Premo Accents Weird Gears Steampunk Necklace

Getting Started:

Please make sure your work area is covered and you are not working on an unprotected surface. We recommend working on the Sculpey® Work ‘n Bake Clay Mat, wax paper, metal baking sheet, or disposable foil. Uncured clay may damage unprotected furniture or finished surfaces. Be sure to cover your crafting area appropriately.
Start with clean hands, unwrap and knead clay until soft and smooth, or condition by running clay though a Pasta Machine. We recommend using a designated machine for clay purposes only. When working with multiple colors, clean hands with soap and water or baby wipes (we have found that baby wipes work best) before switching colors. Shape clay, pressing pieces firmly together. Wash hands after use.

Baking:

Begin by preheating oven to 275 °F (130 °C). After you are done creating; for best results bake clay on an oven-proof surface such metal, aluminum foil, an index card or the Sculpey® Clay Mat at 275°F (130 °C) for 30 minutes per ¼" (6 mm) thickness according to package directions. Oven safe glass or ceramic surfaces are also acceptable for baking; however please note that the baking times may take longer as the glass or ceramic surfaces take longer to heat up. For best baking results, use an oven thermometer. DO NOT USE MICROWAVE OVEN. DO NOT EXCEED THE ABOVE TEMPERATURE OR RECOMMENDED BAKING TIME.

Part 1: Construction of the necklaceThe necklace is constructed with two kinds of beads, that are connected to build the necklace chain: solid pieces or sandwich beads, and ring pieces or connector beads. The sandwich bead have three layers: one solid layer at the bottom, one layer with tunnels where the connector beads are inserted and one solid layer (lid) to close the sandwich bead on top.The ring pieces are made of one solid layer of clay.

Part 2: How to make the ring pieces (Video 1:29)The connector beads of this necklace have 4 different sizes.Roll out one package of Graphite Pearl (thickest setting on your clay condition machine) and texture the clay with the Sculpey texture tool. Texture a good area adjoining the impressions of the texture tool so you will be able to place all of your ring pieces on one sheet of clay. Use the cookie cutters to cut out the ring pieces, first the biggest size cutter: 6cm, then 4.4cm and 3.1cm. You will always need 2 rings of the same size. Use the biggest size (6cm) first, the cut the middle with the second next size smaller. For the second set of ring pieces use the 5cm, 3.8cm and 1.3cm Kemper cutters. Lift your ring pieces and separate them.

Part 3: Decorating the ring pieces (5:01)For the decoration use ½ package of Bronze clay conditioned and rolled out on a thin setting (No#3). Use the smallest round Kemper cutter (0.4cm) to cut some small circles out of the Bronze clay sheet. Use your needle tool to place the decoration on your ring pieces. Keep in mind that only parts of the ring will be visible! So just use two placed on opposite sides of your ring piece. Add some of the small Bronze pieces and press them to the ring piece with the ball pointed texture tool. Use your fingers to brush on some Perfect Pearl powders. When you have decorated all of your ring pieces cure them for 30 min at 275°F/130°C.

Part 4 : The sandwich beads (8:10)Roll out the color you want to have for your sandwich bead (thickest setting). Use your cookie cutter (I started with the 6cm cutter for my biggest bead) and cut out 3 round pieces (bottom, middle and top part of the sandwich bead). First we will make the bottom part of the sandwich beads: Place your cured ring pieces on the middle part (one of the round cut out pieces) and now you will cut out the tunnel of the middle piece. Use your round cookie cutters for that. Do not use the same size you used for cutting out the ring pieces, but one size bigger and one size smaller so the ring pieces still have some room to move! Lift all pieces of the middle layer with your blade and place them on the bottom layer of your sandwich bead. Take out the two pieces that make the space for the tunnel for the ring pieces. Press the remaining pieces down a little bit with your fingers. Now make all of bottom parts of your sandwich beads in the same way and cure all the bottom pieces together for 30 min at 275°F/130°C. Keep the top part (lid) of your pieces uncured for now!

Part 5: Preparing the lids for decorating (10:30)After you have all your bottom sandwich bead pieces cured and completely cooled get them out together. It helps to place them on your work surface in the order they will be in the final design of your necklace. Also place the lids (uncured/ fresh clay!) on your work surface. Now we are going to decorate the tops/lids with our steam punk decoration.

Part 6: Steam Punk elements for decorating the sandwich beads (10:59) There are a number of different textures or styles you can use for your own steam punk decoration. These are samples and you can of course make your own and play with these ideas. You can make nuts and bolts, gears, deals, grids and so much more.Here is a number of tools you can use to make textures for your steam punk pieces:•Use a threaded rod to make a line or grid texture.•Use the texture of your needle tool handle. The needle tool is included in the Sculpey 8 piece clay tool set .•Texture your clay with the Sculpey texture tool .•Little metal grid (found piece)•Sculpey Texture Wheel •Sculpey Style and Detail tools set •Use cookie cutters (round, star shaped, tear drops and more) or cut free hand!

Part 7: More textures and how to put it together (14:00) Roll out sheets of clay from all metal colors (on No#3 or No#4 on my machine, medium to thin setting).More textures: crumpled up regular paper rolled on top of the clay with an acrylic roller.Cut a textured piece so it will fit your bead shape and your taste.Cut our different shapes combined with a number of textures and collage your pieces until you have a design you like. When you have added all the pieces, make some lines or holes with your needle tool to add “seams” or lines to the surface of your bead. As a last step add some Perfect Pearls to give your bead a distressed look. Cure your pieces (all of the top pieces of your sandwich beads!) for 30 min at 275°F/130°C.

Part 8: Assemble your necklace (24:00) Place all your cured components on your work surface. You also will need tin foil and Sculpey Bake n' Bond. Cut the foil into stripes to add them to your sandwich beads to prevent the ring connectors to stick to the sandwich beads. Place them in all the chanels of the sandwich beads. They need to be over and under the ring conectors! In the first round add all the foil strips under the ring conectors and in the secound round add all the foil strips on top of the ring connectors. Make sure you don’t cover the spaces where you need to add the bake and bond to close the sandwich beads. Pour some of the “Bake and Bond” out of the bottle and place it onto your work surface. (In the movie I removed the first foil strips again from my bead because they were covered with Bake and Bond. I did not want the foil to stick to the beads so I exchanged the foil and used a new piece of foil!) Add the decorated lid on top and press it down to connect it with the bottom part of the sandwich bead. Do the same with all of your sandwich beads and lids! (As you can see in the movie the tops always slide off, because the second foil layer lifts the lids off too much. I removed the top layer of the foil and cured it just with the bottom layer of the foil and I had no problem to separate the beads!) When you have assembled all your pieces they need to be cured again for 30 min 275°F/130°C.

Part 9: Removing of the foil (37:21) Let your necklace cool completely after curing it. Then take the foil strips out of your sandwich beads, add pieces of chain and findings to your necklace.