Finally Friday! Polymer Clay Journey: Bead Making

Yay it is finally Friday! That may mean a lot to some of you, To others like myself, We work at home studio - We're creating Knows no holidays. That's because we love what we do. When you love what you do, It is at work. Not saying it isn't Actual physical work, In fact, Many artists work very hard at what they do. What I am trying to say, Is that no matter how much energy and effort goes in to creating, It sure doesn't feel like 'work' as the world knows it.

Recently I was working on some cane construction, After mixing a variety of colors using Primo translucent clay, along with bits of coloured solid clay. As often happens, As I sliced off the ends of the canes, I started smooshing up the scraps. And voila, as always, A delightful, colourful surprise. In fact I often like the colourful surprises produced from smashing up clay bits So much, thatI find myself making "purposeful," scrap clay just to turn into beads or something.

Click here to see how I tweaked my Amaco Bead baking rack, thanks to the Polymer Clay Tutor's idea.

Watch the video below 
if you want to dive right into How I made cylinder beads using scraps of polymer clay.

Bead Making Hints & Tips
#1 Bringing Out The Best:
Accent your beads or pendants by selecting a specific colour out out your surprise mixture.

#2 Can't Stand Up?:
I know many clay artists say t "stand up and look down to find the center of a bead before poking." If you can't stand up, like I can't, to look above, while poking a hole in your beads- just do your best to look above and down. Poke a little and hold up the bead to double check where you are.
Begin centering the piercing pin and gently twist it half way down. Then turn it around, eyeball the center again and begin to twist gently. Pick up the bead as you carefully maneuver the pin through, trying to make it travel gently through to the other side- if you go

Some of my very first cane  beads

slowly and carefully, you will feel it slide into the channel already made. Then out, it will come.

#3 Drills Or Needles? Raw Or Cured?
Many clay artists prefer drilling holes into beads and such after curing in the oven. One reason, because they don't know where exactly where the hole should be. I get that. But I have tried to do it after and for myself, it is much more difficult to try to hand turn a hand drill into any bead with thickness.
That being said, I have concluded that for me and anyone with hand pain, strength issues- poking holes and planning prior to curing is best. And if you want a larger hole after, it is easier to use that hand drill after a thin hole is already baked in.

#4 To Sand Or Not To Sand?
Well, again this is done a  lot by many clay artists. To sand and buff to a beautiful shine is rewarding for sure. But with limited hand strength, I can not achieve the same degree of shine as others do. So if you are like me or don't want to worry about all that - don't give up or be discouraged. My life is about improvisation - figuring out how to do what you want but in a different way than others, accomplishing the same or similar end result.

Smooth, smooth, smooth. The smoother your raw clay pieces are,

My Amaco Bead Baking Rack  with Sugru

the less sanding you'd have to do after. Or you just glaze it after if you want. You definitely want your pieces to be as professional as you can. 

Stir, stir, stir! I learned the hard way. If you do use polyurethane water based or even oil MINwax -is good, stir to the bottom or the glaze will be sticky and even peel off. Be gentle, bubbles are icky.


Question for you today is?
Do you like to?
A) Avoid sanding and buffing at all cost?
B) Keep your beads Au Naturelle?
C) Prefer to glaze to a glossy gloss?
D) Or Do you use a matte glaze?
E) Or does it totally depend on each bead making method? 

HeArtfully Creating,
Anita
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My first home Made Bead glazing rack

POLYMER CLAY ADVENTURE: HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN BEAD BAKING RACK

The clay nubs that the floral wire "bead pins"
sit in from one side of the cake pan to the other.

Baking Polymer Clay beads was one of the first problems I had to solve when I began my polymer clay adventure. Yes, I saw what was out there. In fact, I will post the Y/T videos by one of my favourite Poly Clay Artist/Tutors, Cindy Lietz, see videos in the next article I will be sharing after this one.  She talks about three different brands of bead baking racks. When I started, I was inspired to not spend any more money on polymer clay supplies. So I try to problem solve by working with what I have on hand.

A cake pan makes a large baking rack.
You can use the bottom to bake more items too,

But one dilemma was how to bake the raw beads without wrecking them.  Because I saw people like the Polymer Clay Tutor talking about bead baking  racks, I got ideas from seeing what they look like. Especially my now favourite, AMACO bead baking rack. Based on seeing them, it helped give me the idea of how to make my own baking rack. So, I do suggest starting out with making your own bead baking rack if you want to.
On Old Cake Pan & Scrap Clay:

If you look at the picture to the right, you  can see the cake pan that I placed nubs or small balls of polymer clay across from each other. Make sure to mould the little balls of clay snugly to the cake pan lip or edge. Most of my baked clay nubs, actually slide side to side now like a rail. It just worked out that way.

Floral Stem Wire For "Bead Pins:"
Then I cut up floral wire from 20 and 18 gauge floral wire, to the right length across the width of the cake pan. One long giant bead pin" I suppose. I do pre-pierce my beads with a needle tool first. Wire is too dull to make a neat hole. Then I  slide my beads on. The picture below that is the floral wire 18 gauge, curled at the end with round nose pliers. Bamboo skewers work too. I would recommend using them for beginners, but know that the clay can stick to the bamboo so twist them a bit before baking.

The curled end helps to hold the strung beaded wire onto the polymer clay blobs or nubs. Now make sure you make a little slot to rest each end of the wire on. If you just push your wire ends into the raw clay nubs that you bake,  it will bake, then harden and trap your wire and you won't get your wire free when your beads are done. You can see that my clay nubs were left with a wide indent. Make sure the indent is deep enough to hold your wire or skewer from rolling off.

The clay nubs that the floral wire "bead pins" sit in
from one side of the cake pan to the other.

I used this bead baking rack/cake pan a zillion times. Okay, A lot of times.  When clay is baked at the right temperature, it can't burn when cooked repeatedly. Bonus, you can string of rows and rows of beads BEFORE baking your bead nubs. Just mould them all on, lay down all your loaded up bead pins/wires and push them down into the clay. Making sure you are NOT leaving them in a way that they will bake right into the wire holders.
Problem solving and working with what you can, saves money!

HeArtfully Creating!

I would love to hear your ideas, comments and questions below :o)