Egyptian Choker - Sculpey Clay Projects

Egyptian Style 3-Strand Choker
Design by Amanda Byrne

Materials and Equipment:

Directions:

Roll out 2 pieces of white Sculpey so that they are approx 1/8" thick. (You may need a little cornflour on your rolling pin to prevent it sticking to the clay) The size of each isn't crucial, as they are going to be trimmed later to fit the image.

Trace two small designs,(I have chosen an Egyptian eye and ankh) using a ballpoint pen and tracing paper, then lay the traced designs, pen-side down onto the rolled out pieces of clay. Rub the tracing paper image with your finger, making sure to rub firmly and not to miss any part of the image. Now, when you lift the tracing paper off, the image should be transferred to the clay. (I find some ballpoints give better results than others, so maybe you can experiment on some scrap clay). Repeat the above process for the rest of the images you wish to transfer.

Place the clay pieces onto an oven proof dish or ceramic tile. (I prefer the latter, as it is completely flat so that thin, flat pieces don't distort or curl up at the edges.) Place them into a preheated oven at 130 degrees C/275 degrees F (Check your clay packet for exact temperature) for about 15 minutes.
After the pieces are cured and cooled, carve all the inked areas with a fine lino cutting tool. Carve carefully so that you have nice clean, even lines. You want to carve fairly deeply, but careful not to cut through to the other side of the clay! Test the moulds as you go by pressing clay into them to see the results. When you are satisfied with your carved moulds, condition half a pack of turquoise Sculpey ready for taking an impression from your newly made moulds.

Press the conditioned clay into the moulds (for a more even impression, you may use a rolling pin to impress the clay more evenly) and remove carefully from the moulds.You need to take two impressions of the ankh image. Cut the two Ankh and the one Eye impression to size, so that they are the same width as the 3 hole end bars, (but not too small for your 3-hole spacers!)

Insert jpeg 7 Egyptian Taking, jpeg 8 Egyptian Totally

Rub gold embossing powder with your finger onto the raised parts of the designs. If you wish, add a diamante to each piece. I've added them to the pupil of the eye and the middle of the ankhs.

Now with the remaining turquoise Sculpey, make a sausage (about 1/4" thick) and impress a wide toothed comb into it. You can use the holes made by the comb as a guide so that you can cut evenly sized pieces ready to roll into approx. 60 beads. You may like to use a needle to make holes in the beads. ( I prefer to drill holes after the beads are cured, but it's up to you!) If you use a needle to make your holes, a little tip, is to make a hole half-way through one side, then half-way through the other, until the holes meet in the middle. This helps prevent a point forming on one end of the bead.

Now you can put all the beads onto an oven-proof dish, (making sure there are high enough sides so that the beads can't roll off!) and embossed clay into an oven, again 130 degrees for approx. 15 minutes.
Once the clay is cured and cooled, sand off the sharp corners on each embossed piece, so that you have rounded corners, (otherwise, the choker could be uncomfortable to wear!) and apply a coat of matt varnish in order to seal the gold powder.

Once varnish is dry, take your lino cutting tool again and carve a gulley into the back of each embossed piece. (in the centre) Then superglue the 3 hole spacers into these gulleys.

Now you can start assembling the choker. Take one of the pieces of tigertail, and make a knot in one end.
Now thread on a callotte end closing crimp, and close it with pliers around the knot. (Side closing crimps are fine too.) I find this is the securest method for these types of chokers, as the callotte crimps on their own can slide off the tigertail with the weight.

Now start threading beads and spacers, in the sequence shown in the photo. (or you may wish to use your own preferred colours, embossed images and styles of beads. Have fun experimenting!) You may need to add one extra bead before you thread an embossed piece on, and two, even three extra beads on each side of the larger embossed piece's 3 hole spacer, as one on its own can disappear behind it.

When you get to the end of the row, thread on a callotte crimp, and make a knot as close as possible to the inside of the callotte, and close the callotte around it. Repeat these sequences for the next two rows. Attach the callottes to the end-bars and add a hook to one end-bar and the trace chain to the other. using a hook and chain closure will allow for different neck sizes.

Enjoy!