Ghoulish Gothic Skull Jewelry with Makin's Clay®

Ghoulish Gothic Skull Bracelet Designed by Cindi McGee

Ghoulish Gothic Skull Earrings by Cindi McGee

I love Halloween for a number of reasons.  I love spooky movies, with fabulous special effects and monster make-up (especially those made in the days when they actually used real props and make-up instead of CGI!), and I love Halloween decorations because they are creepy, silly, and fun.   As the season approaches each year my creative muse seems to kick into mega creepy mode and I just can’t find enough time to make all the spooky jewelry and decorations I envision in my head.   Thes “Creepy Gothic Skull Bracelet & Earrings" combines three ghoulish elements - skulls, spiderwebs, and blood - what could be more perfect for the spookiest time of the year? 

Materials: 

Makin's Clay® - White, Black, Natural 

Makin's® Cutting Mat 

Open back beads for bezels 

Small skull beads 

Small black spacer beads, small smoky gray beads, small red glass seed beads 

Alumilite/Amazing Casting Products Amazing Mold Putty 

JudiKins™ Spider Web rubber stamp 

JudiKins™ Diamond Glaze™

DecoArt® Americana® Multi-Surface Satin™ Acrylic - Black Tie, Dark Scarlet 

Beacon™ Power-Tac Adhesive

Jewelry wire, crimps, closure, earring wires 

Paper towels, scissors, jewelry pliers 

Instructions:

Step 1 - Building the Bezels - Getting "Webby" 

I’ve had these "open-backed" beads in my jewelry making stash for a while, and they seemed like the perfect choice to make mini-bezels to hold my creepy skulls and blood.   

Mix a small amount of black with white Makin’s Clay® to create a smoky gray.   Place clay on back side of each bead to cover the crystal and decorative side, bringing the clay over the sides of each bead. 

Be sure to open the holes on opposite sides of the beads to allow the wire to pass through. 

While the clay is still fresh, stamp the flat surface of each bead with the spider web rubber stamp; stamp firmly enough to leave an impression of the web.  Let dry 24 hours. 

Cover each bead with Black Tie DecoArt® Americana® Multi-Surface Satin™ paint, then immediately wipe off with paper towel, just allowing paint to remain in the impression of the spider web and slightly tint the gray clay. 

Step 2 - Skull Time!

I had a few of these plastic skull beads in my stash, but the bright colors would just not work for this project, and I wanted a way to make multiples for future projects.  Making a mold was the answer! 

Mix equal parts Part A and Part B of Amazing Mold Putty.  Push beads into putty face down.   Let set per manufacturer instructions (about 5 minutes was enough for me!)  and remove beads from molds. 

Make skulls by molding Natural Makin’s Clay® in the skull bead molds.  I let my clay dry about an hour before I removed from the mold just to ensure they maintained their shape well.  Let beads dry 24 hours.  Trim any excess clay from the base of each skull.  

Cover each skull with black paint.  Wipe away while wet, leaving paint in indentations to highlight details and to tint the rest of the skulls to “age” them a bit. 

For bracelet, string “bezels” onto jewelry wire, alternating with black beads, until bracelet is desired length.  Use Beacon™ Power-Tac to mount a skull in the center of each bezel, over wire.  Let dry. 

For earrings, string two bezels onto separate pieces of jewelry wire, then use Beacon™ Power-Tac to mount a skull in the center of each bezel, over wire.  Let dry. 

Step 3 - Bring on the Ghoul Factor - Making Faux Blood!

I love to experiment with ways to make faux blood for creative projects.  Adding the acrylic paint to Diamond Glaze™ worked great for this project.  I've also created faux blood with two part resin and a touch of RIT Dye - that works fantastic too! 

Mix JudiKins™ Diamond Glaze™ with a few drops of Dark Scarlet Multi-Surface Satin™ paint.  Use stir stick to drizzle tinted glaze into each bezel around skulls.  If a bit gets on the skulls, the spacer beads, or the bezels, it just adds to the ghoulish effect! 

Let Diamond Glaze dry 24 hours. (Normally, Diamond Glaze has a much quicker drying time - but since we are using such a thick application for this project, I wanted to be sure it was completely dry before moving on to assembling the jewelry pieces.)

Create loop at the ends of the wire on opposite ends of the bracelet, add jump rings and use

crimp to seal loops.  Add closure. 

For earrings, remove the jewelry wire from the two bezels.  Insert straight pins through the space left from the wire, add a black bead to the base, a small smoky grey bead to the top and then a red glass seed bead.  Add wire earring hooks.