Materials
~Premo! Sculpey® 2 oz. cube polymer clay: Wasabi #PE02-5022, Gold #PE02-5303,
Black #PE02-5042 Orange #PE02-5033, Silver #PE1-5129, Raw Sienna #PE02-5392
and White #PE02-5001 (Polyform Products the Sculpey people)
~Premo! Sculpey Accents 2 oz. cube polymer clay: Frost White Glitter
#PE02-5057 and Red Glitter #PE02-5051
~Premo! Bead Cores (silver end pieces to finish holes (Polyform Products)
~PREMO! SCULPEY® 6 Pc. Glitter Set, Brights(Polyform Products)
~PREMO! SCULPEY® 6 Pc. Glitter Set, Metallic (Polyform Products)
~Transluscent Liquid Sculpey (aka "TLS")
~Metallic round red wire: 18 and 22 gauge
~1/8" wide Flat aluminum wire by Bead Landing/Michael's brand name)
~Sculpey Extruder Tool with (strings/ropes) round disc (Polyform Products)
~Pearl N Etch tools metal sticks with half round design end (Polyform Products)
~Wire cutters tool
Rope Decorated Beads
How to Decorate the Two Beaded Red and Wasabi Green Ornaments (circle shown and
the Square (to the right of the top star) above, with various positioned clay ropes.
1. Roll several 5/8" diameter conditioned clay balls from one cube
of Wasabi Premo! Sculpey and 1 cube Red Glitter Premo! Accents in that
order (or colors you will use!). Set on work surface for now. With left over
conditioned clay, roll clay into a smooth ball, allowing the heat form your
hands to soften it as much as possible. Roll a log shape that will fit
inside clay extruder tool. Drop clay into extruder and press plunger in the
bottom opening until it stops. Load the lid with the metal disc that
has five or more round holes in it and screw lid onto tool. While clay is
still warm, press plunger to extrude clay ropes.
2. Repeat step one for making additional ropes of the same colors used
in step one using the extruder. To clean a previous color from extruder, use
a paper towel (not water) or a dull, non-serrated craft knife (not blade).
3. There are several ways to decorate the beads with extruded clay
ropes. Above images show the applications I used. After ropes are in
place, adjust if needed, then roll them smooth in your hands.
4. Here are more ways to apply clay ropes that are just as easy. Again,
roll them smooth in your hands when ropes are in position. The far right
candy cane is just a cane shaped beaded wire (7 1/4" long flat wire used).
5. You can also apply surface decorations by either applying small pieces
of leaf to bead, then rolling it in your hands which cracks the leaf in
beautiful patterns. Or, simply roll the unbaked balls in Sculpey fine glitter
(poured into a small box). You can easily return glitter to container by
tipping the corner of the box to allow it to slide back
into the jar so there's no waste!
6. Any size or shape bead can be rolled while it is round, then shaped
to form unique shapes as shown in the center vintage beads resulting in the
vintage look far right photo ornament. Make a tight curl at one end of a
10" piece of flat wire and thread it from the bottom to the top of the
ornament. Form a loop and press the loose end back into the top bead.
7. Rolled color glitter beads can be made into a tree or a star. The tree
image shows the direction of the wire, which is actually one piece of
red wire folded in half (but not creased). Begin at the base of tree
(bronze glitter)and thread one end of wire down through trunk bead hole
and bend to the backside of the bead. From that point just weave each wire
end through the lime glitter bead rows as shown. The right end of the wire is
shown in blue (really just red) and the left is lime green (actually same
red wire). Add a yellow cut out star (Kemper Cutter), that was a ball
rolled in gold glitter over the front top of tree where the twisted wire
ends meet. The star ornament is simple, just create 19 yellow balls of clay,
roll them in gold glitter and pierce with three, 5" red wire pieces. The
center bead has three holes pierced like an "X" then side to side in the
center. Curl the ends of the wire tightly, to keep beads in place,
with the exception of the top center wire, which forms a small loop.
8. The frame is made from the same type of clay rope striped beads, although
beads are cut in half before secured to a round donut shaped 1/8" thick
Wasabi color clay frame (made with two circle cutters). Form a wire loop and
twist the ends once. Clip short with wire cutters if needed, add TLS to
the twisted area and press in-between the frame base and the beads to secure.
Beaded Snowman Ornament
1. The snow man is made just like you would in the snow. Create three balls
of Frost White Glitter Premo! Sculpey, each a little larger then the
first (head). Add bead cores to each bead as described above.
Carefully thread unbaked beads on a piece of flat wire with a 3/8"
bend at the BOTTOM and extend the wire 1/2"
longer then the height.
2. For the face, create an orange carrot nose and 7 'not so perfect' circle
black clay coal pieces for eyes and mouth. Create two Burnt Sienna brown
clay 'twig' arms (or use real twigs) around pieces of bent wire as shown.
Bake all these pieces of clay (but NOT the snowman body!). When cool, press
face pieces only into the UNBAKED snowman body. Mold a black hat from a
flattened ball of clay (rim), add to snowman's head pressing down over wire.
Add a drop of TLS to the top of the wire and press on a fat black clay tube that's slightly
larger on the top end.
2. Create a striped scarf by curving a red clay rope up and down on
a green cut out scarf shape. Trim excess rope ends. Then just add three
tiny balls of Wasabi for trim at each scarf end using a tiny dot of TLS to
secure them. Wrap scarf around the unbaked snowman's neck, as shown.
3. Add TLS to the arm wire area and press the baked arms and wire into the
body at the bottom edge of the scarf, facing arms in different
directions if desired. Bend a flat wire loop as shown, add TLS to the
bottom ends and press into the top of the hat. Bake the entire snowman
standing upright and allow to cool.
