{"id":3500,"date":"2009-04-04T03:11:52","date_gmt":"2009-04-04T10:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=3500"},"modified":"2009-04-04T12:42:22","modified_gmt":"2009-04-04T19:42:22","slug":"claw-jewelry-necklace-polymer-clay-pendant-bail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/claw-jewelry-necklace-polymer-clay-pendant-bail\/3500\/","title":{"rendered":"Claw Jewelry Necklace Made with a Unique Polymer Clay Pendant Bail"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Crab<\/p>\n

Cool Idea for Stringing a Stone Crab Claw that Had No Hole:
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Today’s picture was sent in by Donnie who’s bio goes something likes this… “I live in the Florida Keys with a beautiful view of the bay. We have lots of parrots, dogs, a couple of bunnies and<\/span><\/span> tortoises. I love making jewelry using all kinds of media. Polymer clay is new for me and I realize I have a lot to learn. I use coconuts from the yard, shells from the beach and seeds from fruit to create unique and unusual one of a kind pieces.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The picture is of a Stone Crab Claw that Donnie turned into a pendant using polymer clay to make the bail. Much easier than trying to drill a hole through the stone. Plus the polymer clay adds a unique design element to the piece. Great idea!<\/span><\/p>\n

I get so excited to see how members of the community here are using what they learn to experiment with all kinds of unique and wonderful polymer clay projects!<\/span><\/p>\n

Donnie… the choice of a bronze clay color was excellent! The tones match the crab claw beautifully and give it an ancient feel. Very suitable for the piece. I also like the little ‘dents’ you put in the surface, They look just like hammered metal.<\/span><\/p>\n

And what I really love about this piece is the masculine look you achieved. Guys are trickier to design for IMHO, and I think they would just love this pendant!<\/span><\/p>\n

Another thing that’s great about the polymer clay bail idea, is its scale – thick and heavy enough to suit the claw nicely. Something thin, dainty or detailed would not have looked as good with the stone as this heavier bail does.<\/span><\/p>\n

One thing that popped into my head was how cool it would be to add rivet heads at the bases of the ‘handle’… like what you might see in a real metal fabrication project.<\/span><\/p>\n

That could be easily achieved by pushing a bronze, copper or aged silver colored brad into the clay before baking. You can see how I incorporated brads into a pendant I recently made, here: Number Jewelry Made with Metal Scrapbook Embellishments<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Scrapbooking guru Tim Holtz<\/a>, makes some small brads that would be perfect for using as faux rivets.<\/span><\/p>\n

One last thing Donnie. When the photo of your claw pendant was blown up large on my computer screen, I noticed some fingerprints. Sanding very lightly with a high grit paper such as a 600 or 800 grit would remove them. Then buff to give it more of a metal sheen, though it probably shouldn’t get too shiny if it is to keep that old world look you’ve achieved with it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another option for removing fingerprints is wiping the surface with acetone. This approach works great on textured surfaces that are difficult to sand. Acetone is flammable though (and smelly), so use with caution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hopefully Donnie’s project has inspired others to think about ways to experiment and come up with other unique uses for polymer clay. I’d love to hear about them in the comments section below.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cindy\"Polymer<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cool Idea for Stringing a Stone Crab Claw that Had No Hole: Today’s picture was sent in by Donnie who’s bio goes something… 11<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[2676,975],"class_list":["post-3500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feature-guests","tag-jewelry-findings","tag-necklaces-pendants-lanyards-accessories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}