Pi Medallion: Crop Circle Inspired

This medallion came out of my research on pi because I wanted to make a medallion representing pi as a mathematical concept. Circles make good pendant shapes for necklaces anyway, and since that is what pi is, it felt like a no-brainer (which rarely happens in math).

While looking at diagrams of pi and trying to decide how I wanted to make the medallion, I stumbled across a crop circle that people say is a representation of pi. It was a very interesting design that I could immediately see had jewelry potential. After getting distracted reading about crop circles (super strange), I went to work on my medallion.

Thanks aliens, or whoever...

1.Image of the Pi crop circle (courtesy of DuckDuckGo search)

2 Computer and Printer

3 Scissors

4 Clay (air dry or polymer, color of your choice)

5 Clay Tools (roller, knife, stylus, ball tool, circle cutter *optional)

6 Acrylic or glass rhinestones in colors of your choice. They should be a variety of sizes to match the circles on the pi image printout (I'll explain later). If you are using polymer clay you will need to use glass rhinestones or attach them after baking with a strong glue. This article by Ginger Davis from The Blue Bottle Tree should help explain why.

7 Glitter in same color (or similar) to your rhinestones

8 Strong glue

9 Jump ring

10 Round nosed pliers

11 Cord or chain to hang your pendant

12 Acrylic paint for antiquing (not totally necessary, but cool). You can use dark browns, blacks, and greys to antique, OR you can sculpt in a dark brown, grey, or black and then antique with another color. I will explain better in the steps.

13 Varnish (not necessary for polymer clay but a necessity for air dry clay. I use Duraclear Ultra Matte.

14 Brush to apply paint and varnish

15 Paper towels or soft cloth

16 A little water

My computer kicked its word processing app a while back and I haven't gotten around to getting another one, so I just had to guess at my print size.

Normally I would insert the photo into a word processing app (like Word or Libre Office Word) and then I would size the photo by making the document set to 100% view and then literally holding a ruler up to the screen and size and resize the photo until it was as big as I wanted. If the document is set to 100% view it is pretty dang close to the real-life size of the printout, so I find this is one of the best ways for me to guess how big I want it.

I highly recommend that method. I don't recommend trying to wing it like I am doing right now.

Once you have the photo printed the size you want, trim it out with scissors.

Roll out your clay as thick or thin as you want.

Lay the paper cut-out on top of the rolled out clay. We are going to be using the paper to help us transfer the image as I outlined in my Instructable "Using Paper for Patterns and Transfers on Clay".

With the paper laying on the clay, use a stylus tool or a dull pencil to trace all the black lines. Press down carefully so that you make a mark on the clay but don't tear the paper. Go all the way around the design.

Once you have traced the whole design, use a knife tool to cut the clay with the edge of the paper as a guide. In this way you will cut out a circle.

(If you have a circle cutter that is the right size, go ahead and use it! I just don't have one.)

Peel off the paper to reveal your tracing. It is probably not very distinct, so go back with the stylus tool and trace your lines, making them deeper and more noticeable. *Don't forget to to flatten the black edge.

Your rhinestones should be of the correct size to cover all four of the little dots (the fifth dot will be filled in with glitter). They will go from large to small. They can be whatever color you like, but I chose green to kinda go with an ancient earth statue idea.

Press the rhinestones down into their correct spots, making an indent for each of them.

Now take the rhinestones out and bake your clay, or let it dry. We will attach the rhinestones later.

Once the medallion has been baked or dried, it is time to antique it.

Polymer clay users: Please read this article from The Blue Bottle Tree before using acrylic paint on polymer clay. Some acrylic paint is not compatible and will not stick to the clay.

I am using my finger to dab on grey paint. I hope that this will make it look like it is made of rock. If your paint covers up your details too much, just wet a paper towel with a little water and wash away the excess paint. This will leave the paint in the cracks, giving you that aged antique look, or stone in my case.

I went ahead and added some dabs of greens for moss and browns for stains on the rock.

Once the paint has dried, you will need to varnish it if you are using air dry clay.

First, I am going to do the smallest dot with glitter.

With the varnish, I fill the little dot with it. Then I spill glitter on it! Oh, glitter is so pretty and SUCH A MESS!

The glitter will stick to where ever there is varnish, so try to be careful about making sure the varnish is just in the small dot. Knock off the excess glitter.

Get the rhinestones out and the strong glue. Apply a small dot of glue where the rhinestones should go and apply the rhinestones.

This necklace turned out kinda medieval looking, so I went for a tarnished grey chain and jump ring.

Open the jump ring by holding it in the plier jaws and twisting the ring open sideways. Don't pull the ring apart, twist it sideways. That is the proper way to open a jump ring.

Slide on the pi medallion and then close the jump ring by