Online sales are temporarily suspended !!
Contact the seller in advance before paying for the order!

Delightful Puff Beads - Part 1

polymer clay puff bead necklace These lovely puff beads are hollow and therefor very light weight. Using a turned over paint palette to shape the beads, will give you nicely domed beads. Joined they become lovely puff beads, which not just look elegant, but are also comfortable to wear. The size of the beads are decided by the size of the shape cutter you use, but also on the size of the pain palette. Since the beads are very lightweight you can easily go for a larger size than you usually would.

What you need to make these puff beads:

  • Fimo soft: Cognac, Windsor blue, Lime green, White and Black
  • Paint palette
  • Pasta machine
  • Tissue blades
  • Acrylic roller
  • Shape cutter, small round and large round
  • Clay gun
  • Texture tool
  • Scrap clay

Step 1:
Condition all the colors thoroughly. Make sure they all have the same thickness.
Make the following color mixes:
  • Color A: 4 parts Cognac + ¼ part Windsor Blue
  • Color B: ½ part color B + 2 parts White
  • Color C: ½ part Lime Green + 4 parts White + 1/8 part Black
Step 2:
Cut each sheet in two and put one half aside. Run the sheets through on a medium setting and stack them like this: color B, color C and color A.
Step 3:
Cut the stack in two and put them on top of each other. Repeat until you have a stack that is 8 times the original sheet in height, like you can see here.
Step 4:
Condition some scrap clay. Run it through on a medium to thin setting. Cut a slice of the stack you made in step 3, and run it through on the thinnest setting, like you can see on the photo. Cut thin strips of the striped slice and place them onto the scrap clay sheet.
Step 5:
Continue adding strips to the sheet, but move the strip up wards three times and then downwards again, so that you get a wavy pattern.
Step 6:
When you have covered the whole sheet, put a piece of paper on top, and smooth it with your acrylic roller.
Step 7:
Cut out discs from the sheet with the large round shape cutter.
Step 8:
Place the discs onto the back side of the paint palette.
Step 9:
Repeat the procedure from step 4, but this time, place the strips in another pattern. Put the sheet aside.
Step 10:
Roll some Black clay through the pasta machine on a medium to thin setting. Use the small round shape cutter and cut out discs from the sheet you made in step 9. Apply them randomly onto the black sheet. Smooth it with the acrylic roller, and cut out discs from the sheet with the large, round shape cutter. Apply them to the paint palette.
Step 11:
With a sharp tool, make a lot of holes in the black part of the discs, to give it a bit of texture.
Step 12:
Prepare a new black sheet and add stripes cut from the striped cane you stacked in the beginning of the tutorial, and run through the pasta machine. Add them randomly. Use the large round shape cutter and cut out discs. Put them onto the paint palette and roughen up the surface with a sharp tool.

Cure the beads for 30 minutes. It may be vise to test the paint palette in the oven forehand, to see if it can take the heat of the curing, so that you are not in for a surprise. You are now ready to put the bead halves together into puff beads, so let's move on to part 2.

Go to Delightful Puff Beads Part 2

Check out these lovely Chinese Brocade Puff Beads

Return to Polymer Clay Tutorials

Go to Home Page

Contribute with YOUR tutorial

My dream is to make this site the largest and best jewelry making site there is. Where you can find tutorials on every aspect of jewelry making, a real tutorial heaven for crafters around the world.

But, I need your help. Adding only my own tutorials will not give my visitors what they seek, so YOUR tutorial is very valuable not only for me, but for all the people visting this site. With your help, I may achieve my dream, to make this a true tutorial heaven.

Enter the title of your tutorial here

See tutorials contributed by other visitors

Click below to see tutorials contributed by other visitors.

Colapsing Puff beads 
I really like your site. It is very informative. I have been making hollow, domed Polymer clay beads, but I have not been able to keep them from going …

Click here to write your own.