Summer Jewellery Inspiration with Polymer Clay (Fimo)

The pendant shown to the left is a beautiful Premo piece that can be found, as well as many other items, at laurali's Etsy shop. Go check it out, as well as her other website, Zenbreeze, for more gorgeous art!

Fimo, Sculpey, Premo, Cernit, Friendly Clay, Formello and Modello are all brands of polymer clay, a modeling substance that can be baked in a household oven or toaster oven to harden and preserve the details of the art work. Polymer clay can be used in many different kinds of projects, including scrapbooking, sculpture, candle holders and jewellery, but since it’s Monday, and that means jewellery, it is the latter that I will talk about today.

When polymer clay is baked, it become hard, allowing it to be used in jewellery, either as a pendant or other central piece, or as beads. Before baking, make sure that the pieces have a hole poked into them, or a way to otherwise attach them to the finished item. There are many different ways of using polymer clay to get various results. The following tutorials are fantastic, and I urge you to check them out.

Polymer Clay Central is a great place to start looking. There are tutorials for beginner to advanced techniques, including a tonne of different canework ideas (used to make identical beads and amazing effects). One of my favourites is Donna Kato’s feather cane. The list of lessons offered by Polymer Clay Central is located here.

Some tutorials that I find particularly exciting are ways of making polymer clay look like various stones. It’s sometimes difficult for people who don’t have a background in lapidary to find stones in the shape/size that they want for their projects. This way, an artist can create his/her own vision without needing to invest boatloads of money into a lapidary studio or find access to someone else’s. Another advantage is that polymer clay is lighter than stone, and thus a large piece could be used as an earring, where stone may be uncomfortable. The Polymer ClaySpot has a tutorial for making faux turquoise. Ivory, jade, abalone, turquoise and even bronze are given the faux treatment in for this tutorial by The Poly Parrot. There is also a list of suggestions for creating your own ideas.

For myself, I love marbleizing polymer clay, and next week I’ll show you how to use polymer clay to create the perfect accessories to pull your outfit together.

For more inspiration, check out the Flickr tag for Fimo to see over eleven thousand pictures with Fimo as the theme.

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