If you are literally playing with clay and run it through a pasta machine or roll out, you OFTEN end up with a very cool sheet of clay! NOW what? Or you might find a really cool free recipe somewhere on line and you end up with a pretty sheet of clay. Again NOW what? Well, this is "what". If you want to make jewelry, you need bead sets, and it's nice to have a range of shapes so you have design options for making real neat jewelry.


In this tutorial you will start by learning one technique for mixing colors to make a sheet of clay. I used browns. You can use any combination you like as long as there is a light, a medium and a dark. You can even add a fourth medium color if you like, but make sure you separate them with the light color so you don't end up with mud. Or if you have a neat sheet of clay sitting around, use that and skip to Step 29 in the Lesson to start making the beads. You will learn how to use that sheet of clay as a veneer to make a donut (Pi), a cabochon, round beads, oval beads, and paddle beads. You will learn tips and tricks for making beads that are the same size. And you won't need to invest in bead rollers.


One of my favorite things about this approach is that it a great way to "stretch" a small amount of really cool clay and get more beads out of it by using the desired color as a veneer over a core of scrap clay. Why waste the "good stuff" by letting it hide on the inside of a bead? Much better to have something less attractive form the core, and then use the good stuff on the outside.


You will learn how to shape the round, oval, and paddle beads using only your hands. For the tutorial, we will be using round cutters in different sizes to make the donut. If you do not have round cutters you can use paper circle templates and a craft knife to make the cuts, but be aware that this is not demonstrated in the tutorial.


A pasta machine will be very helpful, but is not required, for this tutorial, just because it will speed things up. I did not use a machine during the making of the tutorial; I only used an acrylic rod to roll the clay.


Last but not least, this is polymer clay we're working with here, which of course means that there will be neat things happending along the way. I will point them out to you, showing you where you have opportunities to deviate.


The finished jewelry pieces shown here were made using the very same beads made during the development of the lesson. The bottom half of the wire work is adapted from a lesson by earringsbyerin on the jewelrylessons.com sister site, if you are interested in dipping into some wire work. Before I baked the Pi, I made the holes so I could wire the bead into the center invisibly. You can do that, or you can do other traditional techniques for using your Pi.


Prerequisites: NONE! If you have NEVER touched clay, you can do this. Your kids can do this as long as an adult handles all the sharp tools and blades.