Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi, my name is Kathy and I am the owner of bits of joy. I make and sell cute, creative and custom polymer clay products to people all around the world. I'm best known for my magnet sets, earrings, and handmade ornaments. I have been working with polymer clay for over 10 years now. It's a very versatile medium that allows me to make just about anything I can picture in my head, my favorite things to make, our food items and desserts. In addition, I've also been an online ESL teacher since 2017. So my experience in teaching online will ensure that you'll have a fun and engaging class. In today's class, you'll learn how to make gorgeous polymer clay GOD earrings. This class is for those that have at least a beginners knowledge of working with polymer clay, as it does involve more advanced techniques like caning and texturing. Your geo cane is capable of producing many NGOs. So you'll be able to share your beautiful creations with your friends, your family, or even to your customers. I'll even show you how you can turn one product and to other types of products. If you don't want to end up with 10 pairs of earrings, I'll be along every step of the way sharing my expert tips and tricks. Are you ready to join me? Let's get started.
2. Materials: For today's project, Let's go over what you'll need to complete. Polymer clay, DOD dangles. So first off, you'll need some basic pliers. You'll need something with a sharp tip. If you don't have a tool like this, you can also use a toothpick. You'll also need things for texturing. So if you have a toothbrush at home or a dotting tool, or even some crinkled aluminum foil you can use that will need a paintbrush, a handrail, or a Dremel, an exacto knife, or a slicing tool. You'll also need either an acrylic roller or a pasta machine to help grow your clay out. In addition, you will need to select your favorite colors of glitter for this particular project, I will be using gold today. I also have some glass glitter, which is kind of like a chunky serrated glitter that you can find at craft stores. This is optional, but I think it really helps give a more realistic finished to your geode. And the last few things you'll need are some golden leaf foil. You'll also need some gloss glaze to help finish up your creations. And lastly, you'll need some liquid translucence. Colby.
3. Clay Colors: For this part, we'll be talking a little bit about polymer clay. So first off, it's very important that you have some scopy translucent clay. You're also welcome to use female or other brands. Just make sure it's translucent that way when it bakes, it appears to be a little bit more clear. You'll want to also decide on the colors that you want to use. There are lots of different kinds of NGOs, ranging from blue to purple to emeralds. Today I'll be using a pink and purple variation. If you need some inspiration, just feel free to look up some images online and study all of the different bands of colors in between. So to start, I always start with translucent as the first layer, and then I gradually get darker as the colors progress. Since I'm going to be using a mix of pink and purple, I've created some custom colors here. This one is a very light pink mixed with white. This is a translucent mixed with a shimmery pink color. This is a brighter, bolder pink mixed with some translucent and white. You can also throw in some glitter for some pretty effects. It doesn't need to be rolled completely solid. You're welcome to leave some striping in the pattern that way when we roll it out, it just creates a more organic feel. Right now, I have a darker pink and purple mix here. We want to throw in some dark colors in between all these light colors to help with the composition of our piece. You can also take your clay and mix it up by hand. Like I'm doing right now. If you prefer. You can also use a roller or a pasta machine to help mix your clay colors together. I recommend using at least seven to 10 colors for your GOD angles because it creates more fans of color.
4. Putting it Together: Next up we are going to begin forming our geode slices. First, take your translucent clay and roll it into a log shape. This looks good. Next, you will take all of your other balls of clay and roll them out. You can either do this by hand with an acrylic roller or you can use a pasta machine. The length doesn't really matter too much, just because we can trim them. So here are my first two layers. You also want to use varying thicknesses since the band of an agate geode. Not all of the same sizes and consistencies. So feel free to roll some with more pressure so that you get a thinner slab and then roll some a little lighter. And if you don't like the placement of your colors, feel free to move them around. You still have time to change your mind. And remember these don't have to be perfectly solid colors unless you want them to be.
5. Rolling Your Cane: Okay, from left to right, I have my translucent core log and all of my layers for my aggregate geode and varying thickness is to help create depth. One thing that you'll notice is that one of my labs looks really small. But keep in mind that as you progress from left to right and rolling your cane, the pieces will need to fit over your cane. So if this happens, you can either move the color that you use too little clay on to earlier section of the log. Or you can just add a little bit more of this color and make it wider and thicker. To create our geode, we are going to start with our translucent core. Okay everyone, great job. So what we're going to do for our last layer is created. There's a really cool gold leaf effect. So what you'll do is you'll take your last color and some gold leaf foil. You can also use silver if you think it matches your geo better. I'm using gold for today. And then we will take our geode and wrap this around. And what this layer does is create a really cool sparkle effect for your final log. Once you get this on place, you'll want to squish down your log. So do this by rolling firmly on your hard surface. And you'll want to keep rolling until you get to your desired size for your earrings. This is probably about an inch and a half big right now. These are a little large for earrings, but they would be perfect for necklaces. So I'm going to keep rolling. Apply steady pressure. This is a better size for me. I'll show you what to do next.
