Funky Geometric Polymer Clay Jewelry Pendants And Earrings

Leah here from magicbyleah.com and in this video I'm going to show you how I make my Funky Geometric Earrings and pendants sets. For this technique, you'll need a sheet of pattern polymer clay, I'm using mokume gane but you can also use cane work or other techniques that can give you pretty colors, I have a few already here and I'll show you how I create that design from the initial mokume gane. You'll also need pliers, some jump rings, this is craft wire formed into a loop for the back of the pendant. You'll need a flexible cutting blade and a rolling pin. To create the pattern sheet, I start with a small piece of mokumegane which I showed you how to make in my last few videos. And I put it on to thin sheet scrap clay rolled out at the number 5 setting. I roll them both together through the number 5 setting on the pasta machine so that the pattern stretches out and slowly starts to grow onto the scraps. Here you can see the design stretched a little because I thin down the sheets, but if I wanna stretch it even more, I'll take another thin sheet of scrap and paste it on there and then run it through the pasta machine again until it's back to a number 5 setting. And here you can see the piece is much bigger the colors have moved around and stretched very nicely. I'm going to run this through one more time to maximize the effect. And here we have it. Look how big it is and look how varied and how beautiful that pattern is. So now we wanna turn this into a pendant. So look for a pretty area on the sheet that you want to capture and then start cutting around it. I like this little star-like shape so I'm gonna go after that right there and I also like the pretty pattern up here, let's see if we can get that into one piece. So the key here is not to cut it straight because that's boring. So you wanna bend you blade this way to get a curve end or this way to get like a inverted curve. Ones I have my first cut, I just look and see what else I want to capture and I wanna go after this design here but I'm going to invert the blade like this. So we're nearly there, and now the question is how big you want this piece because that's going to be the bottom of the pendant. So let's go for something like this - and this is a style that I really like but you can always play around with it ones you get the final piece and just fix it up. I'm gonna make it a little narrower. So this is the piece I wanna use and now we wanna create the back so that it's not so thin and flimsy otherwise it will break. To create the back, roll out a sheet of clay at a thicker setting. I want with the number 2 on the pasta machine and make sure that your piece fits and that there's clay sticking out on every side. I'm going for the fact that it's not the same size but instead sticks out in every direction. And here's the fun part. You wanna take your blade and curve it so it matches the shape of what you already have but don't go and cut exactly where it is, move it slightly off so that you get a border on the outer layer. Look at that, you see how it sticks out a little? We do the same thing for each side. So here you have a finished piece with a nice border of clay around it. For the pendant, I create this hook out of a craft wire but you can use anything that you normally use for your pendants and I flip the piece upside down, I set it up so that there's a hook and that hook I'm going to sort of drag and embed into the clay. You don't have to push it too far or you push through right through to the front or you'll wreck your design. And then I cut a small piece of clay that I'm going to use to secure that into place. You don't want it to be too thin so that it breaks but not too thick so that it becomes uncomfortable for the wearer. Put it on there and then use rolling pin to softly secure it into place. You wanna make sure that the clay gets in between the wire so that it doesn't slip out. You can use you hands and here we go! Another good thing about this is that I'm gonna bake it face down and that means the design is less likely to get burnt. And once it's baked, you always have the option of buffing it or sanding it if you want. So that's the first one, let's look at a couple more patterns. So here I have a piece of mokume gane which I actually show you how to create on a previous video and I just love the transition between the blues and the whites. So I wanna capture that for my pendant. I like the bottom here so I'm gonna cut it slightly rounded and that's where the design starts. I'm going to give it this inverted cut right here. Again I'm just following the prettiness of the piece and if I see something that should go that's where I determined where to make my cuts. And here I'm gonna do round cut there to give it of those ring size pieces. And then for fun, I'm gonna cut the top at an angle like this. And here we have the piece, now let's do the back. I actually make it thinner, I think it'll look nice that way so I'm just gonna snip a bit off right here. Have some navy blue clay rolled out, paste it on there and make sure it sticks out and then cut around with border. Here we go. I'll put the backs on later because I wanna show you a few more. Now here's another beautiful sheet of mokumegane from my initial mokume gane earrings and pendant video and I actually wanna turn this into earrings specifically pulling out these circles because they're so pretty. Because the earrings has to be the same size, you can't really guess at it so I created a shape like this that I'm gonna use as template and simply flip it over for the second earring. With the earrings like this on a tricky pattern, you do have to be careful so let's hope this works. I'm gonna put the pattern right there for the first one capturing the circle on the bottom. Cut it pretty close. And because the circle are close to each other I do have to be careful not to wreck the entire sheet. And I'm just gonna finish cutting right here and bottom and here we go. There's the first one. Now one thing I mess up a few times was I forgot to flip the template so I make sure I flip it to get a pair rather than two of the same here. And here we go, I cut through the second circle for the second piece. If it moves just reposition it before you make the other cuts. So here we have the two earring pieces. Now for the back of the earrings, it's a little bit tricky because we have to make sure to get a jump ring in there so that we can actually hook it up to an earring wire. Here's how I do it. I take the template and apply it about where I want the end to be and indent it so that I know where to cut. And I start by cutting that edge. Then I take the jump ring and I put it onto the edge, press it into place, that way we'll have clay touch the earring wire. I center the top of the earring over the wire so that we have the first piece and I cut it the same way. Notice that the cut isn't exact so I just cut off the excess because I got a little thick on the other side. So here we have one, now do the same thing for the second one. Notice that it sticks out that means I have to move the jump ring. Much better! And here we have an earring set. Now here we have a beautiful sheet of mokumegane so let's see what we can do with it. We'll try an interesting style pendant coz I like that heart there. Here we go. Okay, that's a beautiful piece of scrap so why don't turn that into a pendant too? Let's see if there's enough room here and there is! Not bad for a piece of scrap. And last but not the least we have this beautiful sheet of lavender and pearl. So I wanna see if I can get a pendant and an earring set out of this. I'll start with an earring set because I want them to match so I need to be able to find similar patterns on the sheet. I like this right here where the colors kinda have bubbles. And then we have some more bubbles here so that will make two similar looking earrings. Will never be exactly the same mokume gane but you do wanna try to keep it similar enough. I have another template that I created using the same style and pre-baked it so that it won't stick to the clay. Here's one and remember to flip it so that you'll have a pair.If it moves, move it back or one will be fatter than the other. So here are the earrings. And now for the pendant we want something similar so that it fits the set. So I wanna pull that general area. it would help if I use the sharp blade rather than the non blade side so the pattern doesn’t get ripped up. And here we go the last set! Now I just have to add the backs of the pendant bake up, buff it and we're good to go! If you like any of the pieces that I did here, there are available for sale on my website which you can at magicbyleah.com/shop. For a detailed list of supplies used in this project along with answers to your specific questions, visit my website magicbyleah.com or click the link in the description. I will be uploading videos regularly so be sure to subscribe to my Youtube channel but for even more bonus tutorials, tips and so much more, join my email newsletter by clicking the link in the description or visiting my website magicbyleah.com.