Making: Polymer Clay Beads

History of Polymer Clay

In 1939, German doll-sculptor Kathe Kruse made the first formulation of what would eventually become known as the polymer clay brand Fimo, and gave it to her young daughter, nicknamed Fifi, as a modelling material. Years later in the 1960s, the formulation was sold to Eberhardt Faber. At the same time, other companies were experimenting with polymer-based materials, including American firm Polyform, who initially intended their Sculpey brand to have industrial applications. When the product was deemed unfit for its original purpose it was shelved until someone saw its potential as a modelling compound.

In the beginning, polymer clay was marketed heavily as a toy, its rainbow colours and ease of use making it a popular craft material for children. Yet from these humble beginnings, polymer clay has very quickly progressed into a varied and rich art form, thanks to those pioneering artists who first saw its hidden promise and began to experiment. It may not have the centuries of history and tradition that glass, ceramics and fine art have accumulated, but nonetheless, over a period of less than a century, artists and crafters working with polymer clay had explored a wide range of possibilities, encompassing and modifying techniques from other media as well as discovering innovative methods that were particularly suited to the properties of polymer clay. Some of these ground-breakers include Nan Roche, whose book The New Clay is widely regarded as the original polymer clay bible, Marie Segal, who helped Polyform create the first line of clay in the traditional artists’ colour palette, namely the Premo! brand. Also Donna Kato, whose demonstrations of polymer clay crafting on television introduced it to a new audience, and Judith Skinner, discoverer of a foolproof and easy method for making gradient colour sheets, ever after known as the Skinner Blend in her honour.

In recent years, polymer clay work has begun to be accepted as a legitimate art form, with prominent artist Elise Canning organizing gallery exhibitions showcasing the best of polymer clay artistry; the Racine Art Museum holds an extensive collection of fine art polymer clay, as do several other museums and galleries across America; finally, polymer clay is starting to evolve past the stigma of its beginnings!

Potential for Polymer Clay

Modern day polymer clay is a synthetic plastic made up mostly of polyvinyl chloride and various pigments; many polymer clay brands also carry lines of clay that have special properties, such as inclusions of shimmering powders, transparency, and glow-in-the-dark effects. In its raw state it is a soft, malleable material that can be sculpted and manipulated in a variety of ways, and when set in an ordinary oven it becomes firm and stable. Currently, the main brands of clay comprise Premo, Sculpey, Kato Clay, Fimo Classic and Soft, Viva Decor Pardo, and Cernit.

It’s not difficult to see why artists of all types, including sculptors and traditional painters gravitated towards polymer clay. It is available in a wide range of colours, with the potential for further colour mixing by the artist. It can be worked like ceramics, and yet unlike earthen clay, raw polymer clay has a lengthy open time; in effect, an unfinished piece can be manipulated and even left over long periods of time and returned to later without any difficulties, as long as the clay is kept cool and dry.

A further benefit of polymer clay is the low cost of starting up. Although there are many advanced tools available for the avid clayer, professional results can be achieved with just a few packets of clay, some old household objects, and practice, and the finished work can be safely cured in a domestic oven. (Curing refers to the process of baking clay at the recommended low temperature, often around 100 degree centigrade, to remove the active plasticizers in raw clay, and transform it into its baked, solid state). Many clayers find a pasta machine to be an invaluable tool for conditioning clay and rolling smooth, even sheets, although a acrylic roller or brayer can also serve the same purpose; simply tape two lolly sticks, or two stacks of playing cards parallel to each other on your work surface, and roll the clay out between them, resting your roller on these guides as you roll, for a sheet of consistent thickness.

Working With Polymer Clay

If you are interested in jewellery making, you will probably be most interested in using polymer clay to make beads and other components. Very simple beads can be made by twisting and rolling two colours of clay together to get a marbled clay, and forming this into your desired bead shape. To make the bead hole, piercing with a cocktail stick or thin knitting needle works well, or you can drill the bead holes following curing, which will ensure you don‘t distort your bead shape. In order to bake the beads, it is a good idea to thread them onto a length of wire or onto cocktail sticks and suspend them over a baking tray, or alternatively, you can accordion fold a piece of card and suspend the beads over this. Beads and other objects can also be rested on a bed of corn starch, which is easily dusted away following baking.

