PHOTO BEAD BRACELET

Tutorial

Materials Needed for this Project Photos (10 for an avg.

adult bracelet) High Resolution or Photo

Paper ¾” Clear Half Marbles

(from the florist section at the craft store – make sure they aren’t iridescent)

2oz. Brick of Polymer clay (i.e. Sculpey or Fimo)

Elastic Jewelry cording (preferred: Stretch Magic)

Glue Gun (with glue sticks of course)

Heat Gun (no, it’s not a hair dryer and no, a hair dryer will not work)

When choosing photos, you will want to be able to center your subject within the outline of the glass half marbles. The easiest way to do this is to crop your photos into squares, then reduce your photos to approximately ½ to ¾ inch in size. Once I determine the proper size of one photo, I use it as a guide to create “frames for the other photos . If you don’t have a photo editing program, you can actually use Microsoft Word to crop and resize your photos. Print your photos on one sheet of High Resolution or Photo Paper

CROPPING and SIZING PHOTOS

Cut photos apart – don’t bother cutting on the lines, you’ll fix that later. Using your hot glue gun, apply a generous amount of glue to the half marble and immediately place onto photo, carefully centering the marble onto the photo. Note: since you will be using a heat gun later in the process to ‘cook’ the clay framing your photos, hot glue is the only glue that will not yellow when exposed to high temperatures.

ADHERING HALF MARBLES to PHOTOS

Once the glue has cooled slightly (still slightly warm to the touch), cut around the half marbles (trying to stay fairly flush with the edges). You will be cutting through the excess glue that has oozed out the sides. Don’t worry if the glue sticks a little to the scissors, it peels easily from your blades. Having applied a generous amount of glue to each marble is crucial in ensuring that there will be a little extra if some of the glue separates slightly from the marble while heating the beads with the heat gun later on in the process.

PREPARING FOR CLAY

Knead your 2 ounce brick of polymer clay until pliable and it no longer crumbles (also called ‘conditioning’ your clay). Working it between the heels of your hands speeds up the process. Once thoroughly conditioned, roll or flatten clay into a thickness of approximately ¼ inch (I like using wine bottles for this step). Cut 10 ¾ inch diameter circular pieces (one for each half marble). Gently work the clay disks up the edges of each half marble. Tidy the edges of the clay using your fingernail (thumb works best).

ROLLING and APPLYING CLAY

Insert toothpick into each bead (ensuring that your holes are centered with your subjects). Remove toothpick and reinsert through the opposite direction. Remove toothpick. Place beads, glass sides down, on a high heat tolerant surface (stovetop, concrete, etc.) In clusters of two or three (holding heat gun directly over each bead for ~1-2 seconds each), heat beads until firm to touch (approx. 3-5 minutes) using the LOW setting on your heat gun. MONITOR THIS PROCESS VERY CAREFULLY! It’s easy to overcook the beads and cause the clay to crack or bubble. Be careful when checking beads for ‘doneness’ as the heat gun heats to extremely high temperatures. Baking the beads in the oven is not advised because the clay tends to overcook in areas and usually cracks. Proceed to next step while beads are still hot.

‘COOKING’ the CLAY

While beads are still hot/warm, check to make sure that there are no bubbles showing in your photos. If you see a bubble(s) gently press down on the glass and the re-melted glue should compress and flatten out over the image. Be careful not to squeeze to hard, or you may crack your bead at the hole. Once you have ‘cooked’ all of your beads, reinsert toothpick into each bead to ensure that excess glue has not seeped into the holes. String your new beads in your chosen order onto the elastic cording. Finish with a double square knot. Finito!

FINISHING!

If you have a crack in your bead, all is not lost. Apply a tiny amount of super glue to the crack and then patch the crack with more clay. Blend the edges and reheat to cure with the heat gun.You can make pendants and key chains using the same process. Instead of crating holes with a toothpick, insert an eye pin (jewelry finding) into your clay covered half marble. Leave the pin in the marble while heating, then remove it and reinsert it after applying jewelry cement or glue for a strong bond.Create pins using the same process (without the toothpick holes). Before ‘cooking’ the clay, press down on the clay-framed photo to create a flattened area. Apply pin back or tie tack back (jewelry findings) to clay once the clay has been cured (‘cooked’) using jewelry cement/glueMagnets – After applying glass bead to photo, trim photo and simply glue ¾” magnet discs to photo using industrial strength glue (i.e. E6000 or GOOP)

TIPS & SUGGESTIONS