Playing with Polymer...

Not that long ago, I found a box of polymer clay and I was inspired to make some beads with what I came across.  Of course, many of the packages had been opened and things had started to dry out, but after applying a lot of pressure and a little bit of muscle, I was able to salvage the clay.  I made a mountain of polymer clay beads!  I sanded and buffed the beads by hand, creating a nice satin finish.

 Here's a necklace that I made with a combination of tiny copper rounds, matte brass rounds and coppery-colored freshwater pearls.  For the focal, I created a pendant with the polymer clay bead and some studded bead caps.  I love how the rich garnet reds of the polymer clay bead play off of the warm metal colors of the base necklace.

For this bracelet, I wanted to embrace a cooler color palette to showcase the denim-colored polymer clay bead.  I used dark blue spectrolite (aka labradorite), matte lave rounds, faceted iolite rondelles, sterling silver spacers, silver fire-polished Czech glass, and I brought it all together with a sterling silver clasp from Saki Silver.

I really loved the red beads that I made, so I created another sample of what can be done with them.  This time I made a bracelet.  To showcase the polymer clay bead, I used a combination of fuchsia labradorite, bronze textured discs I made, brown freshwater pearls, onyx rondelles, vintage metal Mala beads, patinated daisy spacers, and used a triangular toggle from Nina Designs to tie it together.

I really loved the patterning in the gray "riverstone" beads and wanted to showcase it by creating a super simple design.  I wire-wrapped the bead and hung it off a long silver bar chain.

For the army green bead, which actually has very subtle streaks of orange and teal, I wanted to keep it pretty simple as well.  I wire-wrapped it with textured bronze discs and added a wire-wrapped dangle strung up with a natural garnet.  This hangs from a gold-toned chain with segments of wire-wrapped fuchsia labradorite links.

If you'd like to play with some polymer clay beads yourself, we've got them listed in the online shop!  (We also have a basket of them in the brick-and-mortar store.)  They are put together in bundles that play with different color combinations.  You can find the bundles by CLICKING HERE.