Polymer Clay Necklaces

Introduction

Perhaps you’ve dreamed of a beautiful necklace that you can’t seem to find anywhere. Or maybe you want a fun activity for kids that lets them create sentimental projects. No matter who’s creating, DIY polymer clay necklaces provide endless possibilities. You can create the necklaces you’ve only imagined before, and let kids craft fun, personalized jewelry to give as gifts or wear themselves.

What Do You Need to Make Polymer Clay Necklaces?

Before you begin crafting DIY polymer clay necklaces, you have to gather your supplies. For basic projects, you’ll need clay, your household oven or toaster oven, an oven-safe work mat, and a clean work surface. If your project is more complex and you want to try different clay tools, you could use:

1. Clay rollers: To cut shapes out of a sheet of clay, you’ll need to roll it out. You can use an acrylic roller to work by hand or a clay conditioning machine that rolls the clay out to your desired thickness.
2. Cutters: Use cutters as an easy way to create your desired shape from sheets of clay. With a cutter, you simply press the tool into the clay to create the shape. Cut away the excess clay to reroll and reveal your pendant or charm.
3. Molds: Create cabochons or pendant charms with oven-safe molds. Get the exact shapes you want for your necklaces by filling molds with liquid or solid clay and baking as directed. Using a mold helps you recreate the same shapes consistently.
4. Texture sheets: Add intricate details to your clay with texture sheets. Press a texture sheet into clay, rolling it with a roller if you’re working with a full sheet of clay. Textures help hide imperfections in your clay and add stylish or fun details.
5. Sculpting and modeling tools: To sculpt pendants or add details to beads, use clay sculpting and modeling tools. Use them to carve or etch details, round the edges of your cutouts, or add texture to your clay.
6. Bead-making tools: Use bead-making tools for beaded necklaces that show off fun colors and shapes. A bead maker helps you craft perfectly rounded beads. Skewer them into a bead baking rack to cure many beads at once.

You’ll also need jewelry hardware to assemble your pieces. To turn your clay projects into necklaces, get these supplies and tools:

• Wire cutters
• Round-nose pliers
• Flat-nose pliers
• Hand drill for jewelry making and assorted bits
• Industrial glue
• Beading cord or thread
• Jewelry chain
• Assorted clasps
• Assorted jump rings
• Assorted eye pins or screw eyes
• Assorted headpins

What Type of Clay Should You Use to Make Polymer Clay Necklaces?

Because you or someone else will wear your creations, you want them durable. Use quality clay from us at Sculpey® and pick from our range of products to get the right material for your necklace creations, like:

• Sculpey Soufflé™: Sculpey Soufflé™ clay is lightweight, making it comfortable to wear, even with larger jewelry designs. This polymer clay is also simple to bend and shape. While it is lightweight, it’s strong enough to capture and maintain the fine details you put into it. You’ll find an array of colors to select from, and whatever you create will have a soft, matte finish unless you seal it.
• Sculpey Premo™: The Sculpey Premo™ clay also comes in an array of colors. It’s strong and flexible, making it excellent for jewelry making. It’ll hold the details you put into it because it’s firm, but it’s also soft and easy to work with.
• Sculpey® III: Our Sculpey® III clay is a good choice for thicker jewelry pieces and should not be used in thin applications. It maintains intricate details and textures well, making it ideal for different necklace creations. This clay comes in a range of colors, from vivid brights to subtle, natural shades.
• Liquid Sculpey®: Our liquid polymer clay is a versatile product you’ll want to have on hand for making a necklace. Add drizzle details to pendants, fill molds, seal beads, or attach uncured pieces of clay together with this product.

How to Make Polymer Clay Necklaces

With everything prepped, it’s time to learn how to make polymer clay necklaces. Creating clay necklaces involves these key steps:

1. Prepare Your Clay

With the color or colors you need to create your clay necklace conditioned, you can roll, shape, or sculpt the clay. Add textures, cut your shape, or fill molds as needed. Use tools to smooth out cut edges and smooth out fingerprints or camouflage them with textures.

Let your creativity run wild with this step, especially if you don’t have a particular design idea in mind. This step is also where kids will have the most fun, playing with the clay and shaping it into anything they dream of.

2. Know How You’ll Turn It Into a Necklace

You can craft a clay necklace in different ways, but you’ll need to know how it will attach to a chain or cord. How you turn your clay creation into a necklace will depend on its design and the look you want for your finished piece of jewelry. If you’re making clay crafts with kids, you may want to handle some of these processes. Consider these ways to turn a polymer clay project into a necklace:

• A hole in the clay: This technique works best for flat pendants or beads. Beads will have a small hole running through the center for a chain or cord to string through. Modern necklace styles may feature large cut-out statement shapes that you string onto a necklace chain. For a simpler and more traditional option, put a small hole towards the top of your clay creation. Once it bakes, you can add a jump ring and feed it onto your chain or cord. You can also bake the clay and use a hand drill to add the hole after.

• Eye pins: An eye pin is a straight piece of wire with a rounded end. The straight end goes into your clay, which means it should be thick enough so the wire doesn’t show or poke through. You’ll attach the rounded end to a jump ring and then to your necklace chain or cord. Some crafters cut the eye pin to the appropriate length, insert it into the clay, and remove it before baking. They then use a strong adhesive that’s suitable for clay to hold the pin in place. Alternatively, you could put a small bend at the end of the eye pin, carefully insert it into the clay, and bake it with the eye pin inside.
• Headpins: Headpins are pieces of wire with a flat part on the end, called the head, that act as a stopper. To use a headpin to turn your clay into a necklace, insert the end of the wire without the head through the bottom of your clay. Be sure the headpin is long enough to stick out through the top end of the clay. Use jewelry pliers to create a loop at the top of the headpin that’s sticking out from the clay. The result is the shape of an eye pin with a stopper under your clay to hold it in place. Bake the clay with the headpin inside as directed.

3. Bake and Complete Your Clay Creation

Once you prepare your clay and have it ready to turn into a necklace, bake it as directed. Allow the piece to cool fully, and then complete your creation. You may paint on details or glue additions you couldn’t bake, like rhinestones or plastic beads. If you want a more durable polymer clay necklace, add a seal or glaze to your piece. Use Sculpey® Satin Glaze for a soft matte finish, or choose Sculpey® Gloss Glaze for an eye-catching, shiny finish.

After the paint, glaze, or glue dries, assemble your necklace. Jewelry pliers will come in handy to open and close jump rings or hold smaller necklace components as you put your creation together. Make sure you clamp any rings or other jewelry hardware shut to keep your clay creation secure.

Craft DIY Polymer Clay Necklaces With Sculpey®

When you want to craft stunning DIY polymer clay necklaces, choose Sculpey® products and tools. Make a statement, express yourself, or give kids endless crafting potential with our range of clay options and colors. With Sculpey® polymer clay, anything is possible — if you can dream it, you can bring it to life with our flexible, durable products. Add our clay tools to your crafting process to unlock even more possibilities.

Conclusion

Maybe you want a fun activity for kids that lets them create sentimental projects. No matter who’s creating, DIY polymer clay necklaces provide endless possibilities.

For beaded necklaces that show off fun colors and shapes, use bead-making tools. A bead maker helps you craft perfectly rounded beads. Skewer them into a bead baking rack to cure many beads at once.

With the color or colors you need to create your clay necklace conditioned, you can roll, shape, or sculpt the clay. Add textures, cut your shape, or fill molds as needed. Use tools to smooth out cut edges and smooth out fingerprints or camouflage them with textures.