Another week, another statement necklace!

Polymer clay is among my favourite crafting materials. It is very versatile and can be used to make a lot of different things. What I like the most about it is that it’s possible to continue shaping the clay after it’s been hardened in the oven. The best example of this is using sand paper to get a really smooth shiny (after adding varnish) surface of the clay. This is the technique I used in the tutorial below.

I used black Fimo Soft polymer clay. I also used black chain from a broken necklace, lobster clasp for closure, eye hook screws and nail files.

To get the fimo clay to shine I coated the surface with varnish. I would not recommend using another varnish than one from the same brand as the polymer clay you’re using.
Polymer clay may react badly to some varnishes and you don’t want your necklace to start disintegrating all of a sudden (It has happened to me!). So do invest in a glaze made for your polymer clay.

If you have been using polymer clay before chances are that you will have some scrap clay and already baked stuff laying around that you have no use for. I took some green clay (I always have green left overs! Not sure why) and some charms I made years ago to use as a base to build the black clay around. Polymer clay can be hardened several times, so don’t be afraid to use baked parts mixed in with the unbaked clay.

The best tool to use to get the shapes I wanted would be some type of flat surface glass thing. I didn’t have that so a little tin box worked pretty well too.

Once your satisfied with the shapes, make little holes at the sides where you want the hook screws to go.
Remember that you will sharpen and smoothen out the surfaces of the shapes once they are baked, so they don’t have to be perfect at this stage.

Bake the shapes and break out the nail files. To get the sharp “cut stone” type of look you will need to used sandpaper with a flat hard back. That’s why I’m using the nail files, I think they’re perfect for this!
It can be a little tricky to get sharp edges, make sure you’re holding the nail file at the same angle when you’re working on one of the flat surfaces.

You can see the difference between the sanded, to the left, and unsanded shapes, to the right, in this picture.

Once you’re done with the sanding, add the eye hook screws to the holes and glaze with some shiny varnish!

Once the varnish has dried, it’s time to assemble the necklace. I used a polymer clay necklace I made earlier this year as a reference for the chain length needed. Also note how the varnish transforms the polymer clay into something awesome, from a dusty matte gray-ish tone to a deep shiny black! I love it!

And crap, I really like the color combo of these two necklaces!

This is how it looks on. Not really digging the fact I need to use the flash so often in my pictures now when it’s getting darker outside… It makes the photos look…bleh.