One of my favourite things to do with polymer clay is marble effect. It’s super simple and the results look amazing. Here’s the Katrilee guide to marble effect earrings.
What you’ll need;
Polymer clay
Roller
Cutter or template
Toothpick or similar
Baking Paper
Fine Sandpaper
Masking Tape
Earring posts or wires
Jump Rings
Pliers
Super glue
The Katrilee Beginners starter kit has everything you need to make 6-10 beautiful pairs of earrings.
Setting up your workspace
The first thing you will want to do before working with your clay is find and prepare a clean workspace. Polymer clay picks up dirt and particles easily, so I usually wipe down my work surfaces with a cleaning wipe prior to work. Lay out your baking paper and tape down the corners to stop it curling.
Conditioning your clay
The brand and age of the polymer clay you use will determine how long it takes to condition your clay, generally I use either Fimo soft, Sculpey Premo or Sculpey souffle. Stay away from any unbranded clays and don’t use Sculpey 3 (it crumbles after baking). There’s no real trick to conditioning, some artists like using a pasta machine and some prefer hand needing or rolling with a roller, just figure out what works best for you with the tools you have. You will want your clay to be soft enough that it’s mouldable and not cracking at the edges but no so soft that it starts sticking to the surface.
Marbling
When doing a marble effect, I usually choose 3-4 clays; my main colour, one shade lighter than that, white and a tiny bit of black.
Roll out your clay into long sausages of the same length, the volume of clay you use in each colour will determine the final product effect. Take your sausages and twist them together, then roll into one long sausage. Fold this long sausage in half and twist. Repeat the process a few times until you feel the clay has moulded together without fully mixing the colours.
Use your roller to roll out the clay. The depth of a £ coin is usually a good width for earrings.
Cutting
Use your cookie cutters or template to cut the earring shapes that you want. Peel away the excess clay and put it to the side for use later.
Making Holes
Take your toothpick and make holes in your earrings where the jump rings will go. I usually do this about 2-3mm from the edge.
Bake
Pre heat your oven to 130c.
Take the tape off of your baking paper and transfer the sheet onto a baking tray.
Bake in the middle of your over for 30 minutes. Allow your pieces to fully cool before moving onto the next step.
Sanding
Use your sandpaper to smooth the edges and remove and excess clay.
Assembly
Now that you have your finished pieces you can start assembling your earrings. If you are using earring wires then these can be attached using jump rings but if you are using earring posts there are a couple options for attachment. The first option is to glue the posts onto your earrings using super glue, the second option is to take a piece of your left over clay and mould the earring post onto the back of your piece, this second option does require a second round of baking but will make your earrings much more durable.
Now you can admire your beautiful creations!
