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!