Create Polymer Clay Christmas Tree Earrings for Holiday Fun and Gift Giving

1. Introduction : Welcome to this Skillshare class. Polymer clay Christmas tree earrings. These lightweight polymer clay earrings are easy to make as gifts for others or as your own fashion statement for holiday parties. This project is about as easy as growling out cookies and can be adapted to different levels. This class may also be used as an activity for small groups, families, or even as a fun money-making project for those holiday craft fairs. Even if you've never worked with polymer clay before, we'll go over the basics and show you all you need to know to complete the project. It is helpful to have some jewelry making skills for finishing the earrings. But no worries, we will walk you through each step of the process. You will need to stock up on a few supplies, though some clay shaping tools may be items you'll find around the house. My motto was always be creative and use what you have. That's said, a supply list is included in the class notes. This list contains links to products you may wish to purchase online for this project. I want you to be successful and have a great time making these festive polymer clay Christmas tree earrings. Let's get started. 2. Gather Your Supplies : These Christmas tree earrings can be made with just a few basic supplies. But I'm also suggesting some special clay tools that will make the process easier and more efficient. Always remember that if you use kitchen tools, they should be dedicated to clay. Use only once kitchen tools have been used on polymer clay, they shouldn't be returned to food use. You will need polymer clay in three colors. Green, gold or yellow, and red. One package of each color will be enough for about four pairs of earrings. Choose whatever shades of these colors that you prefer. Christmas trees can be traditional forest green, tropical, neon green, whatever you want. Yellow or gold is for the garlands and the star. Red is for the tiny red ball ornaments. A sculpture, a glaze is recommended. It makes your earrings extra shiny. And also sculpted bacon bond for gluing on embellishments. And a stronger jewelry glue like E6 thousand for gluing on the earring backs. Sparkly embellishments such as metallic seed beads and flat back Ryan Stones. Use whatever you can find to light up your tree. You'll need flat earing posts with backs and 12th millimeter jump rings to attach the tree piece to the star piece. In embossing, powder in gold or silver is optional for adding more shine. You will need a work surface that's clean, smooth, non porous, and non food. I like using a large ceramic tile and acrylic roller for rolling out the clay so it's flat and even a pasta machine or clay condition machine is optional but very helpful. And conditioning your clay clay extruder for making the thin ropes of Garland's that will adorn your clay Christmas trees. The clay extruder is similar to a cookie press. It includes a set of small disks of various shapes for the clay to squirt through and long strands. They can also be made by hand. You'll need clay or cookie cutters and treat and star shapes. I didn't have a star cutter or a mold that was the right size. So I drew a freehand star and cut it out with a craft knife. In all or pointy tool, even a toothpick for piercing holes in the trees and the stars to connect them with a jump ring. Clay blades are great for cutting tiny pieces of clay and lifting your clay shapes off your surface like a thin spatula. Various blunt clay tools for shaping, edging, and trimming. You could also use plastic table knives, craft sticks or other items. You'll need a baking pan lined with parchment paper to protect the clay from burning and an oven. Your kitchen oven will do just fine. I used a small kids craft oven. Oven thermometer designed for polymer clay is helpful to make sure your clay doesn't burn. And a soft sanding block for smoothing out any rough edges after baking. And finally, a needle nose pliers or special jewelry pliers to connect the clay, stars and trees with a jump ring. Okay, Got your supplies, then let's begin conditioning the clay. 3. Condition the Clay : Polymer clay is a modeling clay that remains soft and pliable until baked in a low temperature oven. It's great for crafting at home, as it's easy to work with and doesn't require account or high temperatures for curing. Polymer clay is made of polymer fibers. The fibers need to be warmed and condition to feel pliable and to form shapes easily. When you first open a package, the clay feels cool in rigid. You can start warming it up by putting the whole pack in your pocket for a few minutes. While you're getting set up to create. Then we're ready to condition the clay. Will show you two techniques, conditioning by hand and by using a clay or