Faux Abalone Bracelet

by Jasmine Healey
(Port Jervis, N.Y., USA)

What brand of clay did you use?

-Premo, Souffle, Premo Accents & Sculpey III (I
know its a terrible clay to use, but it had the
color I was looking for), and Kato clear Liquid
Clay







What colors did you use? If you mixed them
yourself you can include a color recipe here if
you like.

-Teal Pearl, equal parts of Premo Purple mixed
with Soufflè Royalty, 4 parts Graphite Pearl mixed
with 2 parts Silver, Black, Pearl







What products did you use? e.g. Lisa Pavelka
Crackle Texture Stamp, or Pearlex Antique Copper
Mica Powder. (The more detail the better.)

Sculpey Large Ball Tool, Sculpey Medium Ball Tool







Any special tools that other polymer clayers
may be interested in?

-I used a metal blank bracelet cuff I bought off
of Firemountain Gems & Beads







Tell us how it went. Was it fun? Easy? Hard?
Did you struggle with anything?

- It was very fun, getting to push your knuckled &
fingers into the clay to distort it, and it was
surprisingly extremely easy.







Do you have any tips for others trying this
technique?

-After putting a sheet of black on & rolling it
all through the pasta machine & cutting the sheet
into 4, then 4 pieces to stack them, I found that
you do not necessarily have to trim away the messy
edges. I didn't do that because I'm very low on
clay & like to use as much of it as possible, and
I still think it came out great. And at the end of
the project, I had absolutely zero waste!







Do you have any ideas for variations on this
technique?

-Just as Samantha suggested, I'd say to play
around with the colors. The original color recipes
given for the tutorial are beautiful, but there
are so many other color combinations that would
work. I'm thinking of trying it using some Peacock
Pearl and then a version using some pink mixed in
with Pearl, to get a light pink pearlescent color-
I think that would look very nice as well.







Anything else you would like to share with
us?

-Since I began playing with polymer clay last year
I have scoured the internet to find faux abalone
or faux paua shell tutorials. I came across
several & have tried them all. I was disappointed
in every one & thought it just wasn't in the cards
for me. Then I saw Samanthas tutorial & am so
pleased with the results. I highly recommend
watching & following it. I can't wait to play
around more with this