Word Beads

These word beads are so much fun!  I had some stamps made with a variety of words and karma is one of my favorites!  The organic beads are super fun as well.  Here's to good living!  Thanks for looking!

Ocean Blue Sculpted Bead and Paracord Bracelet

I've been making sculpted beads to use in the paracord bracelets I've been making.  I'm a pretty solid fan of using dark brown for a lot of the earthy colored beads.  Sometimes I forget that people like to wear jeans and that many times, the colors in the beads look great with a blue cord.  This bead has some pretty ocean blue colors in it and also some hand drawn or etched in designs.  It was sanded and buffed to this shine.

I'm always trying to find fun paracord colors to use with my beads.  I will order or pick up many shades of colors and this blue is just different.  I call it my ocean blue!  Thanks for looking!

Faux Turquoise Pendants

I made some faux turquoise pendants with the bear bead batch.  I gave a couple of these away as gifts.  I hardly every have to run out for a gift!  Another good reason to make things!  You will always have gifts and can trade items as well.  Really, these can be trade beads!

Bear Paws and Sketches

I was at a show and talked to several folks about bead designs.  Some suggestions were bear paws, elk prints, moose heads and the lotus.  I sketched out some designs and hand sculpted stamps and then mixed the polymer clay and made the beads.  I sanded these, but did not buff them.  I like how this color looks with the darker imprint.

When the clay is sanded and not buffed, it has a nice matte finish.  I make many of the beads two sided so you can wear them either way.

Polymer Clay Faux Turquoise and Paracord Bracelets

I'm still experimenting with simulating turquoise in polymer clay.  If you are using a food processor, it's best to use a clay that is firm and hard, then break it into very small pieces before mixing.  From my experience, I like to use Premo and Fimo Classic for this project.  If you use a softer clay, it can smear in your food processor and then when you want to change colors, you may have unwanted colors mixing.  See the photo!  If you look close, you will see a lapis color speck in one of the beads!  I didn't really want that there, but it's alright.

I have tried to make the matrix look as real as possible.  I stained the beads with a couple of different colors and then sanded them through five grits of wet/dry sand paper.  These were buffed on a muslin jewelers wheel.

I made bracelets with my beads and black 550 paracord and used black plastic clips.  This style of bracelet has become very popular within the past couple of years.  The paracord contains seven strands inside and in the event of need, the bracelet can be unknotted and the cord may be used.  The inner strands may be used for sewing thread, fishing line and you name it!  Some call these knots the cobra or double cobra.

If the clay is more firm and hard when you process it, the pieces will break up really small and this will give you lots of pieces to press back together.  I have been working on some other simulated stones I will post photos of soon.  Thanks for looking!

More Tiny Sculpted Beads!

Here are some tiny sculpted beads that I made last week.  You can see by the size of the dime how small they are.  I sanded and buffed these to a nice shine.

Gold Bar Beads and Lost and Found

Here are the bar beads I made with a gold clay.  I stamped them a bit and added some color accents.  I sanded the tops to 1200, so they have a nice buffed shine.  I dropped one in a bush while taking some photos outside, but was able to find it!  The risk you take trying to get some photos in warm, natural light!