Polymer Clay Bead Making Techniques

One popular way to embellish polymer clay beads is the art of millefiori, or caning. Taking its inspiration from the glass-working method of the same name, polymer clay caning involves building an image or motif in cross-section and then stretching or manipulating the length of clay to a smaller diameter. When the length of clay, or cane is cut into, the original image can be seen running through it in miniature, in much the same way a word or picture runs through a stick of seaside rock. Pieces of the cane can be thickly sliced and baked as is to make charms, or thin slices can be shaved away and applied over a base bead to build up a decorative pattern.

The images above show a Polymer Clay flower cane in progress

Another widespread technique involves stamping or impressing raw clay with different textures to create an interesting effect. Anything that will not be ruined by contact with polymer clay can be used as a texture, including old pieces of fabric, sandpaper, wooden objects and metal implements. Plastics can also be used in this way, although be careful about leaving plastic objects in prolonged contact with raw clay as certain types can react with the plasticizers and cause a messy chemical reaction. Tools from other crafts and arts may also be used to great effect, including stamps, carved linoleum blocks, stencils and embossing folders.

Various surface materials can be combined with stamping and texturing for further embellishments. There are several brands of paints and inks that can be applied to raw or baked pieces, allowing you to stamp or draw an image onto your clay canvas. Metal leaf may also be adhered to raw clay, and a variety of colourful foils are available for use with polymer clay. A complex surface effect can be achieved by transferring a piece of metal leaf or foil to a sheet of raw clay and running it through a pasta machine to produce a crackled effect. You can also apply a light wash of inks onto this crackled sheet for extra colour and depth.

Glitters and powders, including crumbled chalks, are an easy way to add instant sparkle and colour to polymer clay as well. Simply brush onto the clay before curing, or use a clay-compatible varnish to adhere the glitter to a previously baked piece. A particularly effective product is mica powder, a very finely ground organic mineral that when brushed onto clay provides a beautiful shimmer, and which can be used to highlight raised or depressed areas in your work.

However, whilst there are many products available that are perfectly compatible with polymer clay, it is wise to make sure that what you are using will not react with the clay, either by checking with other artists, or by performing a test on a scrap piece of clay. Certain varnishes and paints, for example, will either fail to dry properly on raw clay, or worse, chemically react over a period of time; even if something appears dry, it may start to turn tacky up to two years later or more!

The image above shows a stamped Polymer Clay pendant with mica powder highlights

After making and curing your polymer clay beads, you may find there are small surface imperfections or fingerprints on them (although sometimes fingerprints can add a certain charm to handmade items!). To achieve a smooth finish and remove these marks, it is a good idea to wet-sand your beads with sandpapers, starting with a low grit (I.e. a courser grade sand paper) and working up through progressively higher grits until you get the look you want. You can then coat the beads with a compatible glaze or varnish for a high shine, or buff the beads with a rough cloth or piece of denim for a more subtle sheen. Take note, however, that if you have used metal leaf, foil or other embellishments on the top layer of your beads, sanding will remove most of your work, so try to ensure your beads are as smooth as possible before curing in this case, and protect the embellishments with a coat of varnish afterwards.

Advantages Polymer Clay in Jewellery Making

Learning to create polymer clay beads is a fun and satisfying addition to your jewellery skills, but there are also many advantages to using polymer clay components in jewellery pieces. Like paper beads they are a lighter alternative to glass and gemstones, you can incorporate larger beads and a greater number without adding an excessive amount of weight, making the piece more comfortable to wear. Even lighter beads can be made by using a foil armature inside a veneer of clay.

The almost unlimited potential for colour mixing also means that a colour swatch can be readily matched, allowing you to create a coordinating and complementary colour scheme with ease. Using a combination of the techniques described above, nearly any pattern can be replicated too, including the organic patterns and textures of gemstones, woods and stone; it is no wonder polymer clay been nicknamed the chameleon clay. Many eyes have been fooled by polymer clay’s talent for mimicry!

Using Polymer Clay Safely

Whilst polymer clay is certified non-toxic, there are certain precautions you must take to ensure your safety. At the correct temperature, polymer clay will cure safely inside your domestic oven, but if taken too far above that temperature the clay will burn, and produce unpleasant fumes. If this happens move the burnt clay outside, and make sure any animals are kept well away, especially birds, who can be particularly susceptible to chemical fumes. If you are at all concerned about using your home oven for curing polymer clay, you can place your pieces in a oven-safe bowl and create a ‘tent’ out of cooking foil to contain any odours.

In addition, any household or kitchen tools which have been used for polymer clay should not be used for food preparation or use afterwards; make sure you collect a separate set of tools for your polymer clay, and cure your creations on a dedicated baking tray or bowl. Similarly, polymer clay cannot be applied to or used to decorate anything that will have direct contact with food or drink.

