First Beading Attempt

This week I was hoping to receive the book I ordered in the mail so I can start making beads, but unfortunately the book has still not arrived. I really wanted to start making something this week, so I searched online for clay beading tutorials. While researching I found some information on clay beading. I found that a lot of the designs used for the beads are made from clay canes. I then decided to research how to make different kinds of clay canes. I came across this website

http://www.sculpey.com/projects/flower-canes-beads-buttons-and-bobbles

I decided I was going to try and make a flower cane that this website gave step-by-step instructions to.  

I got out the different colors of clay that I would need, and then step-by-step I tried to construct this flower cane. I had to first roll 5 pieces of yellow clay into 2-inch long cylinders. I found this very easy and was feeling good about the project so far. Then I had to wrap each of the yellow cylinders in a ¼ inch layer of Orange clay. I found this part to be much harder than I expected. The clay is hard to roll out and I found it to stick to the table and the clay was not always even. I tried my best and was able to wrap the yellow cylinders in the orange clay. After all of my cylinders were wrapped in orange I then arranged them all into a circle, so they were sticking to each other. Then I rolled out an orange cylinder to fit in the middle of the circle or “petals.” The next step I found difficult because I could not get the shape exactly right. It told me to roll out a long cylinder of blue clay and then pinch it so it looked like a long triangle. I had a hard time making it look like a long triangle but did my best and then placed a long triangle in between each petal. My last step was to roll out a thin even sheet of blue clay to wrap around the outside of the clay cane. I rolled it out as best as I could and then rolled the whole cane out so that the diameter of the cane would be smaller.

The cane I made did make a flower but it was not quite exactly the same as the flower shown on the website. After I was finished with the cane I used the clay razor to cut the cane and then used those pieces to roll onto a small clay ball, to make a bead. After I rolled the design on the clay ball, I then used one of my tools to make a hole in the bead. After my beads were done I baked them in the oven for 20 minutes. The beads came out hard and ready to use.

I found my first experience in making clay beads difficult but it was a learning experience for me. My first experience showed me that I might need some more tools in order for my designs for my beads to turn out exactly how I want them to. I decided for next time I am going to purchase a pasta maker to make it much easier and help aesthetically with making my beads look better. The pasta maker will allow me to easily and evenly flatten out clay. I also decided that I would buy wax paper so the clay will not stick to my table, and a clay extruder so I can have the ability to extrude different types of cylinders so my beads will look better. The clay extruder would have helped me with the triangle cylinders because the extruder would have made the exact shape.

Next week you can expect me to have my new materials, and hopefully my book I am waiting for. Hopefully you can expect to see better-looking designs that actually look like the example that I was given. My results my not have aesthetically looked great this week but it was a learning experience for me to grow from.  

This is what the flower cane should look like 

This is how my flower cane turned out

This is one of the beads I made with my cane

(Sorry about the picture quality)

The Start Of My Beading Journey

When I found out our class was going to be doing a By Hand Project I got very excited because I have always loved to make crafts. I had a hard time deciding what to make considering that I have done many different types of craft projects. I came to my decision to make different kinds of clay beads, because I have always loved making jewelry but have never made my own beads before. Making beads is a By Hand Project that I will get use out of, because I can take my finished beads and make them into jewelry.  I first thought it would be really cool to learn how to make glass beads, but after doing some research I found out that there is only one class offered in Bloomington this semester and it is very costly. I made the decision that instead of someone teaching me how to make the clay beads in person I would just purchase a book on how to make different clay beads and teach myself. I decided that I am going to use a book to teach myself because out of the crafts I have made in the past I have found that the best way I learn is step by step from a book or from a website.

My next step was to find a book that would help me learn how to make various clay beads.  I found the book “Baked Beads and Beyond” through Amazon.com, and I am still waiting to receive the book. Since I have not received the book yet I have not been able to start working on my project. I am anxiously waiting for the book to arrive, and can’t wait to get started. Just by looking at the cover over the book you can see that there are so many different designs of beads to make. Besides the book I will need other materials to make the beads. I went to Michaels Crafts and purchased two packs of 24 different colors of Fimo soft clay. Along with the clay I bought a 7-piece tool set that is used for bead making.

            For the rest of the semester you can expect to see different posts of my progress and possible struggles of making different clay beads. I will post pictures of different beads that I will be making and I will post a step-by-step “how to” make a specific bead design. By the end of my journey of learning how to make beads I hope to then turn the beads I have made into jewelry. Keep checking in weekly to see my progress.

This the book I will be using to learn how to make clay beads.

This is the clay and the tools I will be using to make clay beads