Playful Polymer Paper Pendant
Design by Tamila Darling

After purchasing a new outfit for a special occasion, I realized I had no jewelry to complement it. So what does a gal do? Make some to match of course! With little time and energy, I didn't want to start with raw clay and turn the oven on. I didn't have the time or energy at 9:00 pm on a hot Wednesday evening in the middle of July. A simple solution was at hand with a stack of pre-baked polymer sheets that I had made for an entirely different purpose.

Materials and Tools:

• Premo! Sculpey-
  • One - 2 oz block of the following: Cadmium Yellow, Orange, Fuchsia, Sea Green, Ultra Marine Blue, Violet
  • Two - 2 oz blocks of white and Black
• White Confetti Embossing Powder
• Beadalon Craft Series bead stringing wire- we used black .018" diameter
• Beadalon Bead Fix (super glue)
• Darice lobster clasp-nickel plated
• Darice1.3mm crimp tube silver- 2 pieces
• Darice 6mm double ring in nickel plate- 2 pieces
• Darice post earrings and backings
• Pepperell Braiding Company's Pony Bead Lacing in black
• Sculpey blade
• Fiskars Softouch Scissors
• Fiskars Paper Edger's - Ripple (Scissors)
• EK Success Paper Shapers® Tiny 3/16" Circle
• Pasta Machine (5 ¼" width)- Atlas brand and thickness settings used for this project
• Flat head or crimping pliers
• Bamboo Skewer
• Plain white typing paper
• Cookie Sheet
• Oven
• Heating Pad *Optional
• Heat Gun *Optional

Directions:

Polymer Clay Paper Sheets:

There are four different Polymer Paper sheets made for this project. One plain black sheet, one black sheet with embedded embossing powders and two tri-colored lazy Skinner blended sheets.

1. Lazy Skinner Blend Polymer Paper - Violet, Blue, Green & White. Condition each color of the clay and using a Sculpey Blade cut 5" strips the width of each to match the chart as shown below. *Note these can be approximate, exact measurements are not required as clay will be blended.

After laying out the strips, cover approximately 1/3 of the strips as shown, fold in half and run through the pasta machine on the thickest setting. Continue this until the clay is blended to your liking. You can slightly overlap the colors by taking the lower half of the blend and slightly crossing over the edge, run through the machine.

Repeat the process several times for a more blended sheet or only a few for a more striped effect blend.

Once satisfied with your sheet, run through on a #3 setting and one final time on a #6 to give you a paper sheet of polymer. Cut the polymer paper sheet into sections so they fit onto a sheet of white typing paper, placed on a cookie sheet. Place a second sheet on top of the clay to sandwich it in between the paper. Run your hand across the paper to ensure the clay is flat.

2. Lazy Skinner Blend Polymer Paper - Pink, Orange & Yellow. Condition each color of clay, then using a Sculpey Blade cut strips of each to match the chart as shown. Use the same process as step one until you have the blended sheets sandwiched between typing paper and place these on top of the first set of sheets.

½”	½”	¾”	½”	¾”	½”	¾”	½”	½”

3. Plain Black Polymer Paper - Condition one half block of black clay until it becomes soft and smooth in consistency using a #1 setting on the pasta machine. After clay is well conditioned, change the setting to a #3 to make the sheet thinner. Finally run the sheet through the machine on a #6. Place onto a sheet of white typing paper. Place a second sheet on top of the clay to sandwich it in between the paper. Run your hand across the paper to ensure the clay is flat; place these on top of the blended sheets.

4. Black with White Confetti Polymer Paper - Condition one half block of black clay until it becomes soft and smooth in consistency using a #1 setting on the pasta machine. After clay is well conditioned, change the setting to a #3 to make the sheet thinner. Add approximately one teaspoon of White Confetti embossing powder to the top of the clay sheet. Fold in half and run through the pasta machine until the powder is well mixed into the clay. Repeat this process with a 2nd teaspoon of powder. Finally, run the sheet through the machine on a #6. Place onto a sheet of white typing paper. Place a second sheet of paper on top of the clay to sandwich it in between. Run your hand across the paper to ensure the clay is flat; now REMOVE the top sheet of paper. **If you do not remove the paper it will dull the effect of the embossing powder during the baking process. Place these sheets on top the prior polymer paper sheets you made, making sure that the sheets with the embossing powder are on the top of the stack and open to the oven heat. *Note: my thanks to Kathy Amt for sharing the possibilities of embossing powders in clay, which I learned several years ago.

