Clay Beads

[craftybeads]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone can give some basic advice on making clay beads or if anyone knows a good book or web site to try. I did try a few months ago. I was generally happy with the bead shape but everything went wrong with my glazing attempts!

Even better would be if anyone knows of anywhere in Scotland that does lessons that would be fantastic.

Thanks

[Craft Cellar]

Fimo Polymer clay makes great beads and even easier if you use a bead roller. I have been very pleased with the beads I have made using this method. You can add a glaze after baking or leave the natural matt finish. Also good is adding easy metal to the fimo which gives great metallic effects.

Have fun

[Rhiannon]

I can recommend a very good book by Sue Heaser called 'The Art & Craft of Polymer Clay'.

It covers everything from the very simple conditioning of the clay, rolling beads, making holes in beads, sanding and buffing and goes through mixing colours, and colour techniques, shaping. It also explains various canes, adding surface embellishments (powders, ink, paints etc) and covers other uses for the clay (figures, mosaics).

It is one of the best books i've seen for polymer clay beads, it even includes a section of faux beads (agate, wood, onyx) and how to recreate these from the clay.

I found it on Amazon and the RRP is £15.99 but I think it's about a tenner now.