Fish Lariat Necklace - Sculpey Clay Projects

Fish Lariat Necklace
Design by Susan Berkowitz

Materials and Tools:

For fish:

1 small package translucent Premo #5310
TLS - several tbsp.
Pearl-Ex powders - misty lavender, blue russet, true blue, turquoise, spring green
Bamboo skewer
3-4 small paint brushes
2 wooden clothes pins - spring type

For polymer charms:

For necklace:

Directions:

For fish:

Condition translucent clay. Divide into 4 or 5 pieces (you can make several fish with 1 small pkg. clay). Roll one piece into a small ball between your palms.
To form the hollow fish body, press thumbs into the center of the ball. Keeping thumbs in the center of the ball, and fingers on the outside, work your way around the clay, gently pulling the clay up the sides of your thumbs, making a small vessel. Make sure the walls are equally thick all the way around.

When you reach about 2/3 the final size or height of the bead, begin pulling the sides inward as well as up, to make the diameter smaller towards the other end of the bead.
Gently cup the bead in your hands, squeezing the top edges together with small, even pressure. The top edges will begin to meet.
Maintain pressure on the outside of the form with your palms as you force the top closed; trapping the air inside by pinching the edges together.
Let the clay rest for a few minutes to cool down. Then roll the bead in your hands to round it out and smooth the bumpy spots. (Don't smooth ALL the bumpy spots- they make your fish body interesting.) " Gently roll one end of the bead between your palms, to form a slight tear-drop shape. The pointy end is his mouth.

Let the bead set again for a few minutes before putting the hole in it with the skewer. The hole should go down through the top of the fish's back and out through the bottom of his belly. Bake at 275o for 10 minutes, resting the skewer on the standing clothes pins to keep him suspended.
When the fish is cool enough to handle, pinch off some translucent clay and form small, thin uneven pieces to make the fins and tail. There is no rule here; just find a small shape that looks fin-like or tail-like. There should be a fin on the top of the fish's back, a smaller one under him, and a wavy tail. Gently adhere each piece to the fish body with you finger or a clay tool. Add a small rope of clay around his mouth. Reinsert the skewer. It will stay in for the rest of the process. Bake again for 5-10 minutes.

Mix a tiny amount of each Pearl-ex color with a spoonful of TLS. Holding the fish by the skewer, use a paintbrush to paint his head with the green TLS and his body with one shade of blue TLS. Bake for 5 minutes.
Add another layer of green to his head and a different shade of blue to his body. With VERY LITTLE TLS on the brush, gently stroke some color on his fins, brushing outward from the body to the edges. This will give the fins and tail a soft, translucent and ridged appearance. Bake again for 5 minutes.

Add another layer of TLS to the body, mixing blue and purple. Add some more Pearl-ex powder onto the body with a dry brush. This will give it a shimmery look. Add a small drop of blue TLS to his head for the eyes. Add a little more color to the fins, if you like. Bake for the last time for 10-15 minutes.
This is an experimental process: layering the tinted TLS and dry powders will give a variety of effects, including different depths and degree of translucency or shimmer to the body. Play around until you are satisfied. You can use as many layers as you like.

For the polymer charms:

Mix 1/8 tsp. embossing powder per marble-sized ball of translucent clay. Mix one ball of blue and one of green.
Using the sea life mold, make a small assortment of sea stars, fish, shells, and sea horses. You can decide at the end which look best together. Bake for 15 minutes.
When cool, drill a small hole through the top of each, so you can string it later.

For the beaded lariat:

The beaded spiral is a very easy stitch, even for beginners. The same one step is repeated throughout the lariat, which should have a final length of 33-36".

Thread a needle with about 5' of thread, which you will double.
String a "stop" bead; leaving a 6-8" tail at the end. To do this, string the bead on, then loop back around through it a second time. This will hold the bead on without knotting the thread, and will keep the rest of the beads from falling off or the work from unraveling.

For this stitch, you want to hold the work in your non-dominant hand and use the fingers of this hand to keep the spirals aligned for the first few passes.
String on 4 core color beads (I used blue) and three spiral beads (I used a green bead sandwiched between a blue and purple bead). The core beads will not be very visible; the spiral beads are what will stand out. You can make them a repeated pattern, or string them randomly.

Loop the needle back around and come back up through the first 4 (core) beads. This will wrap the 3 spiral beads around the core beads. Pull firmly.
String 1 core bead and 3 spiral beads. Come back through 4 core beads (the last 3 plus the 1 you just added). With your fingers, pull the second spiral in close to the first, going counter-clockwise.

Repeat; adding 1 core and 3 spiral beads, until the necklace is 33-36" long. When you need to add thread, simply wind the old thread through the necklace, knotting between every 2-3 beads three times, then cutting off. Run the new thread through in a similar fashion, knotting 3 times before coming back out through the last bead. Keep beading to the end of the necklace.

Add 1 size 6 or square bead, 1 tube bead, 1 ½" size 11 beads, 1 square bead, 3 size 11 beads. Wrapping the last 3 small beads around the square bead, run the needle back up through several of the size 11 beads in front of it.
Bring the needle back out through a bead and add another 1/2" of size 11 beads, 1 square bead, and 3 more size 11 beads. Repeat the fringe process above.
Create as much fringe as you like, then run the needle back up through the size 11 beads, the first square bead and the fish body.

Knot the thread above the fish, run the thread through a few more beads, and knot again. Repeat this 1-2 more times, to secure the thread well. Cut off excess thread.
Go back to the tail at the other end of the necklace. Thread the needle with one of the threads, add some size 11 beads interspersed with a square bead or two, a charm or pearl, and create a small fringe. Repeat with the other thread. Knot each off carefully and wind thread back through other beads to keep it from pulling loose. Cut off.
Add more thread and more fringe until you are happy with the way it looks and swings.