Heart of the Ocean Polymer Clay Lentil Bead Tutorial

How to Make Polymer Clay Lentil Beads Step by Step

• To start you’ll need some cane ends.
  
  I'm using cane ends from my Pool Water, Cherry Blossom and Coral Cane Tutorials.
  
  
• Gently press and squish your cane ends into a ball. Try to get the best pattern you can. You could also use slices of cane in the project too. Just place the slices over a ball of white clay and roll into a ball.
• Once you have your ball of clay, place a square sheet of glass, or in my case an embossing folder, on top of your ball. Gently start rotating the sheet in circles. Don’t press too hard on the ball of clay underneath. Keep your hands resting on your work surface to keep your sheet at a consistent height while rotating.
• You’ll notice that as you rotate, the ball slowly forms into a lentil. The larger your circles the more pointed the lentil will be. The smaller your circles the flatter your lentil. Try to get something in between this. See the video for the process.
• You always want to rotate in the same direction while creating a lentil bead. If you change direction you’ll mess up your swirl.
• Continue with these steps until you’re happy with your lentil bead. This technique takes some practice to master, so don't worry if you don't get a perfect result straight away. Just keep practicing. Maybe start with some scrap clay that you can't do anything else with, until you have improved your technique.
• Once happy, press down on the point of the lentil to flatten it. Now you can mold it into a pendant shape of your choice. I chose a teardrop, triangle and diamond. See the video for more on the molding process.
• Once happy with your shapes bake them for a full hour at your clay's recommended temperature.
• Sand, buff and drill.