Hey everyone! I have made this little tutorial for making your own stripy beads out of polymer clay. Here is picture of the finished product:



This is a fantastic way to use up any scrap clay you have left over from other projects. So never throw anything away! If you are anything like me you will accumulate a TON of scrap clay in many different shades.

1. Take approx 6-8 different colours of clay. I have used various shades of pinks, blues and purples. 

2. Condition your clay so its nice and easy to work with. You can do this using you hands, roller or a pasta machine. 

3. Once you have your clay nice and soft and easy to work with put it through your pasta machine on the thickest setting. Using a tissue blade, roughly trim each piece to the same size. This does not need to be exact, just get it as close as possible.


4. Once you have all your colours trimmed stack them on top of one another in any order you like. 


5. Take your acrylic roller and gently flatten the stack, rolling from in middle out. Continue to do this until your stack is approx.1 inch thick. 


6.Using a tissue blade, cut your stack in half. Stack the two halves one on top of the other.


7. Again, take your acrylic roller and gently go over your stack a few times.You don't want to flatten your stack too much. Cut you stack in half again and stack one on top of the other. 



8. Gently roll over your stack again with your acrylic roller. We are doing this with the aim of getting rid of any air bubbles and filling any gaps. We do not want to flatten the stack. Mould the stack with your hands aiming for a rough cube shape. 



9. Now you are ready to slice your stack to make some beads. Take a tissue blade and carefully cut a 0.5cm slice from your stack.

10. Take your slice and place it on your work surface. I use a ceramic tile. Roll over it with your roller, careful not to distort the pattern.


11. Using a round cutter, cut out 2 circles from your slice of stack and set aside.

12. Take a piece of scrap clay and roll into a ball. Using a small sheet of glass, making sure it is safe to use with no sharp or broken edges. Place the glass lightly on top of the ball and using a circular motion, gently flatten your ball into a lentil shape.


13. Once you have the desired shape, take your two cut out circles and place on either side of your lentil shape.

14. Squish the edges of the circles together to blend the seam. Gently reshape to finish.

15. For the hole, I usually use a cocktail stick. I hold the bead lightly and push the cocktail stick about half way then turn the bead over and push all the way through. This stops the bead from becoming misshapen.

16. To cure: I usually take a small tray and pour in some corn flour. I place the beads in the cornflour. This stops your beads getting flattened on one side. Bake @ 110 degrees Celsius for 30 Min.  

Thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed this tutorials. For any further info, get in touch!