6. Texturing and Cutting: What we're going to do next is take our set of tools or a paintbrush and create some textures by indenting in your geode. So I'm applying some firm pressure here to all signs of my cane. What we can also do is take some aluminum foil and wrinkle up and lightly texture. All areas of your cane. Go back and forth as needed. Okay, now, here's the moment of truth. Once you have textured your cane and gotten it rolled down to the size that you would like your earrings. Go ahead and either take your exact dough knife or your slicer and slice directly down the middle of your cane. Break your pieces apart. And today, what we're going to do next is work on slicing are Keynes. So what you'll do is take your blade or exact dough knife and cut about two to three millimeters of your cane. Another helpful tip if you're having some issues with slicing your cane is to simply pop your claim, log into the freezer for about 10 to 15 minutes. And it will make it considerably easier to slice. If you find that your cane is not textured enough. Sometimes it's easier to work with small. So what you can do is continue squeezing, texturing, and adding a little bit more depth to your pieces. Feel free to shape them how you want, and then slice again. You can also do a little bit of shaping. Once you've sliced. Hi.
7. Finishing Touches: Welcome back. In this next part, we are going to start working on our finishing touches of our geocodes. So first, take a few NGOs that you like and pair them together. We're going to take a sharp, serrated edge. If you don't have one of these, you can also use a toothpick and gently place it in the center of your geode and the translucent section. And start making a little indentation all the way through. And this will allow us to fill it with our translucent liquid sculpture later and some glitter. You can turn it around and check the back if you need. Just make sure there's enough of an opening for you to pour liquid clay through. And these don't have to be perfect. Again, deals come in all shapes and sizes. So feel free to make your own designs within the center of the genome. In the next part of this video, you'll need to either grab some parchment paper or aluminum foil. Go ahead and put your geode piece on top of either the foil or the patron paper. And what this will do is prevent your GOD from sticking to your baking tray when you pull them out of the oven. It also helps provide a clean bottom surface. Once we apply our translucent liquid scopy. So go ahead and pour a couple of drops into the center of your geode. These don't have to be perfectly full because we'll be filling them with glitter. And remember, these will settle down to the bottom. Since it's in liquid form. If you need to, you can use a toothpick to swirl it around or to push it down deeper. What you'll do next is take your preferred glitter color and either grab a little spin your fingers or another tool and put some glitter in the center of your genome. Again, these don't have to be perfect. You can put as much or as little as you'd like. You can press the glider down. Just remember that your geode core in the center, we'll bake and be translucent. What I'm going to do next is apply some glass glitter. And again, this is optional. You should be able to find it at any major craft store. I think it gives a really cool, realistic finish and it helps resemble a real geode a little bit better. So what you'll do next is take your little aluminum foil sheet or your parchment paper with your charms and gently lift and place it onto your baking tray. You'll bake this for about 30 minutes at 275 degrees a pro tip. If you have an oven thermometer, it would be helpful to place one into your oven. That way you can ensure that the temperatures are correct. The worst thing that you want to do is spend so much time putting together your cane and then burning your beautiful creations of the trust me, I've had this happen from experience and get yourself an oven thermometer.
8. Glaze and Assemble: All right, friends. We're almost to the finish line. Good job so far. So what you're going to do now is when they are out of the habit, make sure you let your pieces cool completely to the touch. About 15 or 20 minutes. Now, I am noticing that I got a little sloppy with some of my glitter. So don't worry about that. What you can do is simply just take your exacto knife and pop off the glitter. If there's too much clutter somewhere. You can also use your finger. You don't like the placement. Okay. And what we'll do now is take our school bead gloss glaze and put a little tiny dab. Whoops until what are your pieces? And gently brush around the top of your surface. Give it about five minutes or so to cool. And then you can pop these upside-down and brush the other side. Give those about five minutes and then turn them to the sides and brush all of the edges. We are going to take our hand drill and find the center of the top of our geo dangle where you want it to rain. So go ahead and twist down. Sometimes I like to lift my leg up halfway through. I'll select to go through the back hole to make sure it's nice and smooth. Go ahead and pick your favorite findings. I'm going to use silver fish hook dangles for one pair and then gold ball studs for another pair. So what you'll need to do is simply just open your jump rings and attach them to the earring post and close. It's really helpful to use to pliers for this step. Okay, and there you have it. And with the fish hooks, similar process, go ahead and take your jump rings. Open them up, and close with two pyres. Gets a little tricky sometimes just take your time. Be patient. With this design, I need to have a secondary jump ring to attach to my fish hook. Give this a gentle close. And there you have it. Two versions of your geo dangles.
9. Bonus Projects! : Retrieval, retrieval, retrieval, accounting, breakeven.
Kathy Austin, Owner of Bits of Joy
