INDEX
Hello! I am Taylor and I created Taylor Stonebarger Creations in April of 2022. This is a post about all the products I use to create my Polymer Clay earrings. I wanted to include a quick rundown of the steps I take when creating my earrings.
1. First I get all my clay and tools I will need out. I clean the area I am going to be working on and make sure all of my tools are clean as well.
2. Then I will decide what earrings I want to make first and start conditioning the clay. I will warm it up and it it needs to be a little wetter I will add liquid clay to it.
3. After I have all the clay I am going to use conditioned I will roll out my clay into a clay slab and add and textures or designs I want to before moving on.
4. I will then use my clay cutters to cut a bunch of pieces into the clay slab. When I am done cutting I will pull the excess clay away and use a razor to loosen the clay from the surface.
5. Then I bake my clay at 275f for 30 minutes
6. Once cooled I sand down the edges and add resin to both sides of the earring.
7. Once resined I will use my Dremel to drill holes into the pieces and put them together with jump rings, hooks, and studs.
*CLAY CUTTERS*
- LEAF CLAY CUTTERS -
I really enjoyed these and think they were good quality cutters. The only issue I have with them is that I roll my transparent clay really thin in order for the light to shine through it some and because of that some of the designs do not show when using these cutters. A solution would be to have clay cutters and the designs as separate pieces so that no matter how thin or thick you roll your clay you can still get a design.
- HALLOWEEN CLAY CUTTERS -
I also really liked these and loved the wide range or options it had. I believe they are 3d printed. They have some shapes with attached designs and some shapes with separate designs so that helps with the transparent clay, like I stated above. https://amzn.to/3TMMNuk
-METAL CLAY CUTTER DIFFERENT SHAPES small to large-
These are ok. They cut well, however they are metal so if they aren't put away properly they can bend out of shape. I had to bend a few a little back into shape when they arrived. I love the huge range of shapes and that they come in different sizes. I also really like the little circle sizes you can use for studs and for holes if you don't have a Dremel. https://amzn.to/3sydvut
- CLAY CUTTERS MISC SHAPES-
I honestly was not a big fan of these. I only ordered them for the monstera leaf, before I found and ordered the leaf pack, and the clay gets stuck in the monstera a lot, but I do still use it because it is a bigger monstera than the other one. I also use the crescent moon shape and the clamshell stud shape as well. Most of the other shapes you can get in the metal pack. They does not cut as well as the others do. https://amzn.to/3DA3qn6
-I have ordered more clay cutters to arrive in November, I will add them once I get to use them and decide how I like them-
*CLAY*
- SCULPEY PREMO -
I tried Arteza brand Polymer Clay and I tried FIMO brand translucent polymer clay before trying Sculpey Premo brand. I returned the Arteza brand, it was not what I wanted for making jewelry and did not work well for me. The FIMO translucent works well as a transluent clay, but it is crazy hard to work with and breaks off itself a lot. The Sculpey Premo translucent is a little more of a cream color than as white as the FIMO, but it is a lot easier to work with. After I used all of my FIMO clay I have only bought Sculpey Premo brand clay for all of my projects. I usually just buy one of the sampler packs and use it unless I need a lot of a specific color. I also will color my translucent clay with alcohol inks and I really enjoy the depth it creates in the jewelry.
I usually buy my clay from Michaels or Joanns, but you can also get them on Amazon.
-Sculpey Premo https://amzn.to/3U2XHMn
-Sculpey Sampler https://amzn.to/3fviCJ2
-Sculpey Translucent https://amzn.to/3FD9c95
- SCULPEY LIQUID CLAY -
I use Sculpey Liquid Polymer Clay whenever I need to add moisture to clay to condition it so that it is easier to cut and mold. I like to use the pearl for opaque colors, to add a nice shimmer, and I add translucent to the translucent clay. You can also use molds and the liquid clay to make cool earrings designs.
-Sculpey Liquid Clay Pearl https://amzn.to/3zDLuWs
-Sculpey Liquid Clay Translucent https://amzn.to/3WqOyyV
-I have some Sculpey Glazes and clay adhesive I have not used yet, I will add them once I get to use them and decide how I like them-
*ALCOHOL INK*
These are the alcohol inks I use to color my clays. I have not tried any other inks, but these work really well for me and I enjoy the selection of colors that it provides.
*FINISHING TOOLS*
- UV RESIN -
I use UV Resin after baking my clay to seal it and give it a nice shine. This is the only brand UV Resin I have tried, but it works great and lasts a long time. I did not even buy a new UV light. I just use this cheap tiny one that I got for gel nails and it takes a little extra work, but works great.
- DREMEL -
I bought this Dremel to use for sanding my polymer clay pieces and it works great! I love that it is rechargeable and I can use it wirelessly. It makes using it a lot easier. I am a big fan of my Dremel. I use it to sand the earrings edges so that they are cleaner and I use it to drill the holes into the clay pieces after I resin them.
- JEWELRY PLIERS-
These jewelry pliers work great with the jump rings and the hook earrings, to help get everything close.
* EARRING KITS *
- HOOK/DROP EARRING KIT -
These earring hooks work well and I like having the option of gold, rose gold, and silver. The jump rings work well, but they are tiny and there are not many of them. I like having different sizes of jump rings available so that I can make different sized clay pieces and earrings. I do use these jump rings whenever I want to use tiny ones.
- STUD EARRINGS KIT -
These studs work great and I use the jump rings from this kit the most. I love that there are 4 different options for jump ring sizes, as well as for the stud backings. I use my UV Resin to adhere them to the back of the clay pieces.
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