How to Make Clay Jewelry Inspired by Pinterest

Hello everyone, I hope you are having a great day and are looking forward to trying out a new trendy DIY! In 2020-21 Pinterest has been extremely popular especially in a teenie age looking for a style, and things to do in your free time. There are many new trends such as creating clay mirrors, redecorating a room for further DIYs. In this Instructables’, I will be showing you guys how to create something extremely popular at the moment. Clay jewelry, also known as chunky clay rings, etc. In this project, I will be showing how I create 2 collections of Jewelry not only containing rings however also necklace pendants. I hope you have a lot of joy and fun whilst creating this product with me!

For this product you will be needing:

• Plasticine clay (affordable in art stores, and Amazon)
• Sculpting tools (ruleR, knives, pencils, or further objects can also be used as an alternative)
• Oven tray
• Baking paper
• Paint varnish or gloss varnish 
• Paintbrush (for applying the varnish)
• Pencil & paper (if wishing to design the jewelry at first)

Before starting the process of creating the jewelry it is important to have all materials and tools set up such as the clay, the sculpting tools, pencil, and paper (if wanting to plan).

One thing I like to do before starting off and sculpting the jewelry is planning out and sketching my designs. For this, I just use a pencil and paper and sketch some ring and necklace designs. I would prefer not to do too complicated designs as it could be difficult creating them. 

1. For the rings choose the plasticine clay colors which you are planning on using.
2. Flatten the plasticine or take off a piece and roll it. There are multiple bases or rings which you can do such as a flat one, a sausage-like, a swirl, a twist, or many more which can be seen and properly shown in the video above. The video will also contain information and instructions about how to create certain types of rings and necklace pendants.
3. After having rolled or cut out the base place it around the wished finger and wrap it. Trim the extra length and combine both endings surrounding your finger for the ring to have the optimum size. A thick pen or another object of the size of your finger can be used. 
4. Now either add all the details to the rings whilst it being on your finger, or carefully take it off trying for them to remain the same form and size. 
5. Examples of some ring designs can be viewed beneath or in the video above.

The necklace pendants are a little more complex to make. At first sculpture your necklace pendant and then for the necklace pendant to be attached to a chain take a tiny piece of clay, roll it to a snake, trim any long parts. And now place it at the top of the pendant in a hoop form so that the chain can be pulled through the hoop. There are additional instructions and information in the supplied video.  

The next step will be to place all the freshly created jewelry carefully on an oven tray on top of a piece of baking paper. Then place the tray containing the jewelry inside the tray for 15 minutes, take it out for 5 minutes, and place it back in for another 15 minutes at 270 degrees celsius. BE CAREFUL: it may seem like they are not fully hardened however in the end when taking them out they will then completely harden out of the oven. When leaving it in for a longer time it can cause the plasticine to not harden completely and give up a more flexible texture and shape. 

If wished, and if wanting to add some protection to the rings, and also make them look glossy, use a paintbrush and apply a thin coat of either gloss or paint varnish onto the jewelry. Make sure to clean the brush right after as it will harden the bush which is terribly hard to get rid of. Also, in my experience, sometimes after applying the varnish the rings have developed a more sticky rather than dry texture.

In the end, let the rings and pendants sit to fully harden up and be ready. On some occasions adding detail can be difficult, painting the detail, or drawing the details on the jewelry with permanent markers can be extremely helpful and easy. 

I hope you liked this project and your product has also turned out well!

Thank you for watching, reading, and creating!