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Here is a list of products used to make this bracelet with links to purchase on Amazon.

Polymer clay, I used earth colors found in stone, like black, grey, tans, orange, white and blue.

spices, nutmeg, cinnamon and black pepper. This link goes to an assortment pack, but I would suggest also looking at the dollar store, if you just want to use the spices for crafting.

Jewelry eye pins

Toggle clasp

jump rings

rolling pin, this one is designed for working with clay, I used a piece of bamboo.

sand

clay knife or exacto knife.

This weeks project is surprisingly easy to make. I was surprised at my results as I don’t craft with clay very much at all, you can create this look with a few simple ingredients in about an hour!

I found some beautiful real stone jewelry on Etsy, by Stone Alone and wondered if the look could be re-created with polymer clay.

I googled, “how to create faux stone from clay” and sure enough it has been done, some of the tutorials online are downloads that you pay about 20$ for and few others are free. Here is the free one I found most helpful, by Blondcrowstudio.com I also created a  rock Pinterest board with some beautiful inspiration too.

And here’s the video, (note if you are reading this on Wednesday April 16th, the video won’t be live to view until tomorrow morning.)

The first thing I did was go to the beach and collect a few inspirational rocks, what better excuse to get outside for some fresh air and celebrate Earthday!!

 

 

As shown in the video, layering and twisting the clay, is the tip I found most helpful to achieve the look of stone. I experimented with the different colors I saw in my collection of real beach stones and tried to mimic nature.

Twisting the colors together, recreates the look of decades of earth, layer upon layer revealed in sand stone or a cliff. I live near Torrey Pines state reserve, there’s a lot of beautiful sand stone cliffs just above the beach with the red and oranges like the clay pictured above,

After you’re happy with the way your clay looks, add some texture, there are many ways to do this, I really liked the nutmeg, (found it at the dollar store) other items to experiment with are, cinnamon, rock salt, cracked pepper, dirt sand, opened tea bags, those are just a few!

Work your ingredients into the clay  until you like the way it looks and then add texture to the surface, I did this by pushing coarse sand into the clay and poking most of it out to getting the pitted texture that beach pebbles have. You could also simply poke the clay with a tooth pick, however this looked more organic to me and I wanted to leave some of the sand inside the clay.

I’ve seen course sand like this in the craft stores. this is from the north shore of Hawaii, my aunt lives there.

The final step is to pierce the clay and bake it according to the instructions on your package. I baked mine at 275 for 30 minutes. I didn’t add a clay sealer as I wanted to keep the matte finish.

After your faux stones are baked, you can create just about any type of jewelry you like!

 

I made this bracelet for my Mom, when she saw it she said, to me,”you know,  Mother’s Day is coming up.”

Yes Mom I know that…

It is the perfect gift for her, her style is very organic, lots of  earth tones and white cotton, visualize Diane Keaton in Something’s Gotta Give.

And she is the most awesome Mom on planet earth 🙂

You can see here the pit marks from the sand that I pushed into the clay and then removed with a toothpick and some of the sand that I baked in.

i picked up several tiny stones during my walk, I put the faux ones and the authentic ones in a bowl to see if I could tell them apart.

Do you have plans to celebrate Earth Day?  Sometimes the simplest things are the best. consider taking a walk and marveling at the magnificent little things in your path.

Wishing you a wonderful Easter and Earth Day!

Sincerely,

Debi