Black and Blue with Love Charm

It’s that time of year again! International Mr. Leather comes to Chicago on May 27 and so does the anniversary of the leather pride flag. I thought I’d make something cute to celebrate and experiment some more with polymer clay.

Craft Smart red polymer clay
Craft Smart blue polymer clay
Sculpey black polymer clay
Sculpt plastic clay shaping tool set
Mini clay cutters (heart)
12mm aluminum jump ring
Jewelry pliers
Yarn needle
Parchment paper

Since the shape of the project was pre-determined, I focused on estimating an approximate size for the charm that would be light if I opted to wear it as a necklace, but large enough for visible details.

Initially, I was going to do a variation on the flag that just had one blue stripe and one black stripe with the red heart near the top of the charm. As I worked with the clay, I ended up going with a shape closer to the flag, with vertical stripes in place of the horizontal and the heart on the upper right side instead of the upper left.

Once the shaping was done, I went over the four stripes with a roller to flatten them into an even plane. Once the design was complete, I used the yarn needle to create a drill hole in the upper left corner of the charm. With the heart accounted for, the charm was 0.5″ deep at it’s widest point, so I baked it for 40 minutes at 275 degrees.

I really liked the Sculpey clay — which ended up being more malleable and appears to have stored better than the Craft Smart clay. It might be time to play around with it some more. What do you guys think?

~ by blackmoodcraft on May 23, 2016.