****Pancakes and Clay - DIY****

So its raining outside, it was a long day at work and I need to relax before the weekend. Sounds like the perfect ingredients for an evening DIY and seeing as I have been way behind on posting some of the projects I have been working on I figured I'd start with my first foray into the world of FIMO and my very first handmade geometric pendant.

What You Need:

• Clay (FIMO or Sculpee)
• Sharp clay knife or Xacto
• Eye and head pins
• Chain
• Ring base
• Wax paper
• Baking sheet
• Needle nose pliers
• Wire cutters
• Necklace clasps
• E6000

So with all your supplies handy...

With your clay unwrapped and wax paper laid down, begin cutting up the pieces you will need for the pendant. Although the possibilities are endless, for this example we will need 3 rectangular blocks in varying widths.  Using the clay knife, slice off the chunks needed and trim to create sharp edges.  Then repeat two more times.

 

Arrange the clay blocks in the order you would like

Next take 2 eye pins and insert them into the clay to establish the holes.  Make sure the path is clean as it will be much easier to reinsert them after the pieces are baked so go ahead and slide it through a few times. 

Congratulations this trio is all ready for the oven. 

But wait...

What about all those scraps?  You don't want to let them go to waste do you?

First we will start with the large, left over chunks.  Using your clay knife begin slicing off the corners.  After each slice rotate the clay chunk and slice again.  

In the end what you want to have is a faceted clay bead.  When you create the right one, take another eye pin and create the hole.  Repeat this step with the left overs in the other colors too if you'd like.

Put those beads to the side with the first pendant and left work with the tiny scraps now. Take them all and roll them into a ball.

Swirling the colors together creates a marble print and with that we will repeat the steps and create another faceted bead.  Go ahead and slice away...

No eye pins needed with these babies and I promise now we are ready to bake. Tear off a fresh sheet of wax paper and lay it out on the baking sheet.  You could read the instructions on the clay wrapper for baking instructions but I set my oven to 150 degrees.  A high heat isn't neccessary and you could probably put your oven on warm if that is the lowest setting available.  Place your beads on the wax paper, sans the eye pins if you kept them in till now, and place in the oven.

Now keep everyone away from the oven and let these babies bake away.  I gave them about 15 minutes in the oven because of the thickness.  However you can casually check on their status making sure that the bead is not soft of bendable. Once done, let them cool and then bring them back to the work station.

Starting with the first pendant, reinsert the eye and head pins (for the bottom section) and measure out your chain length.  Attach the chain and clasps and your done

Grab your E6000 glue, ring base and marble beads next.  Add a dollop of adhesive to the base top and then gently position the marble bead where you would like it to sit.  Allow this to dry overnight  for it to set without injury or to much shifting aound.  

Lastly add the eye pins to the last two faceted beads, attach to the remaining chain and fastener, and VIOLA!!

Hopefully by now you have gotten the idea as to how addictive this DIY project can be and with all the supplies costing atleast $6 and under, it also makes for a very easy reasonable one. But as I said earlier the possibilities with this are endless. Using the same process I made a really cool harness necklace.

Congrats...you have just created 4 more jewelry pieces. And your probably still looking at the title and wondering exactly what pancakes have to do with this DIY....

What can I say except I was hungry.....lol