Polymer Clay Feathers Wind Chime

Polymer Clay Feathers Wind Chime by Bea Grob 

I'm back with another project with Makin's Clay®, some bead and wire to make a wind chime or chandelier.

Supplies:

Makin's Clay® 60g Straw, Blue, Green 

Several colors of Decofoil (this is a good project to use up leftovers

Steel Rule Die Feather and Flower (or any other shape you like)

A top Ring, mine was in a starform, but plain circle would work too

An assortment of Beads and Crimp Beads

Wire I used Soft flex Nylon coated Beading wire Diameter .019 inch,  49 Strands

Tools:          

Makin's® Clay Roller

Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine®

Sidecutter for cutting wire

Crimp plier

Instructions:   

 

I started by rolling the clay through the Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine®, beginning on setting #1 and proceeding through each setting ending on #5.  I made three sheets from the three colors. The color doesn't matter so much as we going to go over it in the next step.

Whenever I want to use Decofoil on a large piece I spray the rolled out clay and let it set for about 1 minute. Just to make sure that it is sticky enough to pull of the metallic from the foil

Next, I started applying only parts of the foil. As usual, I do burnish a bit and then rip it off like a Band-Aid. As you can see I did use first all my leftovers and I used different colors of foil.

When most of the clay is already covered you can go on easily with the foil allover and use an old giftcard to burnish the foil. Sometimes it takes several passes until the foil decide to stick.

At the end I had these pieces all covered with foil from both sides, as you can see.

I let it dry completely over night and the next day I ran it through the Big Shot die cutting machine with a Steel Rule die. I made Feathers and flowers.

I had no exact plan how many of those feathers I needed, so in the end I had 4 leftover and also some flowers, but I certainly can use them in other project.

I grabbed an assortment of beads, my ring and the feathers and flowers.

Next, I punched with a handheld punch some holes at the top, I also snipped off the feather stalk at the top.  I  prepared 12 wires as I was going to use 12 feathers.

Now I had to string up everything. I started with a crimp bead and then added first the feather and then the beads. To attach them to the ring I made a loop which I secured again with a crimp bead.