{"id":7860,"date":"2010-01-17T03:13:24","date_gmt":"2010-01-17T11:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=7860"},"modified":"2010-01-17T19:31:13","modified_gmt":"2010-01-18T03:31:13","slug":"rustic-arizona-style-handmade-beads-made-from-scrap-polymer-clay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/rustic-arizona-style-handmade-beads-made-from-scrap-polymer-clay\/7860\/","title":{"rendered":"Rustic Arizona Style Handmade Beads Made from Scrap Polymer Clay"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Arizona <\/span>“Just goes to show you… never toss out your scraps or the old clay pieces!” ~Rob-K<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I have said this time and time again, but I will say it again… never get rid of your polymer scrap clay! It will come in handy for making some fabulous looking beads… like these earth-tone tube beads that resemble an Arizona landscape. They were made simply and quickly using leftovers from the Tribal Cane Project<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whenever you make a polymer clay cane, you will inevitably end up with scrap clay in the form of trimmings. Those scraps are great for lots of different purposes. And sometimes their use just presents itself when you aren’t expecting. This is what happened when I made the Arizona beads in the photo above.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was rolling a chunk of scrap clay from a tribal cane through the pasta machine to mix the colors for another project. But as I passed the clay through the rollers, these lovely, softly blended stripes appeared in the sheet. And along the edges, were the typical crackles of a firm clay.<\/span><\/p>\n

The sheet of used clay was so pretty just the way it was, I decided to take advantage of serendipity, and capture the lucky accident into beads.<\/span><\/p>\n

The stripes were running lengthwise, with crackled edges on both sides. Wanting to highlight the crackle, I folded the sheet not quite in half down the length, giving a smooth edge along the bottom and the two crackled edges, one above the other, along the top.<\/span><\/p>\n

I then cut the strip into four equal lengths and wrapped each strip around a mandrel to create four unique tube beads. I love these beads so much, that I am going to lop off<\/em> a few more chunks of the cane to make more!<\/span><\/p>\n

As I said earlier, there are many other uses for polymer clay scraps. Here is a list of articles you may like to read, should you have extra clay lying around that needs a good purpose:<\/span><\/p>\n