I’ve gotten lots of requests for more jewelry findings made out of polymer clay, so today I have for you a simple way to think about making bead cones.
The basic coiled cone that I show you it’s really just a starting place. As I mentioned in the video you should consider applying paint, patinas and surface effects to these to make them work perfectly with your jewelry pieces. Also, I think I would like to experiment with applying slices of canes or pieces of veneers such as mokume gane or a retro cane. Of course, if you’re not careful your bead caps will end up stealing the show!
With that in mind in upcoming videos I will be showing you how to make jewelry that allows these bead cones to be the stars.
If you want to make lots of cones that are all the same size you might consider making a mold of your form. Use two-part molding putty to mold the form, once set fill it with clay and bake. This way you can make as many forms as you like that are all the exact same size and shape.
Let me know in the comments if you find any interesting cone shapes in household objects. Like I mentioned in the video I found it to be one of the toughest shapes to locate.
Tools and Materials:
- Polymer clay in colors of your choice
- Acrylic block for rubber stamping
- Sharpened pencils
- Bottles with cone shaped tops, such as TLS or Deco gel
- Scrap of aluminum foil
- Clay blade
Enjoy the video and happy creating!
Watch the Custom Bead Caps From Polymer Clay-Friday Findings Tutorial at YouTube.
I’m always surprised by your ingenuity–come to think of it, I shouldn’t be. I also love love love your colors.
Awwww, thanks. 🙂
Every now and then, when browsing polymer techniques, I have a “V8” moment, and this is one of those! Tell me something, Sandy: very often, when I’ve strung my polymer work onto beading wire, I notice that the wire cuts through thinner pieces, which makes sense, and I have a feeling that the wire will cut through these fairly-thin pieces. Should I be using string instead of wire? If so, what sorta string would you suggest? I guess it should be on the thicker side so that it’s less like a sharp razor on the polymer. Sure would appreciate a suggestion!
I recently made a three-strand necklace that these bead caps would be POIFEKT for! I’m gonna coat them in Inka Gold, I think. Thanks ever so much for the great idea (and for finding conical shapes for us! In all this time, I NEVER spotted my liquid clay bottle tip! Derp!).
Hi Binky,
There are a couple things you can do if you are stringing thin polymer clay pieces onto bead stringing wire. One is to fill the hole in the clay with tiny seed beads. You might also fill the hole with a tiny straw, like a coffee stirrer.
Even just adding a bead cap to each side of the hole will keep the wire from doing a sharp bend at the end that can cut into your piece.
You can also string your polymer pieces onto something that will be less sharp on the clay, like waxed linen twine, silk ribbon or thin leather cord.
I’m so glad you found the bead cap video helpful!
Thanks for taking the time to comment and sharing your thoughts.
Happy creating,
Sandy
Seed beads? Oh, my! I came soooo close once: I tried bugle beads, but as they were too long, I had to use a wire cutter to trim them, and they ended up pinching the tubes shut, and trying to reopen the holes ended up making them ragged and wonky, so I gave up on that idea. Seed beads is brilliant!
And bead caps didn’t even cross my mind. Derp! I feel like a dope! It seems so bivouac now.
Thanks ever so much for the tip, Sandy; I’m remembering the time I gave my mom a necklace, and in her dementia, she wore it to bed, and when she woke up, the wire had sawed through several pieces, and I was embarrassed. That won’t be happening again, thanks to you. I appreciate the tips a lot!
(I have a tip for you, too: when I received the email notification of this response, it didn’t include a link to this post so I could come back to thank you. Consider adding a link either to the response or the post itself so folks can find their way back. Luckily, Google was able to help me to get back here to leave this message.)
I’m gonna get out my seed beads and work on adding them to something I’m working on right now! I really appreciate this, Sandy; I’ve been avoiding making thinner objects, and also avoiding using wire even when it’s called for, to avoid pieces being sawed off. I’m really glad not to have such limitations anymore. You’re a gem!
Binky