” to you Cindy.
Great tute. I agree, there are lots of gemstones to FAUX. Busy fingers -blending, cutting and antiquing . Will enjoy this for a long time. Thanks all ;D
Hi everyone had the best time yesterday making these – as a matter of fact as soon as I put the 1st batch in the oven I started on another batch right away ;D Today I need to glaze the 2nd batch and then heat set them all :) Iv’e taken a few pics and will post them in a few minutes. Wonderful tute!!!
Cindy & Doug -thanks so much for your help with my account. Again, you both show how much you care about your clay family. This caring is a great part of why this site is so successful – again I thank you so much !!!!!
Here’s some info for all of you that have not yet added a photo or unique image to help identify yourself. Those thumbnail pics (aka Gravatars), really help a lot in making the community feel more friendly and inviting.
Here is a link the will provide you with more information about how to upload your own Gravatar picture. It’s quick and easy to do!
After the Gravatar system “processes” your photo upload (it can sometimes take a few hours)… then that generic sideways G logo which is currently posted beside each of your comments here at the blog… will automatically update.
By the way, if you type “Gravatar” into the search box at the top of the page, you’ll also get some links to other comment threads where this topic has been discussed by other members as well.
“SEE” you all soon :-)
Love this tute. I can also see it in different colors for various projects. More bang for the buck.
Hi Cindy-while planning a necklace yesterday w/ my new fab faux coral beads I ran into a bit of a bother— the inside,where the slices were made — the glaze shows – alot, not a nice look or at least not the way I wanted them to look—- I did figure out a design for this batch—-But after looking at the above photo again I see that your beads don’t have a ring of glaze showing on the cut surface— So my ? is how’d you manage such a clean ‘inside’ look— thanks-sherry
Try a little sand paper to rescue the ones you made.
hi Anna, yeah that’s probley the best idea for the ones that will show– also I think I used too much glaze, thanks sherry
Hi Tantesherry, looks like I forgot this one. I agree with Anna, a quick sanding should fix them nicely. Another option is rubbing alcohol to remove the excess glaze. To avoid this in the future, try to ‘string’ in similar size groups on the wire when you go to glaze and use very thin coats. This will keep it from getting on the sides too much.
Hi
Loved this latest video. I’m glad that I can’t watch it on Friday night and Sat..so I have no problem when I view them later.
Can anyone recommend a place to purchase a Lortone 3lb Rotary Rock tumbler. Or is there any other brand that you could recommend. I have not been sanding my small beads.. just coating them with Future shine and I would like to see how different they look when tumbled.
Hi Natalie, I was hoping someone else would pop in here with some advice. Since I only have experience with a Lortone tumbler, I can’t really recommend anything else to you. I do know that Lortone is of excellent quality and that you can’t go wrong getting that particular brand. Hope that helps!
Hi guys
Have any of you made the faux coral w/ the packaged tran. red? I didn’t have any so I used frost and a bit of aliz. crim and a bit of the new pomegranate—anyway if you look on Cindy’s facebook page where we post pictures you’ll see I was really siked about this tute —- straight away made 2 batches–loving it ;) They turned out so pretty that I set to making a necklace and a pair of earring asap—(Side Note:Phaedrakat– thanks again for the help w/ the cones–I did what you said,did you see :D )
So now the problem: in the sun shine the coral turned this icky pink-burgandy-kind of purple kind of not..in other words = I Am So Not Happy=
I’m sitting here asking myself should I post this or not, seems very negitive and I don’t want it to come across like that at all—but, always a but (lol), I had to take my mom back to the hospital today so thats probley go alot to do with all these emotions.
Thanks Guys!
Sorry to hear your mom is ill Tantesherry. Hope she will be better quickly. I too find it hard to cope with things like the wrong color when I’ve got a lot of emotional things going on in my life. You’ll be OK soon. Don’t worry.
As far as your Faux Coral goes, first of all there are tons of shades of Red when it comes to the real coral. So who says, your ‘pink-burgandy-kind of purple’ coral isn’t one of those shades? Google coral and you’ll see what I mean.
One thing you may want to do, is get a full spectrum light like and OTT light. This will help you get truer colors when you are mixing your own shades. Anyone that does a lot of color mixing will tell you that colors will look different in different lighting conditions. I find reds are especially that way. A full spectrum light will help prevent too many surprises when you head outside in your new jewelry.
As far as mixing your own coral trans, try just adding a little Cadmium Red to the Frost instead of the Pomegranate and Alizarin Crimson. BTW it is the Alizarin that is making your clay the pinky purple shade, that you’re not liking. The Cad Red will be a little more on the Orange side than the other Reds you were working with. If it is too Orange add tiny amounts of Pomegranate until you have the color you want.
Remember, there are a gazzillion shades of Red Coral and they are all pretty. Your beads and necklace turned out gorgeous, even if they are a different shade than you planned!
Hi Cindy
Thank you for the information regarding my color choices – pretty cool about the aliz cr being a purple base and all. btw I’m picking my mom up from the hospital today :)
Wore my coral set with a brown top yesterday to go see my friend Mary in a medical nursing home (she’s my friend that used to come over and ‘clay-play’ every week–good times) — She said about the same thing as you w/ coral coming in so many different colors. thanks again-sherry
Try mixing Cad Red in with the Aliz. Crimson, the cad red is a warmer red to the Aliz. cooler red they balance each other out. I had this problem when I was developing a recipe for red jade, they came out looking like ruby beads instead of red jade.
