Post by herchenx on Dec 23, 2015 3:58:04 GMT -5
The finished product:
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/16.jpg)
Ever since my first time wire-wrapping I've lamented that the shiny wire distracts from the stone. I've even tried playing with silver and solder (and copper and solder) and always feel like I'm making a piece of jewelry and the stone is secondary to that.
Well I wanted to do something different for my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law for Christmas, and I wondered if I could try using polymer clay. So this morning after taking my daughter to the orthodontist, I stopped by the craft store and got a selection of polymer clays and some basic tools and brought everything home.
I'll say now that this took me a lot longer than wire wrapping would have. Mainly because as per my normal process of trying something new I come armed with a half-baked notion of what I want and little-to-no actual understanding of the process, but also because polymer clay is super-duper sensitive to everything - fingerprints, a warm room, sitting it down on a smooth surface, or a textured surface, smearing (to name a few)
I've had a pretty piece of Montana I cut a few years ago, and thought I'd start with it because it is small and light and wouldn't need much to keep it in place.
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/1.jpg)
I liked this green color, they called it camoflage, but it was a basic OD-ish green:
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/3.jpg)
I grabbed a chunk off the end and worked it for a few seconds until it was a warm lump
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/2.jpg)
Then broke out the starter tool kit
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/4.jpg)
And flattened the lump, placed the stone and traced a border around it
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/5.jpg)
I trimmed out the shape and carefully popped the stone off
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/6.jpg)
I picked colors based on the appearance on the shelf, I thought this was a nice off-white I might use behind translucent stones to reflect light out. Well turns out it is glow in the dark(!?)
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/7.jpg)
I did confirm it glows in the dark, but I didn't want to wait until tomorrow to get more clay, and figured even if it does glow, it still reflects light when it isn't pitch black.
I rolled a very thin piece of it and put the stone on it
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/8.jpg)
Here is the back of the stone with the lighter clay stuck to it
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/9.jpg)
Then I put the stone, with the lighter clay back, onto the OD green piece I'd cut before, which was about 1/8" thick
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/10.jpg)
I pressed the stone into the clay, and shaped the green around the edge to create a bit of a bezel to hold the stone in place.
So far everything was going pretty smoothly. Ironically, getting the pendant smooth caused a big series of headaches.
Here was my first attempt
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/11.jpg)
When I pressed the stone into the green clay, some of the lighter clay squeezed out. I was able to trim it and the lighter clay wasn't a problem any more after that. I worked and worked and worked the clay though, trying to smooth it out with the tools, with my fingers, pressing it against the work surface, etc. - all of which caused different problems because the clay was SO soft. I think if I either let the clay sit on paper to absorb some of the softener OR put it in the fridge I might have saved myself some hassle, but it was a challenging process.
About to give up, I saw a stack of random coins I've collected sitting on the desk, and looked for one that had a ridged edge. This 2 Franc coin had a nice raised edge, so I rolled it and rolled it around, trying to sort of score up the entire surface to obscure the many marks left in the clay. I think it came out reasonably well, although it looks a little like a hand grenade.
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/12.jpg)
I flipped it onto its face before baking, so the bail wouldn't flatten out at all
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/13.jpg)
And 15 minutes later pulled it out of the oven
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/14.jpg)
The stone is locked in nicely, but the bail did end up getting a little squished
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/15.jpg)
I hit it with the Foredom and easily made a hole large enough to pass a small cord through, and once again the finished product
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/16.jpg)
All in all, I am happy. I think the stone looks nice in the setting, the setting is very light and I think it has a nice character to it. If I can get the process down to something more reasonable time-wise I think it might just work.
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/16.jpg)
Ever since my first time wire-wrapping I've lamented that the shiny wire distracts from the stone. I've even tried playing with silver and solder (and copper and solder) and always feel like I'm making a piece of jewelry and the stone is secondary to that.
Well I wanted to do something different for my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law for Christmas, and I wondered if I could try using polymer clay. So this morning after taking my daughter to the orthodontist, I stopped by the craft store and got a selection of polymer clays and some basic tools and brought everything home.
I'll say now that this took me a lot longer than wire wrapping would have. Mainly because as per my normal process of trying something new I come armed with a half-baked notion of what I want and little-to-no actual understanding of the process, but also because polymer clay is super-duper sensitive to everything - fingerprints, a warm room, sitting it down on a smooth surface, or a textured surface, smearing (to name a few)
I've had a pretty piece of Montana I cut a few years ago, and thought I'd start with it because it is small and light and wouldn't need much to keep it in place.
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/1.jpg)
I liked this green color, they called it camoflage, but it was a basic OD-ish green:
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/3.jpg)
I grabbed a chunk off the end and worked it for a few seconds until it was a warm lump
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/2.jpg)
Then broke out the starter tool kit
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/4.jpg)
And flattened the lump, placed the stone and traced a border around it
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/5.jpg)
I trimmed out the shape and carefully popped the stone off
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/6.jpg)
I picked colors based on the appearance on the shelf, I thought this was a nice off-white I might use behind translucent stones to reflect light out. Well turns out it is glow in the dark(!?)
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/7.jpg)
I did confirm it glows in the dark, but I didn't want to wait until tomorrow to get more clay, and figured even if it does glow, it still reflects light when it isn't pitch black.
I rolled a very thin piece of it and put the stone on it
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/8.jpg)
Here is the back of the stone with the lighter clay stuck to it
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/9.jpg)
Then I put the stone, with the lighter clay back, onto the OD green piece I'd cut before, which was about 1/8" thick
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/10.jpg)
I pressed the stone into the clay, and shaped the green around the edge to create a bit of a bezel to hold the stone in place.
So far everything was going pretty smoothly. Ironically, getting the pendant smooth caused a big series of headaches.
Here was my first attempt
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/11.jpg)
When I pressed the stone into the green clay, some of the lighter clay squeezed out. I was able to trim it and the lighter clay wasn't a problem any more after that. I worked and worked and worked the clay though, trying to smooth it out with the tools, with my fingers, pressing it against the work surface, etc. - all of which caused different problems because the clay was SO soft. I think if I either let the clay sit on paper to absorb some of the softener OR put it in the fridge I might have saved myself some hassle, but it was a challenging process.
About to give up, I saw a stack of random coins I've collected sitting on the desk, and looked for one that had a ridged edge. This 2 Franc coin had a nice raised edge, so I rolled it and rolled it around, trying to sort of score up the entire surface to obscure the many marks left in the clay. I think it came out reasonably well, although it looks a little like a hand grenade.
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/12.jpg)
I flipped it onto its face before baking, so the bail wouldn't flatten out at all
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/13.jpg)
And 15 minutes later pulled it out of the oven
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/14.jpg)
The stone is locked in nicely, but the bail did end up getting a little squished
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/15.jpg)
I hit it with the Foredom and easily made a hole large enough to pass a small cord through, and once again the finished product
![](http://daharsh.net/r/20151223/16.jpg)
All in all, I am happy. I think the stone looks nice in the setting, the setting is very light and I think it has a nice character to it. If I can get the process down to something more reasonable time-wise I think it might just work.