Making a Polymer Clay Word Ornament
The time has arrived … the final month of, the Pavelka Project. This month we a doing another more ‘open-ended’ project for you. This month we are using the book, Quick & Easy Gifts with Polymer Clay, and using the ornament idea. The “word” that you choose does NOT have to be a holiday word, maybe it’s your family name, child’s name, pet’s name, or word of the year. In any case, the ornament should be small enough to hang on a tree or on a door.
My take on Lisa’s tutorial is shown below. I used many similar techniques, but you can make your word ornament however you’d like. I’ve combined textured clay, stamping, & mica powders into a sophisticated take on the word “Noel” as in “the First Noel.” Lisa offers literally dozens of ideas throughout all her books on techniques, color palettes, and so much more. [Order your books here] I also have over 150 tutorials here on the site you could use to get ideas to decorate your jar.
Project Details:
- Book Being Used: Quick & Easy Gifts in Polymer Clay by Lisa Pavelka
- Project Page: 76-77
- Follow Lisa’s tutorial for a quick & easy project you can whip up in about 1/2 hour.
- TIP: Pick a word you love and play around with theme, color, texture, & more.
- Project: Word Ornaments
- Project Due Date: Dec. 31, 2015
Materials Needed:
- Quick & Easy Gifts in Polymer Clay by Lisa Pavelka
- Your choice of polymer clay (amount and colors of clay needed will vary depending on the cane being made, its complexity and theme).
- TIP: I chose Soufflé clay by Polyform as it is lightweight, strong, & would NOT add a lot of weight & bulk to the ornament as it hangs from a tree branch.
- Flexible Tissue Blade
- *Bake & Bond
- Pasta Machine
- Varnish
- *Mica Powders / Glitter
- Salt scrub to clean your hands (Get my recipe HERE)
* Denotes optional supplies
Polymer Clay Word Ornament Tutorial
Decide what word you will use- Find stamps, print & cut, or download templates for your word
- Pick your brand & color of clay you will use (I used soufflé) and made my own Snowy White color (recipe coming soon).
- Roll your clay on the 2nd largest setting of you pasta machine.
- Cut squares (or another shape), one for each letter that will fit your stamp / template.
- Use a texture stamp and stamp a background onto your clay.
- Place ink onto your letter stamps and press firmly ONCE down onto the surface of the clay.
- Add a border around all your pieces by wrapping around the shape and pressing gently with your finger to adhere to the edges of the shape.
- TIP: I did this by using an extruder to extrude long snakes and twisting two pieces together to form a loose “braid” to go around my shapes.
- Decide how you will hang your word. Like Lisa’s, my word will hang in a long chain.
- Your word could hang with letters next to each other or even in staircase fashion!
- Punch the appropriate amount of holes in each letter.
- My design needed a hole in each corner.
- Add embellishments with mica powder, glitter, or other clay decorations.
- I added gold mica powder to some of the raised surfaces of my ornament.
- I also added a clay “bow” to the bottom of my final letter.
- BAKE with all pieces covered in foil for 45-60 minutes at the recommended temperature for your brand of clay.
Decide what word you will useFRIENDLY REMINDER: At the request of many, I have been trying to keep my tutorials extremely basic to allow you a jumping off point. Please note that this month’s Lisa’s tutorials in her book are also very easy. You do NOT have to make an “easy” hanging word, it can be as elaborate as you choose.
The Pavelka Project
The Pavelka Project is done in conjunction with Lisa Pavelka. All tutorials are retaught here with her expressed permission. Please make sure to read about the project here, sign up & join us, and get answers to the most common FAQS here.
Until next time, Happy Claying,
