My First Completed Polymer Clay Necklace

I did it. I finally spent the time required to put together my first polymer clay necklace. As is usually the case with me, it took much more time than I had anticipated and I ran into problems.

Lilian showed us how to make the leaf-like objects in October. If they are stretched and adjusted  they can look more like "real" leaves than mine do.  I think of mine as being the result of "artistic license".  I also made some small round beads, some using the stacked cane I used for making the leaves and some using a rusty brown mixture of several colors.

I didn't know anything about stringing the beads or what to use.  I could see that I hadn't made enough small beads so I bought a box of glass beads of mixed shapes and colors.

I chose a few glass beads and threaded them intermittentaly with the polymer beads on jute cord from my craft box.  I posted this necklace in October.

 

It wasn't long enough for the necklace I was visualizing.   I needed more beads and I wasn't pleased with the burnt sienna beads.

The next time I experimented with polymer clay I made more beads using the remaining stack of colored layers  from which I had made the leaves.

I was still mulling around possibilities until a few days ago. By then Lilian had given us a demonstration of how she attached a clasp to tigertail, a special wire that she likes to use for stringing  necklaces.

I had also bought this book on beading basics. It contains a step-by-step explanation attaching a clasp using a technique close to what Lilian had shown us.  

                                                               


I restrung the necklace adding more polymer beads and more glass beads.  I strung them on beading wire this time.

Attaching the crimp bead and the clasp took the most time. That was partly because doing something like this for the first time always is time consuming for me but being me, I also put some of the blame on my old eyes. They just don't see as well as they did ten years ago.

 But I can still SEE. Three cheers for my eyes!

Here is the finished necklace.