How to make Polymer Clay Earrings – DIY Clay Earrings for Beginners

If you want to know how to make Polymer Clay Earrings you are in the right place. 

Note: If you are a beginner and this is your first project, Polymer Clay is a clay that needs to be cured (oven-baked) to harden. It is lovely and as I always say, it is therapeutic!

I am sure you will love it!

In this post, I will show you: 

• How to Conditioning Polymer Clay
• How to make Polymer Clay Earrings 
• Polymer Clay Tips & Tricks

Plus: Read this post till the end and you will find a gift for you!

Firstly you will need basic materials:

10- Basic Materials and Tools to Make your First Polymer Clay Earrings

1. Polymer clay (any brand and colour you like / preferable Fimo, Kato, Premo or Cernit)
2. Craft knife
3. Polymer clay roller or pasta machine
4. Metal cutters
5. Baking tray (exclusive for polymer clay)
6. Foil tray 
7. Kitchen oven
8. Oven thermometer (if you cannot control your oven temperature)
9. Earring findings (hooks, studs, etc)
10. Sandpaper (optional)

If you prefer, you can search for the products at Amazon: 

(please note this is an affiliate link)

Which Polymer Clay Brand to Choose?

There are loads of polymer clay brands to choose from. It depends on your project and what you are looking for.

If you are a professional and you want to create a big piece you will be looking for stronger clay.

As this is an introduction to how to use polymer clay, you just need to choose a good brand and the colours you like. 

Be aware that some polymer clay is not as soft as you think, as you open the package.

Most importantly, you will need to condition your clay before creating your designs or it will break after cured/baked.

Also, you might, unfortunately, get old clay and it will need more effort to soften.

The softest brand polymer clay I found and that gets good result is Fimo Soft.

If you really want to start quick and don’t have a pasta machine and don’t want to spend too much on materials you can use Fimo Kids.

Fimo Kids offers a softer to handle consistency. It is ideal if you want to try to use polymer clay as your first project and/or have problems with your hands.

Just as a suggestion, check it out: Fimo Kids Modelling Clay, Glitter Gold, 42 g, as you might like to use for this project. But you can use any colour or brand you like.

More information about conditioning below and on my other post where you can also learn how to make a polymer clay bracelet.

When you advance in your skills and start using Polymer Clay, you will choose different brands that best suit your needs and likes.

For this project, I used Premo Antique Gold from Amazon. I love Premo, by the way… but this is my preference.

How to make Polymer Clay Earrings

Firstly you have to condition your clay.  It also incorporates and aligns the polymer clay particles and removes air trapped inside.

In other words, you will make your clay sufficient soft to work with while preparing and mixing the ingredients to cure properly. (like making a cake 😉)

When you first open the package you will notice that the clay is quite hard. Some clays are softer as Fimo Soft as I mentioned above.

Conditioning Polymer Clay 

Conditioning Polymer Clay is a process that will make all particulars get together and make your clay stronger so it won’t break after curing (baking). So, this is the boring part of the project, especially if your clay is hard and you don’t have a pasta machine.

Years ago, I got frustrated with the first clay I bought. I thought it was just opening the package and start to make beautiful jewellery using just kids tools! I was wrong.

Off course, you can play with polymer clay and make whatever you like, but I wanted to make jewellery. And, most importantly, I want to be able to wear them. So, it must have a good finish or I would not wear. 

So, I researched and discovered that other artists were using a pasta machine to soften polymer clay! I bought one straight away and I couldn’t wait for it to arrive! My hands were so grateful.

Think about in investing in one if you get hooked with polymer clay. Well, I am sure you will. My pasta machine is Marcato Atlas 150. A Godsend!

So, let’s get our hands in this amazing medium! 

Conditioning Polymer Clay by Hand

It is not impossible to conditioning your clay without a pasta machine. It might just take al little longer.