Hope this helps.
Hi Ken- Thank you for the reply, this is such a great tute you can bet I’ll take your advice and try again :)
So were you ever able to get the red jade recipe worked out? Sounds beautiful !!
Actually yes I did, it turned out to be 1 part each of Cad red and Alz. Crimson to a block of translucent.
Cool– thanks Ken !!
The recipe I used for the jade was (1) 11mm ball of Cad Red and (1) 11mm ball of Aliz. Crimson, to a full pack of translucent clay. I use the amaco tri-bead roller, the round bead in that set is an 11mm round
Hi Sherry,
Wow, your necklace (and Heishi’s!) turned out awesome! Thanks so much for saying my advice helped you. That means so much to me! I often worry that I ramble too much, so your “Thanks” means more than you know…
I hope your mom is out of the hospital and doing much better now! Hugs, Kat
Hi Kat,
I like reading your ‘ramblings.’ I’ve often thought you would make a great team addition for Cindy, so please, continue your ramblings.
Thank you, Angela — that’s quite a compliment! 8-D I do love to “ramble”, and being able to help others always makes me feel good. I’ve been leaving fewer contributions lately, though. Cindy’s new site is amazing with all its cool features, but I’ve had to “re-think” the way I keep track of all the comments. In addition, I’ve also been unusually busy; so I haven’t had time to fine-tune my “reader” solution, either. I’m getting further & further behind…but I’ll get back up to speed eventually. In the mean time, I’m concentrating on current posts/videos. Hopefully, I’ll be a-ramblin’ again very soon…on multiple topics! ;-)
Thanks again, Kat
Good Morning Kat- just wanted to tell you that I’ve enjoyed your replies (rambles) for Years- I aways thought of you as a teacher in “real life” , your replies are always so well thought out and helpful. Keep up the good work cause there are probley lots of people in the background (like I used to be) that benefit from your post and encouragement :)
ps: with fingers crossed and an eye toward heaven my mom is getting stronger each day–she better cause we have an almost 5 year old coming to visit for two weeks!!! My goodness I miss that child-Germany is so far away.
ps2: tomorrow I take my red and black faux raku necklace and earrings to the lady at our doctors office that requested I make ‘something red and black’ for her—I’m really excited to see her reaction :)
Hi all,
Only just managed to watch the faux coral tute, it’s really great thanks for that one Cindy. A couple of years ago before I discovered Cindy (and Doug) I made a load of North American native stuff, mixing my own recipes for coral, ivory and turquoise and gave earrings as Christmas gifts.
Wish I had known the “Cindy way,” as although they were pretty, I wasn’t satisfied with the end results, they didn’t look natural enough.! Although my sister said she wears her pair all the time as with the three colours they go with “everything” she wears.
Today my hands are covered in gold and white spray paint as have been constructing stands for this weekends craft fair. Still got half a tile of”things to do”. Yep you did read that right, have given up using my note book and used one of my large white “baking tiles” and a pencil. It is easy to wipe clean, doesn’t get borrowed (too heavy to go in someones pocket) and saves trees!!! It has become my shopping list, journal, and useful for taking down important telephone messages for DH.
Cindy, I also loved the Ikat tute, as again, tried this ages ago and it was a disaster, but managed to cover a large duck egg that was “interesting” and bumpy:{ Will unearth it one day and use the “Cindy Way” to make it a thing of beauty.
Thanks also Doug for info provided about Gravatar and other tips, it is so appreciated and nice to see your smiling face. (Do you wear that hat all the time??) Only joking, suits you!! Bye now……………..cheers xx
Hi Cindy,
I love the Heishi Beads! I made them in different shades of brown and I simply love it. I am amazed at my new found love for clay, Thank you for that. I will be making this bead in all different colors!!!!! Thanks again…………
Hi everybody
almost 2 years later :/ I order some trans red and redo this awesome tutorial
with my 2 oz block of trans red I got 32 inches of faux coral heishi beads
Love the color this time!!! (see above – lots of help from this wonderful community – thanks guys)
I’ll post pic at Cindys fb page soon……waiting on some sunshine to get a better photo:)
Photography Tip Of The Day… Shooting in bright direct sunlight is actually not an ideal time for taking your shots. It can create harsh shadows and over exposure in your composition. Bright cloudy days are a much better bet… for muted non-directional lighting that creates less obvious soft shadows. And the absolute best time to shoot is in the early morning, just as the sun is just coming over the horizon. The warm glow of the light at this time of the day can create some very nice effects.
Sherry – After you get your photos posted over at the members gallery, come back here and make a quick comment so I can add a direct link.
Thanks Doug:)
the sun never did come out before I had to leave so I pick the best one I had… Faux Coral Heishi Beads
Liking your ‘photo tip of the day’ post!
My kitchen window faces south so when I shoot stuff on the counter top my camera rarely uses its flash – & that’s a good thing… if I were smart I’d make note of the time of day as well as the time of year…so glad you popped in and made me think this through