{"id":5648,"date":"2009-09-17T03:24:06","date_gmt":"2009-09-17T10:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=5648"},"modified":"2009-10-02T16:14:38","modified_gmt":"2009-10-02T23:14:38","slug":"cracking-flat-beads-polymer-clay-bracelet-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/cracking-flat-beads-polymer-clay-bracelet-project\/5648\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery of the Cracking Flat Beads | Polymer Clay Bracelet Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cracked<\/p>\n

“I looked through my PC books and did not find this type of tile bead in any of them.” ~Bette-L<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span>I received an email the other day from Bette Lorman who had a few questions about some flat beads she made for a polymer clay tile bracelet that ended up breaking. The photo above is what she sent to me and my responses to her questions are posted below:<\/span><\/p>\n

I made some flat tile beads and drilled 2 holes in the edge of each side, then put them together with large jump rings. They looked great, but alas, my daughter wore them to bed and the jump rings broke the clay around the holes. So much for a beautiful bracelet. I have come to the conclusion that PC is not strong enough for this kind of bead. I am using Premo! clay. How thick should the PC tile be for vertical holes to not break?<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The thickness you make a bead like this depends on a number of things, including: 1) The brand of clay; (2) How well the clay is conditioned; (3) If the clay is baked properly; and (4) Where you put the holes. If you use Premo; Condition it adequately by running through your pasta machine multiple times; Bake for at least an hour at 265F; And drill the holes further from the edges than where yours are placed;\u00a0 Then the thickness you are using should actually be fine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Would it be better to coat the bead with resin instead of varnish?<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A thick coat of resin would give additional strength and a glass like finish. It would be more durable than a varnish would be.<\/span><\/p>\n

What other suggestions do you have for this type of bead or should I just stick to horizontal holes through the length of the bead instead?<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You could go a little thicker on the tiles and add eyelets if breakage continues to be a problem. But first make sure to do the other things I suggested above, such as proper conditioning, baking and hole placement.<\/span><\/p>\n

What about if eyelets were used to reinforce the vertical hole?<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Eyelets can be an excellent way to re-enforce the holes. Push the eyelets into the beads at least a 1\/4″ from the edges and bake in place. They won’t bond with the clay so you will need to pop them back out after baking, remove the clay stuck in the center of the eyelet and glue the eyelet back into the bead with Krazy Glue or Weldbond. You can click on following link to see an example of how a placed an eyelet in a polymer clay butterfly pendant<\/a> about the same thickness as your tile beads.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you ever embed the “eye” of a hook and eye closure for sewing into the clay to use as a loop for a jump ring?<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Embedding a loop in the clay, is also a good idea if you want to avoid drilling holes. Depending on the style of the loop, you may have to glue the eye pin into the bead after baking… in the same was as described for the eyelets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks for any help you can give me. I looked through my PC books and did not find this type of tile bead in any of them. The only beads with holes drilled and a jump ring used were for earrings. I guess this is an omission that I never would have thought of as being important. Are there any other things that “you just can’t do that with PC” would apply to?<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I personally believe you can do pretty much anything with polymer clay. It’s just a matter of figuring out ways to make it work :-)<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks for such a great blog. You are my best resource for my questions. I frequently look up things from older posts to see if you have already answered my question. What an angel you are for doing all this work so the rest of us won’t have to?<\/span> ~Bette Lorman<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You are very welcome! If there is anything else I can answer for you, just ask in the comments section below.<\/span><\/p>\n

So does anyone else have any tips or tricks to pass along to Bette regarding her ’tile’ bead bracelet project? Additional ideas are always appreciated. <\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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

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

“I looked through my PC books and did not find this type of tile bead in any of them.” ~Bette-L<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,73],"tags":[1797,2572,2676],"class_list":["post-5648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bead-projects","category-feature-guests","tag-cracked-beads-breakage","tag-flat-pieces","tag-jewelry-findings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5648","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=5648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}