{"id":775,"date":"2008-10-11T15:43:33","date_gmt":"2008-10-11T22:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=775"},"modified":"2016-09-22T15:38:12","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T22:38:12","slug":"jewelry-making-tutorial-mixing-thread-fibers-with-handmade-beads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/jewelry-making-tutorial-mixing-thread-fibers-with-handmade-beads\/775\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewelry Making Tutorial – Mixing Thread Fibers with Handmade Beads"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Polymer<\/p>\n

Vid #78: How To Make Unique Polymer Clay Beads With Fimo Translucent Clay and Snipped Up Sewing Threads:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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You know the saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!”? Well today’s<\/span> article is based on that concept<\/span> rephrased slightly to this: “When life gets fluff and junk in your clay, make a thread bead!” :-)<\/span><\/p>\n

Let me explain… It was cold in the studio one day, so I decided to wear my fluffy angora sweater to warm up. While conditioning a batch of translucent Fimo clay, some sweater fluff got into the clay… Duh! I really should have known better. But I thought I could be so careful that it wouldn’t happen to me. Besides I wanted to be cozy!<\/span><\/p>\n

Any ways, it was quite a bit of fluff. Long purple strands of wool, completely intertwined with the clay. No chance of removal. Clay was ruined, right? Nope. Time to add more junk and pretend that I meant to do that and call it an inclusion bead!<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve added lots of stuff to beads before…. Nutmeg and curry to make spice beads<\/a>; Rose petals in rosary beads<\/a>; And crayon shavings to create some very colorful polymer clay inclusions<\/a>. So I looked around the studio to see what would go nicely with purple angora fluff.<\/span><\/p>\n

A drawer of the sewing cabinet was open, with a messy tangle of threads poking out in every color. That got me to thinking about what those tangles would look like mixed into translucent clay. How about that… being able to clean up a mess I’d been meaning to get to.. AND doing something creative at the same time. It’s like tackling two crafty birds with one stone.<\/span><\/p>\n

So after snipping up that thread tangle into tiny bits, I mixed the pieces thoroughly into the polymer clay. Taking care to evenly distribute the thread bits by pulling apart the clay several times. Then rolling the clay into pebble shaped beads.<\/span><\/p>\n

The important thing to know when adding any inclusion to polymer clay, is that any bits sticking out from the clay surface will probably fall out after baking. So if you want to make sure these exposed pieces stay put, simply cover them with a small thin piece of translucent. This will encase the particle or thread and keep it from falling out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Care also has to be taken when you’re wet sanding beads<\/a> of these types. You don’t want to expose any encased particles. Try to make the beads as smooth as possible before baking. Then sand very lightly through the grits and buff.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although this story has a happy ending and I ended salvaging the clay to make some pretty neat handmade beads, I still recommend not wearing a fluffy sweater when working with polymer clay. That is unless you are making thread beads!<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the funniest thing that’s happened to your clay by accident? Tell me some stories. I’d like to think I’m not the only one making mistakes.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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\"Click<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n