Wednesday, September 26, 2012

DIY: cloud pendant

These days, I really love clouds! I saw this pin and wanted some clouds of my own and since I'm kind of fixated on long, over-the-head length pendant necklaces right now, I thought why not throw those two together?!

This is such an easy DIY, I didn't even bother to photograph step-by-step.
  1. Get yourself some air dry clay. I used this (and there's so much of it in one tub, I figure you'll be set for life after this one-time purchase).
  2. Draw a cloud onto stiff paper and cut it out.
  3. Roll out a piece of clay to an even thickness. Then use your paper cloud as a template on the clay and gently cut around the cloud shape.  Don't forget to poke two holes or one hole (whatever suits you) in the cloud so you can eventually attach it to your necklace! (tip: I always make at least two just in case I happen to break one of them!)
  4. Allow it to dry.
  5. Use a damp sponge as a sander to smooth the edges and clean up the surface (I love this part!)
  6. Allow to dry again.
  7. Attach it to a necklace. You can either buy some jump rings and attach the cloud to a chain, or do what I did and use some thin fishing line (I think it's best cuz it's cheaper than beading filament, just as thin, plus has a weighted test to it) and beads to make the necklace strand. (I got the silver seed beads at Walmart of all places!).
You could stop there or you could glaze it, keep it plain, or add some colour to it.

I use this swirly technique. I love it because I never quite know what I'm going to get (except I know it's going to be beautiful), it's easy, it dries quickly, and it's a good way to use up old nail polish. So whenever I make anything out of clay, I eventually gravitate towards this method of colouring it. 

You've most likely seen the DIYs for swirly fingernails, where you give your nails a marbleized look by taking some room temperature water, plopping some fingernail polish on the surface, swirling it, and dipping your fingernails in? That's exactly what I'm doing here! There's no special technique to it. I do it pretty much exactly as it's done on the nail tutorial (minus the petroleum jelly, of course). 

I'm going to be leaving my cloud as is (it's so easy to make that if it should happen to break or get damaged, I'll just make another), but since I really don't know how they'd handle the stresses of every day life (if you get it wet accidentally, etc.), you could also put a coat of glaze over the top for protection once they've been swirled.

Of course, if you don't like clouds as much as I do, you can draw out any image to use as a template on clay and attach it to a necklace (or glue it to a brooch pin -- hint hint) using the same method.

1 comment:

Sammy said...

these are absolutely amazing ! i love them. new follower here. can't wait to explore your site. heartandthrift.blogspot.com