Articles | Retired Beads Store

How To Make Your Own Designer Jewelry Beads

Trollbeads are great, but let's admit it, they're not cheap. And although, we will keep adding Trollbeads to the collection, sometimes we want to have our own custom made beads to give our charm bracelets their own unique look and style to match our fashion and personality. Their are many ways to do that, but by far the easiest way is using a clay called polymer clay. It is very cheap, but durable, and bakes right in your oven.

What you will need to make your own beads are first, polymer clay. The best brands are Sculpey, Fimo, and Prosculpt. If you want lots of colors, usually Fimo or sculpey is best, but if you want a cheaper clay you can by Sculpey(white) or Super Sculpey(skin color), and then paint it the color you want. These clays can be picked up at most art and craft stores and are only a couple bucks for enough to make quite a few beads.

Second, you will need some tools to shape the clay, a sewing needle, and preferably a pasta machine to flatten the clay. The best tools I use are knitting needles, and the back ends of paintbrushes, but there are many you can buy also.

Next, I recommend leaching Sculpey, because sometimes it can be too soft or too sticky to work with especially in humid-hot areas. Leaching is simply flattening the clay to about 1/8th inch thick and then placing it between two pieces of paper. Add 10-20 pounds weight on top of the clay(books work best) and leave for several hours. Once done pull the clay out.

Next, mold your shape. This is left up to your creative juices but one method to consider for beads is called millefiori and involves placing different colors of clay together to form images in the clay. Google it for more information.

Finally, poke a hole through your bead with a small knitting needle or sewing needle. To get a more perfect hole heat up the needle with a lighter before poking the hole. You may need to patch the sides around the hole. Place talcum powder inside the hole and on the needle and push the needle back through the hole, and leave it there. Make sure it is slightly loose, but just enough that the hole doesn't mis shape during baking.

Then bake the clay according to package instructions, pull out and string it to your favorite charm bracelet!