Saturday, August 17, 2013

How-To ~ Inside Outside Pressed Flower Beads

Hey everyone! It's bead making day for my new flower molds and here's another how-to for you… enjoy!!

Choose your favorite mold (I hope you tried making some new molds!) or texture sheet. Roll and cut equal size pieces of polymer. This way, even though these beads are hand shaped, they'll all be roughly the same size.

Next, roll the polymer into balls and press firmly into the mold, pushing the polymer over the textured surface.

Gently shape each cast piece into a bowl shape, taking care not to mash the detail on the inside. Pierce. Bake for 15 minutes and cool.

Now cut another piece of polymer — one for each "bowl" you've already shaped, but this time using less polymer — you want this outside layer to be thinner. (For the "bowl" I used 1 1/2 rounds of polymer, and then for the outside texture I used only 1.) Roll into rounds and press firmly into the mold, again pushing the polymer out over the textured surface, and also try to make it a little larger.

Rub a little liquid polymer over the baked "bowl" and gently press the outside layer in place. My beads have the stem detail, so I was careful to line them up on both the inside and outside.

Trim and blend the edges.

Pierce holes through the outside layer, piercing them from the inside out so they line up. Bake for 1 hour.

Paint, stain, color, seal… whatever!




And ta-da!! New beads!

Have fun!


25 comments :

  1. Beautiful!! I keep saying I want to try making my own beads with polymer clay, but quickly realize I hardly have time to even make jewelry.
    Thanks for sharing!!

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  2. Really cool how you make those. I am wondering why you pierce holes? Is it for threading with wire or metal or is it for baking?

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    1. For jewelry making — so for wire or cord. :-) I don't use the hole when baking, I just simply lay them on a folded sheet of copy paper.

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  3. Those are gorgeous Rebekah!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for the tutorial!!!

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  4. Love these. I haven't gotten to try making molds yet, but hoping to soon. I'm so wanting to try to play with my clay again and actually make something that looks like something and useable.

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  5. Love all your great ideas for creating beauty with PC, Rebekah!

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  6. These are beautiful!! On day I will have an oven (when we finally live in a house again ;-) ) especially for Polymer clay

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  7. Oh girl I so want to bead around one of those!!!!!!!!

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  8. This is so totally kick-ass!! Love it! Thanks for sharing with us!

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  9. these are wonderful! what a great looking bead, I hope you share what you make with them, too!

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  10. That is so lovely! I want to make my own molds and you are so inspiring to me! I think I will give it a try to carve some and move forward with a project that has been stalled for months waiting for my knowledge to catch up to my vision. Enjoy the day! Erin

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  11. These are gorgeous! Thanks for the tutorial. I can't wait to play with polymer clay.

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  12. These are awesome. Maybe someday I'll give polymer clay a try.

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  13. Genius!!! I love them! My studio got waterlogged when a pipe leaked in my basement, but as soon as I get back in there (carpet being replaced this week!) I'm going to make some of these. Thanks for showing us how!!!

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  14. This is such a fabulous tutorial Rebekah!~ :) Thanks for sharing~ Cannot wait to try it with some of my molds!

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  15. Gorgeous beads, think I have to learn how to make my own molds now.

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  16. These are beautiful! I'm not to good with polymer clay, but I see so many beautiful things that I want to make from it. Maybe I should try something like this or your donut bead instead of trying to mix colors.
    Which polymer clay do you work with? I have found some are more stiff then others. And what type of paint or stain do you use? I love the colors of your beads. Thank you for sharing your wonderful tutorial.

    Linda @ Mixed Kreations

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  17. I love this series. Thanks for sharing all this info with us. I have been wanting to work with polymer and find your posts to be very inspiring.

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  18. I love these beads - the colours are beautiful and the whole bead looks like a piece of nature. Thank you for the inspiration.

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