Hi there, Sandy here.
Welcome to another Friday Findings video at KeepsakeCrafts.net.
Today I'm going to continue on in showing you how you can make your own jewelry findings
using polymer clay.
Today I'm going to show you how simple it is to make bails out of polymer clay that
perfectly match the pendants you want to hang from them.
So the first thing you will need in order to make these bails are cutters.
You can freehand cut the shape, but the easiest kind of shape to use is something symmetrical
because we're going to be folding it in half to make the bail, so something like a diamond,
a square, ovals, circles.
Those are great, but I will show you also how to use cutters that aren't symmetrical
like tear drops or these leaf shapes to make really interesting pieces as well.
So in order to make our polymer clay bails, first we'll need some polymer clay.
This is a sheet of clay that I have rolled out on a number 3 on my pasta machine, which
is about a millimeter and a half thick and I'm going to go ahead and texture it.
You don't have to, but that's kind of what makes these gorgeous.
And you can use anything you want.
I have here some stamps from Mandarin Duck that I've used.
I have some texture plates.
I also have a rubber stamp that I purchased in the dollar aisle at Michael's.
What I like to do in adding a texture is actually add a little bit of Armor All and the best
way to do it is to add it directly to your clay.
It's easier to smooth it over the entire surface of the clay rather than trying to get it in
all the nooks and crannies of a texture sheet.
So what you want to be left with is a very thin film.
It doesn't have to be thick at all and then I'm just going to apply my texture.
I have one of my symmetrical cutters, the diamond here.
Go ahead and position that wherever you want on the clay.
Just lift that up from the tile and then go ahead and use your fingers and kind of smooth
out the edges as much as you want and especially these metal cutters often have a seam that
will kind of want to be smoothed out.
I have here a 1/4" dowel that I've wrapped with a bit of paper.
If you're going to make smaller or larger bails, then use a smaller or a larger mandrel
and then you just want to be sure that your clay is well conditioned so that it won't
crack as you fold it right over and then just go ahead and meet those shapes.
Now you could use an awl or a needle tool to make the hole for hanging, but I really
like to just use my little 3/16" Kemper cutter.
It makes just a neat hole and it doesn't distort your bail.
And that's all there is to it.
You just go ahead and bake that and I bake these for an hour.
I want to be sure that they're good and strong because this is what is supporting my jewelry
and you can shape it.
You can give that a little bit of a flair.
That's pretty.
Hi Cheech!
That's my kitty cat saying hello.
He's always so pleased with himself when he finds me down here in my basement recording
studio.
So there's how you use a symmetrical shape and you would do the exact same thing whether
you were using an oval or a square or any other shape.
Now in order to use a non-symmetrical shape, you have to do it a little bit differently
and I'll demonstrate with one of these leaf cutters.
This is a really cool shape.
So what you'll need to do is cut two of them going in opposite directions.
So especially where we've used a texture.
I'm gonna cut one and then I'm going to flip my clay over.
I can't flip the cutter over because the other edge is different.
So I'll flip the clay over and cut another one.
So what we have here are two shapes.
Now we're going to do this a little bit differently.
First of all, you need to decide which end you want to be the hanging end and which end
you want to be the rounded end.
I did one previously where the narrow points are the hanging end.
I think I'll do it the other way now.
I'll smooth out my edges a little bit.
So whichever end you want to be the hanging end, go ahead and meet those together.
Meet them together until they're matched up just so.
This is actually a good time to add your hole.
And then wrap one of the other ends around your dowel and if you have a part that didn't
come out so good, maybe it didn't have as nice texture as you'd like, you put that one
on the inside and hide it forever.
Now that he's found me, he's crying because he wants out.
Kitty, kitty, kitty!
Oh, hang on!
I'm doing something here!
I'm showing the people things.
And then you can just press that down just fairly enough so that it attaches and so now
you have this kind of cool, I gotta make that a little more even, not entirely symmetrical
bail and you can hang it either way.
You can hang it this way or this way with that piece showing, just like on this one.
You can see here's that edge with that piece showing and here it isn't and you probably
don't need to leave them on the dowel to bake.
I probably would unless I was making a billion and didn't have enough room on the dowel.
I probably would just leave them on there in order to be safe.
And there you have it, how to use pretty much any shape or combination of shapes.
Really you could use the leaf for one and something else for the other.
Let your imagination run wild with this and experiment and try different things.
Now what you can do is like what I did with this one.
This was an oval cutter and I used a leaf stamp from Mandarin Duck and then before it
went in the oven I actually put on some of this turquoise Perfect Pearls and I think
that's just a gorgeous sheen.
In fact I thought it would look nice.
I have to add the resin to this and add some more paints, but I thought it would look pretty
with this pendant.
And here's another one I did with a diamond cutter because I thought it would go really
nicely with this mokume gane cabochon I made awhile back, make the bezel maybe out of similar
clay and colors to make it all work together.
And then this one I think is absolutely gorgeous!
This was made with one of the large cutters and since I had the scalloped edges, I decided
to use it and I think that's really pretty.
This one I did with just gold clay and I thought I would go over it with something dark.
So after it came out of the oven, I went over it with Iris Blue Gilders Paste and here's
me putting it on.
"Ooooooo!"
I just thought it was absolutely beautiful.
This is the one I did with the rubber stamp.
This one was just a red clay that I went over with Patina Gilders Paste.
So I hope you got some ideas there for ways you can custom make bails for your jewelry.
It's a lot of fun to play and experiment.
If you're interested in the supplies I used, you can click on the little 'i" or the tag
in the upper right of the video or the link in the description box to go to my blog post
where I always have a complete supply list with links to products.
Be sure to subscribe if you haven't already and take a peek at my Patreon page for how
you can get great rewards and help support these tutorials.
Happy creating.
Bye bye.