Thousand Flowers Polymer Clay Collar Tutorial

The Thousand Flowers Polymer Clay Collar Tutorial Step by Step

• To start with, you will need a sheet of silver Premo rolled out on the thickest setting of your pasta machine.
• Secondly you will need the blended flower canes we made in part one of this tutorial.
• You will also need a texture stamp. I'll be using my Dragon Scale Stamp and Cobblestone Stamp today.
• To make this project so much easier, I'll also be using my Thousand Flowers collar cutter from JessamaDesign. You could use one of the other collar cutters if you prefer, or you can use a template if you have one.

Making the Raw Polymer Clay Sheet

• Texture the clay using your first chosen texture stamp. See the video for tips on how to get the best imprint.
• Trim the edges.
• Texture a second piece of clay with your second stamp.
• Use your flexible blade to shave off the top layer from your textures to reveal a beautiful mica shift.
  
  If you haven't made one before, see my mica shift tutorial for detailed instructions.
• Place a plain piece of printing paper over your clay and burnish using your fingertips or acrylic roller until your clay is flat.
• Run both sheets through the middle setting of the pasta machine.
• Run a second sheet of silver Premo through on the middle setting of your pasta machine.
• Place your collar cutter over your sheet and roughly trim away the excess clay - see the video for details.
• Mark, but don't cut, your clay using your cutter. Place this aside for now.
• Bring over your two mica shifts and place at either side and smooth out the clay.
• Cover with a piece of printing paper and burnish the three pieces of clay together. Recheck the sizing using your cutter.
• Gently pick up the clay using your tissue blade and lay it on a piece of plain printer paper.
• Press down with the collar cutter, enough to leave an impression, which you will use as a guideline.
• Slice off enough slices of your blended flower cane in different sizes to cover the collar shape.
• Apply your cane slices to the marked area on the silver clay and smooth it down. See the video for the pattern I have used.
• Burnish until there are no seams remaining.
• Use your blade to lift the clay from your paper.
• Replace it and smooth into place.
• Place your cutter or template over the clay where you would like to make your cut and cut out your collar necklace.
• Remove the excess clay and lift up your cutter.
• Pop the clay out of your cutter.

Making the Polymer Clay Collar Necklace

• Lay your clay piece on your mandrel or stand. You can also use a metal bowl if you like, but the stand I use gives a good shape.
• Heat your clay with a heat gun on the middle setting to set the surface.
• Remove your set collar piece from your stand, and bake for a full hour at your brand's recommended temperature.
• Take another sheet of silver clay and use a texture sheet of your choice to create a mica shift for the backing. I have used Helen Breil's Dance Floor Texture.
• Bring over your collar cutter and roughly cut around it.
• Lightly cover the back of your collar with an even film of Bake and Bond.
• Place the backing that you cut out over the bake and bond. Turn it front side up and smooth all over until the backing is well stuck.
• Use a blade to trim around the edges and then bevel and smooth the edges with your fingertips.
• Return to the oven for another full hour.
• After baking, put the collar back on the stand while it is still hot and shape it carefully.
• Starting with the two ends, spray the polymer clay with water while you hold it in place. Keep spraying until the clay has cooled and set in shape.
• Dry up most of the water, then remove the collar and dry your stand properly and put aside.
• For a detailed video on this process, please see my Easy Collar Necklace Tutorial.

Finishing Off

• Sand your collar starting from the lowest grit all the way through to the highest until you have a nice satin sheen. I start at 400 and go through to 8000. Sand the front and sides and also the back if you want to.
• Give it a good buff using a soft cloth or a buffing wheel.
• I will be covering my collar with liquid clay. I have a tutorial on Patreon showing how to do this. You could also use Renaissance wax if you like.

Assembling the Polymer Clay Collar Necklace

• Use a pin drill to drill a small hole on either side of your collar.
• Thread a jumpring through each hole.
• Take two equal lengths of chain and attach one half of your clasp to each one using a jumpring.
• Thread a piece of chain onto the jumprings on either side of the collar, then twist the jumprings until the join of the ring is inside the collar and invisible.

And that's my Thousand Flowers polymer clay collar tutorial using the blended flower cane. I hope you enjoyed that tutorial. On the video, there is more detail, so be sure to have a look.