So, the first thing is to cut the polymer clay into small pieces and start to smash, press, pushing to make your clay soft. If the clay is too hard there are some tricks to use:

1. Put the clay in a plastic bag and sit on it! By warming up the clay it will become softer. Note: Do not try to put in the microwave!!!
2. Add some baby oil on it
3. Chop the clay into small pieces and squeeze them together until you have a softball and you can use the roller.
4. Use Sculpey Clay Softener

If the polymer clay still hard you have other options:

1. Repeat the process above
2. Finally, decide to get a pasta machine and see the difference for yourself
3. Watch this video from Polymerclaytutor
4. Giving up is not in this list!!!!🙃

Note: Remember, you can choose the brand and colour you like. There are loads of colour to choose and other lovely Fimo metallics colours as well:

Conditioning Polymer Clay with a Pasta Machine

You can soften your clay by cutting your clay into small pieces and pass through a pasta machine.

Open the package and cut the clay with a clay cutter or craft knife.

For this project, you will need 1/4 of the package. However, it depends on the size of your cutters/earrings. If you want bigger earnings you will need to use more clay.

Cut more clay and condition it as it goes. If you need more, just add more! 

Note: Do not try to put the whole block at once into the pasta machine!

Keep passing the clay through the pasta machine and bend the clay several times until you fill that the clay is softer enough to work with and it is not breaking up you bend.

Note: Never throw away the clay you don’t use. Keep it in the same package or put in a suitable container with a lid.

If you are using a pasta machine, just pass the little pieces of clay several times until it is soft, conditioned and ready to use.

If you are conditioning by hand, use the acrylic roller to flatten it out. Roll your clay until it is soft and manageable

You will have a piece that measures around 5cm x 5cm, ready to be cut!

Check the thickness. For these earrings, I chose approximately 3mm. You can make thicker if you like.

Note The thinner you make, the more chances it will break. So keep this in mind.

Cutting and Design your Polymer Clay Earrings

Now you are ready to start to design your earrings.

Let’s learn how to make the earrings as mine, on the picture below:

Use your cutters and make the shapes as bellow.

Lift it up carefully and transfer to a baking tray with a baking paper or foil.

Note: To get a better finishing, grab off any surplus clay from around the shape cut. You can use a cotton bud or tissue wipes. 

You can also sand after cured, but it is up to you and I am not including how to polish polymer clay in this free tutorial. 

Cover it with a foil baking tray.

For this project, I set my kitchen oven to 130-degree celsius (°C) and baked for 45 minutes.

If you cannot control your oven temperature, you can use an oven thermometer. It is not expensive and will help you avoid burn your clay.

Note: Make sure your oven has a correct temperature to avoid burn your pieces.  Each polymer clay has different time and temperature to be cured. Therefore, follow the instructions on the Polymer Clay package you bought.

How to Make Polymer Clay Earrings – Finishing your Project

As you can imagine you will need some jewellery findings to complete this project. You might already have some at home, but if you not, why not invest in a jewellery kit, so you can you make more earings as you already have the clay?

The kit on the picture above has everything you need to complete this project, however, use what you like. This is just my suggestion to help you out. If you like, you can get yours at Amazon. Click here.

After cured (harden) your clay/earrings you can start to attach the jewellery findings by using the jewellery pliers and hooks.

Polymer Clay Tips & Tricks 

1. You can easily burn your project if you do not follow the correct baking instructions from the package. Especially if bake your clay in an oven temperature higher than 130 degrees celsius (°C) / 266 Fahrenheit (°F). So, an oven thermometer is a wise tool to acquire. Get yours here.
2. The best way to conditioning Polymer Clay is by using a Pasta Machine. This is especially if you have problems with your hands. It is not impossible to conditioning without a pasta machine, but it will take longer. See more detailed instructions about conditioning Polymer Clay on my post How to Make a Chakra Bracelet.
3. Don’t’ throw away any clay! you can use scraps in other projects but make sure you keep it protected as wrapped into their original package or into a suitable plastic bag/box. See examples of using scrap clay here.

My Gift for you

Thanks for reading my post, I hope it will help you.

My gift for you is a 50% discount code on my tutorials. The only thing you will need to do is to write a comment below, and I will send you a coupon link to my Etsy Shop so you can grab my Polymer Clay Tutorials!

I hope you have enjoyed this project. Let me know on the comments below if you have any questions. 

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