pasta machine. Once you've opened the clay, break-off a section and roll it in your hands, roll it into a ball, and then a long skinny snake fold it in half to make a ball again, repeat until the clay feels flexible, soft, and moldable. Using a clay or pasta machine is especially helpful when your clay has been sitting unused for a long time or is unusually rigid or crumbly to start break-off a section of clay. Clay or pasta machines usually have a knob on the left side with different size settings. Number 1-7 on my machine, seven is the thickest and one is the thinnest setting. If your clay is super rigid like this clay I'm using, you may need to start on the thickest setting to squeeze the clay through. After a few roles, you can switch to the thinner settings to thoroughly smooth and condition your polymer clay. For this project, you'll be using three colors of clay. I like to just condition one color of clay first and continue working with that color until completed. If you keep switching from color to color, you need to clean up your tools in between to avoid getting specs of other colors on your clay. After each roll through the machine, fold your clay in half and roll it through again, sending the folded edge through first to force the air out, preventing bubbles, repeat and repeat until the clay feels soft and stretchy and the sheets of clay come out with smooth edges. Okay, got your clay nice and smooth. Then it's time to roll it out and cut out the shapes. 4. Roll out the Clay and Cut out the Shapes : Rolling the clay, cutting out the shapes. Your first step will be to use your acrylic rollers or a claim machine to roll the clay out until it's an even sheet and a little less than a quarter inch thick. Used a small cookie or clay cutter to cut out your two Christmas tree shapes. A thin clay blade is useful for carefully lifting the clay tree off your surface. You will need to trees and two stars for one pair of earrings. When creating my stars, I didn't have a small enough star-shaped cookie cutter, so I use my exacto knife to cut them out free hand. It's really not too difficult. And even if your stars turnout a bit wonky shape like mine, don't worry about it, because once you've cut them out, you can reshape them in your hands until they're just right. But if you do want more perfectly shaped stars, I've put a link to a great little star shaped cutter in the supply list for the class. Using my exacto knife, I went over my shapes the second time to make a clear cut before peeling them off the surface. Then I went in with a blunt clay tool and using my fingers and have reshaped my stars. Get them more proportionate in better shape. Roll them up flat thin and cover up any fingerprints he might leave on them also with your roller. Of course, you wouldn't have to do any of this if you just had the right shape, the right size star cutter. But either way, it's fine. Once you get your stars the way you want them, you will want to use an all or a sharp, pointy tool like a toothpick to pierce a hole in each of the stars for a jumping to go through, which will then connect the star to the tree. Next step, we'll be rolling out the garlands to decorate your tree. 5. Make Clay Strands for Garlands: You will need a clay extruder for making your clay garlands. You can make them by hand, but this will make them more uniform. You'll need clay, a lump of yellow or gold clay that's conditioned in warm, ready to go, need an extruder. And you'll want to choose the clay disc, the little disk that has the tiny holes in it to press the clay through. You want to make sure everything's all clean. So you want to clean up your surface and your tools, make sure there's no specks of clay. I use a baby wipe for this. Clean everything up. So you open up your extruder and you don't need a whole lot of clay, just a small lump, make it in a small sausage shape. And precedent to your extruder. And preferably want to make it a sausage shape, not a big lump like this. But then you'll want to fiddle around with the extruder because the rod inside needs to press up against that piece of clay and press it against the little, little round disc. So take some time, get it in there. You'll need to turn that rod around and around a few times just to get it to meet the clay so that it'll be ready to press out your strands. So kit it pressed in there, get it nice and tight. Here we go again, attaching the disc with a tiny holes and got extruder in there, the rod turn it, turn it, turn it until it meets the clay and press it through those holes, takes a little getting used to the clay extruder, but once it starts coming out, you'll have those beautiful yellow or gold strands that will make perfect garlands for your Christmas tree. Once you have those, then we will do the next step, adding the garlands to