How to Make a Simple Polymer Clay Necklace

Base of your necklace will be a string on which you will string beads made of polymer clay. Depending on what you like and what style of necklace you want you can choose a leather ribbon, a chain or like me a nice colorful textile lace.

We will string beads on the selected ribbon, which we will make from polymer clay. You can choose the clay you want, I used Fimo clay with a leather effect for this project, which has an interesting cracked appearance after baking. If you use a colorful lace like me, I recommend solid color beads, but of course, combine the colors of your choice.

To complete your necklace you will need a piece of chain – it is not mandatory but will serve well if you want to change the length of your necklace depending on the clothing combination, then two rings, end clips and one necklace clasp.

Lace I used for this project is already quite colorful, so I chose a solid color turquoise clay that fits nicely. In order to have a pattern on the beads, a good choice is Fimo clay with a leather effect, which gets an interesting structure after baking.

Also, if you are using the standard Fimo Soft or Fimo Proffesional for this project, you can, after rolling the clay, use an embossed roller or some interesting object you have in your home to make an imprint which will give a little structure to your beads.

For more details about different types of clay you can use in your jewelry project you can read in my article What You Need to Know Before You Start Making Clay Jewellery at Home.

For a long time, I used items I had in the household to roll polymer clay – such as dough rollers, jars and the like.
But when rolling clay that way there is always the possibility that it will not be the same thickness on all ends. This may not matter when making smaller pieces of jewelry, but when making roller beads like these, you want all your beads to be the same thickness and size.
In this case, I used a pasta machine to roll the clay. My machine has a rolling thickness range from 1 to 7. I rolled these beads to a thickness of 3 – which is approximately 2-3 mm thick.

After rolling out the clay you need to cut approximately 1 cm wide strips from which you will shape the beads.
To cut strips of equal width at all ends I used a small ruler.
After you have cut the strips, use a pencil or similar roller object to wrap the clay around it and shape the beads.

You will find baking instructions on the packaging of each FIMO clay. Depending on the type of clay, the baking time and temperature may differ, so look at the original packaging before putting your beads in the oven.
The fimo effect I used here I baked at 130 degrees for 30 minutes. After baking, leave the oven door open and let the beads cool naturally. Do not force the cooling process as cracking may occur.

I like the Fimo leather effect because the clay can be smoothed out nicely before baking so that it doesn’t require sanding or polishing after baking. If you use the classic Fimo Soft, you may need to lightly trim the ends of your beads after baking to make them nice and smooth. You can do this with a nail file or 1000 grit sandpaper.

• Now simply string the beads on the necklace.
• Shorten the length of the tape as needed.
• Use small pliers to secure the clips to the ends.
• Put a chain in between if you want to be able to adjust the length of the necklace later.