Related Websites:

Polymer Clay Daily – a showcase of the best of polymer clay artistry

Polymer Clay Central – the original online hub for polymer clay providing tutorials, information and reviews

Glass Attic – a wealth of polymer clay information collected over the years.

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This post was supplied by Hazel Ward of Continuum Designs - one of our Talented Bead Makers

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Making: Paper Beads

History of Paper Beads

Making paper beads is a traditional craft that goes back, in England at least, as far as the Victorian age. Young ladies would gather socially in their dining rooms, whilst making beads from scraps of wallpaper rolled on knitting needles. They would then polish the beads with bees wax and string them on to long pieces of yarn. They would then be used to make door curtains to divide rooms.

This practice was then revived in the 1920s and 30s for jewellery making.

More recently paper beads have been made in cooperatives as part of development projects in countries such as Uganda. This sees a move away from charitable aid towards business enterprises that provide sustainable income and development opportunities. The techniques used remains largely the same as used in Victorian times, but with recycled paper from printing companies and recycling markets, rather than wallpaper samples.

Paper beads are also made by independent bead making artists around the world and sold through their own web sites or online market places such as Etsy and Artfire.

Requirements

• Paper – Magazine pages, wrapping paper, wallpaper, and coloured art paper, or more specialist papers such as handmade Japanese Washi or Chiyogami paper. 

• Pencil – for marking up the paper. 

• Ruler – for measuring up. 

• Craft Knife, Rotary Cutter or Scissors – for cutting out. If you are using scissors you should use the longest pair available so as to reduce the number of cuts required along each length. 

• Straight Edge – for cutting against. 

• Self Healing Cutting Mat – for cutting on. 

• Metal Skewer or Thin Wooden Dowel – for rolling paper against. Commercially made bead rollers are also available. 

• Soft Paint Brush – for applying glue to the paper. 

• Glue – for securing your rolled beads. Undiluted PVA is perfect but there are many other alternatives. 

• Wooden Cocktail Sticks – for holding your rolled beads when drying or when varnishing. 

• Soft Paint Brush – for applying varnish. A quality brush is preferable at this point as it is less likely to leave bristles on the surface of your beads.  

• Varnish – for waterproofing your rolled beads. Quick drying marine varnish is perfect and is usually touch dry within 1 hour and ready for a second coat in 4 hours. Experiment with gloss, satin, matt, and antique finishes. 

• Oasis Florist Block, Polystyrene Block, or similar – for securing the beads whilst varnishing and drying. Push a cocktail stick holding an individual bead securely into the block.

Basic Technique

• Place your paper face down on your work surface so that the side facing you is not the side that will form the outside of the bead

• With a sharp pencil mark up the reverse side of your paper sample by marking-up one short edge of your paper with divisions spaced 30mm apart. On the opposite short edge of your paper make a mark 15mm in from the edge and then continue with divisions 30mm apart. In this way you should have the makings of a long isosceles triangle when you join two adjacent marks on the first edge, points A and B, with the central mark on the opposing edge, point C.

• Continue marking up the paper until you have the desired number of triangles to cut out. To simplify this step and to aid repetition you could make a template to draw around, or if the paper is of a suitable size use a computer, a graphics package, and a printer to print the layout on to the paper.

• At this point it is worth noting that these measurements have been provided as a starting point, but ultimately it is the ratio of these measurements, combined with the overall length of the paper you are using plus the shapes that you use that will determine the dimensions and shape of your finished bead. Experiment!

• Carefully cut out the triangles using scissors or for a more accurate cut use a straight edge and a craft knife or rotary cutter.

• Take your skewer or dowel and starting at the wide end of your paper sample roll the paper around the skewer slightly so that it starts to form a cylinder. Once you are happy with the alignment roll this back and with a brush apply a little glue across the width of the paper immediately below the line of the skewer. Now carefully roll the paper past the glue and continue onwards ensuring that each spiral at the side of the bead is symmetrical as it forms.

•  At intervals apply another line of glue to secure your work so far. This is far cleaner than covering the whole triangle in glue at the outset.

• When you have approximately 3 cm remaining, cover this remainder with a thin coat of glue leaving a border around the edges. When rolling the glue will be forced over this border without squeezing out over the sides of your beads.

• When the paper is completely rolled make sure the end is securely stuck down before rolling the bead through your fingers with a light pressure to ensure it is cylindrical and secure.

• Slide the bead from the skewer or dowel and transfer it to a cocktail stick and set to one side in your florists block or polystyrene block to completely dry.