your tree. 6. Add Garlands to the Tree: Adding the garlands to your Christmas tree earrings is pretty easy. Simply press the end of the strand into the edge of your tree and drape your clay Garland's back and forth, gently pressing them into place at the edges. Being careful not to flatten their shape. Once you've finished that, you can use a blunt edge clay tool to smooth out the edges. Once you're done, then you'll repeat on the other tree. Your next step, create some tiny red ball ornaments and add them to your tree. 7. Add Red Ball Ornaments to the Tree: Next, you want to break off tiny pieces of red clay and form them into small red ball ornaments. You can do this however you wish. I chose to press some red clay through the extruder to get some long uniform strands, are then just cut them into little specs before rolling them into balls. Finally, press the little red ornaments lightly onto your trees. 8. Add Sparkly Embellishments: Now you'll want to use a small stylus tool to create a hole in the top of each tree and at the bottom of each star. After baking, you'll be inserting a small jump ring through these holes to connect your stars to the trees. You can attach sparkly embellishments to be your tree lights. For tree lights, you can use some sparkly embellishments such as these flat back Ryan Stones are sequence. Simply glue them on with a little dab of sculpture, bacon bond, or even just with the sculpture glaze, as I'm doing here. The glaze is sticky enough that it adheres the pieces to the clay and it also gives a nice shiny surface. I'm also adding a sprinkle of tiny silver seed beads. The more sparkle and bling, the better. If you want even more shine, you can brush your pieces with sculpt a glaze, and then sprinkle some metallic Micah powders over it. The powders will melt into the glaze when baked, so they'll come out looking extra shiny. Then you'll want to prepare your clay pieces for baking. Inspect the pieces carefully before you bake them. Make sure your holes are still large enough to fit the jewelry wires. Smooth out any rough edges using a clean blunt tool. Pick off any specks of other colored clay. You can remove any tiny particles of dust or hair by touching it up with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol. Everything looking good, then you're ready to bake. 9. Bake the Clay Pieces: Line a baking pan with parchment paper. Place the clay pieces on top, bake your shapes according to the package instructions. Typically this may be for 30 min at around 230 degrees Fahrenheit. Turn off the oven, allowing the clay to cool before removing pieces from the oven. Once your pieces have completely cooled, you can smooth off any rough edges by gently rubbing them with a soft sanding block. To add some extra shine to them, use a small brush and apply a layer of sculpture, glossy glaze. Simply paint on the glaze and let it dry for 30 min. Once dry, you can add another coat of glaze if you want. Just remember to once again let it dry 30 min before handling. Do this to both the trees and the star shapes. Once the glaze is dry on your pieces, it's time to attach the earing posts. 10. Glue on the Earring Posts: A strong jewelry glue like E6 thousand is recommended for gluing the stars to the earing posts since they will be handled frequently and need to be secure. Just be sure to work in a well ventilated area is the vapors can be harmful. Turn the stars face down and prepare to attach the flat earing posts. Place a small drop of glue on the back of the post and lay it on the star. Allow the glue to dry overnight to create a permanent bond. 11. Connect the Shapes with Jump Rings: We're almost ready to try on our new earrings. But first, we need to connect the star piece to the tree with the jumping. To open the jump ring, grasp the ring on one side with a chain nose or needle nose pliers. Grasp the ring on the other side with your hand or with another pliers. Then twist the ring open from side-to-side. Don't pull the ring straight apart as this can cause distortion. Attached to the jumping to the hole in the top of the tree shape. Then add the star shape and close the ring to complete your dangling Christmas tree earring. 12. Conclusion: It's time to try on your finished polymer clay Christmas tree earrings. These large dangling Christmas tree earrings will make great gifts or conversation pieces at your next holiday party. Pair them with your favorite ugly Christmas sweater and you're ready to get Jolly. How did your project turnout? Did you do things differently or find other items to use as tools? Any questions? Let me know in the discussion section below, feel free to share a photo of your finished project. I'd love to see it. Thank you for taking this Skillshare class on creating polymer clay, Christmas tree earrings, happy holidays.