A Day on the Lake Polymer Clay Pendant Tutorial

A Day on the Lake Polymer Clay Pendant Step by Step

• To start with, we will be making a Pebeo paint skin.
• Lay your Teflon sheet down on your work surface. Stick it down at the corners to keep it flat.
• Choose the Pebeo Prisme paints that you want to use for your dragonflies. I'm using Carribean Blue, Turquoise and Moonstone. Give them a good mix before you use them.
• Drip your paints onto your Teflon using a skewer.
• Lift up your Teflon by the corners and spread the paint out a bit. You can mix it up a bit with a piercing pin or skewer if you want to.
• Leave your skin to dry for 24 to 48 hours until it feels like paper when it's peeled off of the Teflon. If it feels tacky, it's not ready.
• Later in the video I show some more skins that I made using Onyx and English Red, and another using Emerald, English Red, Onyx and Moonstone.

• For this part you will need a Skinner Blend of black to pearl white polymer clay.
• Cut a piece from your sheet using your chosen cutter so that you include some black and white. (I'm using the largest cutter from my rectangle set on JessamaDesign.
• Then use your flexible tissue blade to cut the piece in half with a curved line.
• Roll out a sheet of pearl white on the thickest setting of your pasta machine.
• Take one half of your Skinner Blend piece and lay it on the sheet of Pearl White and cut out with your rectangular cutter.
• Use your blade to smooth along the edges.
• Repeat with the other half of the Skinner Blend piece to create a second pendant.
• Bring over your chosen mica powders. I'm using Sky Blue and Spring Green
• Use a brush to dab them onto the pearl white so that they blend into one another.

• Roll out a piece of your Skinner Blend on the middle setting of your pasta machine and trim it up.
• Roll it around your skewer and cut where the clay meets.
• Smooth out the seam and position the bail along the top of your pendant with the seam joining the pendant. Gently press it on.
• Repeat for your second pendant.
• Use your blade to trim the edges.
• Bake for around forty minutes at the recommended temperature.

• For this part we are going to be using pearl white clay tinted with alcohol inks.
• Choose the alcohol inks you want to use to tint your pearl white clay. I'm using Sailboat Blue, Turquoise, Mermaid and Clover.
• Drip some of each ink onto a piece of pearl white clay and allow to dry for a few minutes.
• Once dry, mix your inks into your clay by first hand-kneading it and then using your pasta machine.
• Roll pieces of each color into cylinders and lay them next to one another in any random order.
• Push them together to stick them to one another then run them through the pasta machine to create a blend.
• Stick your sheet down onto your work surface and spray it with water.
• Roll from one side to the other using your Kor roller (or texture using your texture sheet). I'm using the Winter Frost Kor roller.
• Dry your clay.
• Use your flexible tissue blade to shave off the raised pieces and set them aside.

• Gently remove the bail from the pendant to be replaced later.
• Roll the remainder of your black and white Skinner Blend through the middle setting of your pasta machine.
• Cut out a rectangle for your backing.
• Cover the back of your baked pendant with a thin layer of Bake and Bond.
• Place your backing piece on top and pull on it slightly to stretch it a bit bigger than the pendant.
• Fold the sides over and smear them to fill in any cracks.
• Scrape off excess clay using your blade.
• Scrape off any marks you can see to tidy up the edges.
• Hold the pendant by the sides and smooth off the back using your fingers.
• Use a sponge or other light texture to texture the back.
• Bake for another 30 minutes.

• When your Pebeo paint is cured, peel it from the Teflon and use your chosen die cutter to cut out a few shapes. I'm using dragonflies.
• If the paint is properly cured it should cut just like paper.

• Use a high grade, black acrylic paint to cover the sides of your pendant. You need a fairly thick layer.
• Smooth it out with your finger and run the paint on your fingers across the back to antique it lightly.
• Wipe the area where your bail was with a wet wipe to remove the paint.
• Re-attach the bail using a line of Bake and Bond.
• Bake again for another 30 minutes.
• After cooling, sand the front of your pendant and the bail using polishing papers or sandpaper. Start from your lowest grit (400) up to the highest grit (8000).
• Don't sand the sides or back, or the part of the pendant with the mica powders on it.

• I'm using Moonstone, Turquoise, Almond Green and Leaf Prisme paint.
• Mix your paints well, then using a skewer, streak your paint across the raised part of your pendant. (See the video.)
• Leave to dry for at least 24 hours.

• Gently place your mica frills on the side of your pendant without the Pebeo paint to work out your design.
• Do the same with the dragonflies.
• Remove them and set them aside and bake the mica frills for 30 minutes.
• Mix together a small amount of your chosen resin. I'm using Ice Resin. If you need a step by step walk through on using Ice resin correctly, see my tutorial.
• Place your pendant on a silicone resin mat and apply a thin layer of resin to the side without the Pebeo paint.
• Place your baked mica frills on the resin layer and add a second layer to cover the mica frills.
• Add your dragonflies, shiny side up and gently press them down so that the resin spills over them.
• Add another layer of resin to cover the dragonflies completely.
• Watch for a while to check for bubbles that are trapped. Work them to the surface with a piercing pin and then blow over them with a straw to pop them.
• Cure for at least 24 hours.