• When you have a good number of beads prepared you should then brush each bead with a few coats of varnish to make them water resistant. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions, but ensure that when touch dry you rotate them on the cocktail stick so they don’t stick when fully dry. Several thin coats give a much more polished result than one thick coat.

Refinements to this Technique

• To make beads with different shapes, vary the size and shape of the paper triangles that you cut. The following options are a guide but it is possible to add your own permutations:

• To provide a neater finish to your bead and to show more of the paper, simply cut the tip from the triangle as indicated in the diagram above. This will give a broader end to the last part of the roll. This is particularly effective if you are using patterned paper or paper with text, as it will show the detail of the pattern or lettering.

• To provide a stronger, neater, flatter core to the finished bead add a rectangle of paper to the long base of the triangle as shown in the diagram above. This doesn’t need to be more than 1.5cm long, and should simply allow for a few turns of the paper around the skewer or dowel. It also makes initial alignment of the paper easier. It has the added bonus of making the beads sit better against each other when strung. On the downside, the initial stage of laying out the paper for cutting becomes more involved, but in the end it is worth the extra effort.

• To monitor progress and to ensure ongoing symmetry it is worth while adding some parallel pencilled lines to the back of the paper at the marking up stage.

• Once you have a set of finished beads experiment with finishes and embellishments to add extra interest – be it gilding, wire wrapping, adding fancy papers, using specialist glazes, or simply painting them, the options are endless.

Paper Sources

The main criterion for selecting paper comes down to weight. If the paper is too flimsy it is likely to tear whilst it is being rolled and if it is too heavy it will prove difficult to roll resulting in a loose and uneven bead. The only other issue is likely to be with finish. Before settling on a particular paper check that it will stick to itself with the glue that you are using and that any applied colour or print will not run when glue or vanish is applied to it. Otherwise, as you will see from the few examples provided below, the options are endless.


Art Paper

A trip to a local art supplier will present you with a rainbow of artists’ papers all neatly stacked in a display cabinet and available by the sheet! Used for pastels, charcoals and pencil drawings most of these papers are also the perfect weight for paper beads. In addition to the range of colours many of these papers are also finely textured or grained, which will add a little something extra to the resulting bead. A name to look out for is Fabriano Tiziano. When compared with wrapping paper this is a far cheaper solution albeit minus the patterns.

Copy Paper

This paper is perfect for making solid colored beads. It comes in a wealth of different colours and because it is designed to go through a printer or copier it is the ideal paper to use with a template image. With a little work on a graphics package on a computer you can set up a template document, which will print out cut lines on each sheet, removing any need to measure prior to cutting! Another positive is that it is always likely to be in stock should you want to do a re-run of a particular set of beads in the future.

Specialist Paper

For that really special bead, or a paper bead embellishment, there is nothing finer than using a specialist paper be it Japanese Chiyogami, Italian Fiorentine, or French marbled. These are the preserve of fine paper and book binding suppliers.

Junk Mail

These largely unwanted additions to newspapers and letters can be used in much the same way as magazines. A better end for them than the bin!

Magazine Pages

This is a great way to recycle old magazines and the resulting colour combinations achievable are endless. When selecting pages remember it is the edges of the strips that will be visible on the finished bead as well as the end of the roll. Unless you are using paper from the large format magazine, typically fashion related titles, it may be worthwhile opening the staples on the magazine and using a double page spread.

Newspaper Pages

The weight and composition of newspaper means it is best used for tapered beads. On the plus side most modern newspapers use colour fast inks but it is worth checking how it works with the glue and varnish that you will be using. A second benefit of newspapers is the width of the sheets particularly if you make use of the Sunday broadsheets.

Paper Shopping Bags

Whether plain or printed this paper makes for really good beads. Plain brown paper provides a wood-like appearance when varnished, which can be enhanced by selecting antique effect varnishes. Printed brown paper bags tend to have pleasant earthy tones, which again give a vintage feel to the resulting beads.

Parcel Paper

Like the plain brown paper bags this paper gives a lovely wood-like finish once varnished and is a nice weight to work with. Plus there are more colour options available than previously.

Wrapping Paper

Wrapping paper is an ideal medium simply because of the breadth of colours and patterns available. However the heavier better quality papers can be expensive and unfortunately it is these that are less likely to tear when damped or lose print when handled.

Warning:

Having been varnished paper beads will survive a rain shower but they don’t like to go swimming or to do the washing up!

Paper beading is highly addictive!

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