I don’t show a ton of jewelry here – it’s a home centric blog after all – but I do make a lot of jewelry (and clothes, and accessories for that matter).  Even so, every now and then I think to myself that I should share what I’m making or doing, regardless of the ‘genre’.

Today’s necklace is one that I’ve had on my to-do list for a while.  Finally this week, I got to think about something other than house renovations or the babe.

What’s more, this is just in time for handmade Christmas gifts! Let’s get to it.

Materials:

• Gold Chain
• White oven bake clay
• Granite oven bake clay
• Gold spray paint
• Craft knife
• Long needle

MESH together one part white clay with one part granite gray clay.  COMBINE the two colors by rolling them between your hands.

ROLL the clay between two flat objects – I used an acrylic ruler and the desk surface – to create a very even finish on the clay.  Then, CUT a two inches piece of clay with a craft knife.  I used a rolling sawing motion so  that the ends didn’t smash.

Next, POKE a long needle or a piece of wire through the clay piece so that you create a hole all of the way through.  Now, before you move on, bake your bead at 250° for 30-40 minutes and let it cool completely. TAPE off a segment of the bead and PAINT it with your favorite color of spray point.

Lastly, STRING your new bar bead onto your chain.  I used a pair of pliers to take off the larger clasp so that I could thread the chain through the bead.

How pretty did it turn out? Beautiful, right?  I will admit, I didn’t wait for the bead to cool, and my blue tape took some of the clay off… but it ended up looking MORE like stone.  Crazy.

Anyway, with the two packs of clay, you could make over 10 of these necklaces.  So make a few and give them as Christmas gifts!