Polymer Clay Tube Beads:

Marie Segal shared this easy technique for tube beads with me. Condition black clay and run through the pasta machine on the thickest setting. Using a Sculpey blade cut the sheet lengthwise on a 45° angle. Wrap the clay around a bamboo skewer and cut off the excess, again at a 45° angle. This is so the two sides of clay meet uniformly and can be easily, and smoothly attached together. Blend the seams together well and gently twist the skewer to make sure the clay is not stuck to it. Place on the baking sheet with your polymer paper.

Baking Polymer Paper & Beads:

Place the cookie sheet containing the polymer clay paper sheets, and tube beads in a preheated oven at 275° for 20 minutes. Turn off oven and let all the items cool inside the oven for approximately 30 - 45 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven. The clay pieces should be slightly warm still, but not hot. If they are hot, let them cool a little longer on the counter and then separate all of the clay beads from the skewers and the polymer clay paper from the typing papers. This is easier to do when the clay is still slightly warm.

Cutting and Punching the Polymer Paper:

Now comes the fun part! Anita Behnen and Shelly Comiskey shared the fact that polymer clay could be cut and punched after it was baked. What a world of opportunities these techniques open up!

Pendant Piece: The first piece of polymer paper to be cut is the black with white confetti embossing powder. Using Fiskars "ripple" paper edgers, cut a triangle shape 3" wide on the top edge and 3" long tapered to the bottom point.

Place the cut triangle on top of the pink, orange, yellow blend sheet. Make the placement on the sheet so that all of the colors show over the edges of the black piece at one point or another. Hold the two pieces together firmly in your hands and begin to cut the colored layer so that approximately 1/8" to ¼" of the underlying colored clay is showing around the edges of the top layer.

Take the cut colored triangle piece and lay on top of the plain black sheet. Once again, hold the two pieces together firmly in your hands and begin to cut the black sheet so that approximately 1/8" to ¼" of the underlying black clay is showing around the edges of the colored layer.

Earring Pieces: Repeat the same steps as the pendant, making the starting layer 1" by 1 ½", only cutting the top two layers.

Embellishment Pieces: Using Fiskars "ripple" paper edger's, cut thin strips of the mutli colored sheets approximately 1/8" to ¼" thick, and set aside. Punch out 2 - 3 circles of each color from the sheets with the EK Success Paper Shapers® Tiny 3/16" Circle Punch and set aside.

*Note - if at anytime you find it difficult to cut or punch the pre-baked polymer paper, place the sheets on heating pad set on low to keep the sheets warm. You can also use a heat gun to warm the clay prior to cutting.

Assembly of the Pendant and Earrings:

Sparingly use super glue to attach each layer together. It's better to add glue than to have to get rid of excess. After each layer is securely glued to one another, place precut strips on top of the pendant and select the color gradation you like. Cut the pieces to fit and glue down. Place the dots on the face of the pendant and arrange in a random pattern. Glue each dot to the face of the pendant.

Repeat the process for the earrings, gluing the two layers together. Arrange short strips and dots on the face of each and glue down.

Lay the pendant face down and measure the length of the top. Cut to length a pre baked tube bead (warm first to make it easier to cut). Apply glue to the back of the pendant and firmly attach the tube bead to the back of the pendant. Let the glue thoroughly dry before moving.

Stringing the necklace: Measure a length of black pony bead lacing to where you want the pendant to hang. Take the beading wire and string through the lacing leaving at least 1" excess on each end of the lacing.

Thread the wire covered with lacing through the tube bead on the back of the pendant. Thread on a crimp bead to one end and run the wire through the 6mm double ring and back into the crimp bead and then into the lacing, smash the crimp bead with your pliers. Repeat this process on the other side using the lobster clasp instead of the 6mm double ring.

With a 3" piece of wire thread on your charm and then string on your crimp bead, then run the end of the wire back through the crimp bead to form a 3/8" loop and then smash the crimp bead and trim off the excess from each end.

Completing the Earrings:Glue the posts on the back of each earring; at this time, you can pick the direction you want the earrings to hang.

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