Marbled Clay Jewellery
/Air hardening clay is a fantastic craft material that makes it easy to make things from clay at home without needing lots of specialist equipment.
Cass Art sent me some Air hardening clay and marbling medium to try out and review as part of their #BEINSPIRED campaign.
In the package I had pack of white DAS air hardening clay, 2 packs of DAS Idea Mix marbling material in Verona Red and Sodalite Blue, a bottle of Vernidas Vitrifying Varnish and a DAS adjustable rolling pin, all in a lovely reusable Cass Art tote bag. The rolling pin has clever rubber rings so you can easily adjust the thickness of whatever you are rolling.
I've made a whole load of things from this 1kg pack of clay and I thought I'd start by sharing with you with this simple marbled jewellery.
How to make marbled clay jewellery
Before you begin get everything ready that you will need. This clay dries in the air, which of course means it starts to dry as soon as it comes out of the packet!
To make your own Marbled Clay Jewellery you will need:
Rolling pin
Knife
Pot of water
Skewer or similar (cocktail stick etc)
Have the little pot of water handy as you can damp your fingers to make the clay more workable. I wouldn't make it too wet though, I found it slippery and difficult to handle if I made it too wet.
Marbling the clay is pretty easy. You break off a big lump of the air hardening clay, knead it a little to soften it then add some smaller blobs of the marbling mix.
Just knead it and roll it, repeating a couple of times and a random marbled effect just appears. Don't knead and re roll too many times though or the effect starts to disappear and the clay turns a pale blue (or red, or whatever colour you are adding)
I tried out both the red and blue, you can see my photos here switch between the two.
Simple Clay Pendant Necklace DIY
Once your clay is marbled you are ready to begin making your jewellery shapes.
Triangle shaped clay pendant
Roll the clay out to approx 5mm thick. If you have a rolling pin like the one from CAS you leave the largest rubber ring in place.
You can cut a triangle free hand or make a paper template of a triangle 6cm (2.25'") x 6cm (2.25").
Lay the template on the clay and then cut round it. I tried my x-acto knife and just a regular kitchen knife. Both cut the clay just fine so either will work. I experimented and tried just using my cutting mat or rolling out the clay on a piece of baking parchment. The baking parchment did make it easier to lift the clay shapes up, but it did make it a bit slippery to roll out so it’s a bit “swings and roundabouts”. Try it out, see which you prefer. You might like to try rolling out your clay on a clean cereal packet bag, they are great for rolling out pastry so might work just as well for clay.
Your clay shapes will have little rough bits on the edges, just wet your finger with a drop of water then smooth the clay down. You can pick the pieces up and handle them carefully, so you can smooth all the sides. Apparently you can sand this clay once it's dry but it seemed easier to me to smooth it at this stage.
Then make holes for the cord. I used a wooden kebab skewer. Poke the skewer in from the front and then again from the back, giving it a bit of a wiggle to make sure no little lumps of clay get stuck inside.
Leave your air drying clay shapes on a smooth flat surface for about 24 hours to dry and harden completely. Oh, and wash your knives, rolling pin, board etc straight away of course, hot soapy water works just fine for this.
You can see here how the white clay lightens as it dries. The marbling mix colours stayed pretty much the same.
It takes between 12 and 48 hours for everything to completely dry and harden, depending on the thickness. Once they are dry the pieces will look a lighter colour and feel much lighter in weight too.
Varnish your clay pendants to protect the clay and to give a glossy finish. The Vitrifying varnish gives an amazing high shine, it really is a glass like finish. Just brush it on one side, give it time to dry and then turn the piece over and coat the other side. I found any brush marks just smoothed themselves out quickly so there is no need to fuss over them.
It's not a great photo but you can see the high gloss on the left v the matt look before varnish on the right.
Once it is completely dry you can add a length of cord and your necklace is ready to wear.
Marbled Pebble Effect Clay Pendant DIY
To make these flattened pebble like beads, just roll a lump of clay into a ball, poke your wooden kebab skewer through either in the centre or just a little above centre then flatten very lightly with the rolling pin.
Smooth the clay with a little water on your fingers as much as you like. Looking at this photo below of the finished blue pebble pendant I think I should have spent just a little longer smoothing the clay around the bottom before I left it to dry and harden. It's a little bit too creasy for my liking, although in nature pebbles to have cracks and crevices in them. Maybe subliminally I was going for a natural effect?
I found this larger chunkier pendants took quite a lot longer to dry than the thinner pieces, round about 48 hours.
Varnish the pendant in the same way as before before threading a cord though the hole.
Bunting necklace made from air dry clay
This little bunting necklace was made in the same way as the triangle pendants but on a much smaller scale.
Roll the clay out to approx 3.5mm (the middle rubber ring on the rolling pin) and cut out much smaller triangles.
You can see I tried mixing a little of my marbled mix into a fresh lump of the red Idea Mix to give a reversed marble effect for some of the triangles.
Make the little holes for the jump rings with a cocktail stick.
These tiny clay triangles only took about 12 hours to dry, I then varnished them one side at a time with the Vernidas Vitrifying Varnish.
Once everything is dry join the triangles with jump rings.
Originally I thought I would join each piece of bunting with a single oval jump ring but they just didn't fit so I added a little round 7mm jump ring to each side of the bunting triangles then joined them up with another jump ring.
This way the triangles lie flat, if I'd joined the triangles directly to one another the whole thing would twist and not be comfortable to wear.
Add a length of chain to each side of the “bunting” so the necklace hangs at the length you like.
This is a page from my notebook where I sketch out ideas. You might see an idea here that you prefer to the ones I’ve actually made.
Other options to colour or marble air dry clay
You can also colour or marble plain white air dry clay with acrylic paints, mica powder, oil paints or even food colouring apparently! If you are adding colour like this then it’s a good idea to knead the clay well first, so it is soft and pliable, then add your colour of choice and knead again. Knead lightly for a marbled effect and more thoroughly for an even colour change. Be warned, this is a more messy option though. Colouring your clay with something like the idea mix clay is cleaner and easier, however you have less colour choices and you’re having to buy another product. It’s swings and roundabouts as to which is the best option, but nice to know there are options.
Have you ever tried using air hardening clay? It was much simpler to work with that I was expecting and the glossy varnish gives the pieces a lovely expensive finish. I've really enjoyed playing with it and have a few more projects I’ve made with it:
Julie
I'll be linking up at these link parties
