Hello friends! My name is Ludmila Bakulina and I’m polymer clay artist!
Today I want to show you how to make such unique pendant from polymer clay “The Flame of My Heart”. I hope you will find it interesting for you!
For making this jewelry piece, you need such materials and tools:
- First of all you, you need prepare a colorful sheet of clay in any technique you know. For example, Mokume Gane, Sutton slice, or Hidden Magic! That will be our central part of pendant. The thickness of this sheet of clay should be around 2,5 mm
- Also, you need to prepare sheet of clay in bronze color (or any color you want). The thickness of this sheet should be around 1,5mm
- For the frame we will use bone imitation technique, so you need one part of gold clay + 4-5 parts of white polymer clay. So, when you mix it, you will get a very light golden beige color, which will remind a bone color
- Also, you need some golden powder, like PearlEx
- and Liquid clay.
- Cutter, medium size, any shape you like;
- Blade for polymer clay;
- Acrylic roller;
- Pasta machine;
- Dome shaped metal or glass base;
- A thin plastic bag or plastic wrap;
- Sand paper 400, 600, 800, 1000 grid;
- Buffing tool (Dremel, Foredom or varnish for polymer clay)
First you need to cutout the shape of central part for your pendant. So, choose a pattern and put on top the plastic wrap for getting the edges more curved and cut out the shape! Correct the edges of your workpiece with a thin blade for polymer clay!
Then put your colorful workpiece on a curve surface of your base (that can be a lightbulb, or bottom piece of the cane, or some small bowls, also it can be a glass bottle or vase!) and lightly smooth the workpiece with your fingers!
Next step is we will mixing the “bone” color of polymer clay for making the frame for our pendant. For that you need take one part (a really small piece) of gold color (I love to use my works Premo clay) and mix it with 4-5 parts of white color of clay. So you need to get in result a very light golden beige color!
When the mixing done, we make a beige sheet of clay with 2,5 mm thickness and then you need to apply your texture on it. And after you apply the texture, the beige sheet of clay will get 2mm thickness.
After this, you need to cover the beige textured sheet of clay with golden powder (PearlEx or any other you have). Then cut out 3 stripes with equal width – around 1 cm or 7-8 mm.
Next step. Attach all 3 stripes to the edges for your central part and using your fingers press from the edges of the frame so that the frame and central part are glued together. Also, you can use the liquid clay to help them stick together more strongly! Cut the ends at an angle.
Now our top of pendant is ready for baking. I put my workpieces in cold oven and set 150”C on 30 min. When on my thermometer is 150”C already, I set 140 till it done!
After baking I sand the top of workpiece with wet sand paper of 400, 600, 800 grid.
Next step. We start to make the backside of our pendant! For this you need to take prepared sheet of clay with 1,5mm thickness and use the texture sheet to make some beautiful pattern for the back of your pendant! Then apply the liquid clay on a back side of your workpiece, cute the needed size of clay from textured sheet and attach it to the back of pendant. Trim off all the excess of clay.
After that, we need to make a bail for hanging on the cord. For this you can take the bronzed sheet of clay, for example fold it one time and cut out the strip in dimensions: 1,5cm x 2,5cm, cut off from one side at an angle and twist into a straw.
Then you need to glue it to your pendant from backside by using liquid clay!
In the finish, you can slightly put the golden powder on your bronzed details!
After that put the finished pendant into an oven and bake it with the previous method (30 min, 140-150”C).
When the baking is finished, you can sand your pendant slightly and then polish it with buffing machine (Dremel, Foredom) or just varnish it with any varnishing for polymer clay!
After that, hang the pendant on a rubber or other cord which you prefer! ^_^
And that’s all! We done! You can make such unique pendant in any color and shape you like! I hope you enjoyed the lesson and I wish you a great inspiration and good luck!
Your faithfully,
Ludmila Bakulina
