How to make a Sugar skull polymer necklace, great for beginners because no mold needed. Make them as quirky as you want, everyone will want one.
I used FIMO because it’s easy to get in Australia from Spotlight or Riot Art stores. It’s also easy to get the little flowers and beads I used for the decoration on the head.
Polymer clay stays soft so you can mold it to any shape, and once baked it goes hard and stays that way forever. When you get to the baking stage, follow the instructions on the packet because every manufacturer has various baking times for their product.
Firstly, knead and shape the polymer clay, shape the head into a ball then flatten and shape the chin.
See exactly how I do this in my step by step how to make a Sugar skull polymer necklace video above. Then push the eye pin through the center of the head. The eye at the top of the head. I didn’t cut the bottom because I used it as a stand while painting and gluing on the flowers during the decoration and drying times.
TIP: use a large piece of blue tack or a foam block, on your work bench to rest your piece on while it’s drying.
Next, push in the flowers for the eyes, don’t worry if you don’t have any plastic or fimo flowers for the eyes, you can paint them on later.
Flowers can be baked in with the polymer clay, just check first because the heat of the oven isn’t that hot or the piece isn’t in for too long. I baked my eye flowers in and they did not melt, if you’re worried just glue them in later.
To finish: decorate, bake and glaze
off the bottom of the sugar skull where the post has gone through, you can pop a bead on and push it into the clay a little bit to hold the post firmly in place, and bake. If you are worried about your beads melting, just bake and glue one on after baking.
You have the choice to cut the post off flush at the bottom of the skull and smooth over with the clay, it won’t move after baking either way.
Bake, to manufacturer’s instructions, don’t over bake or it will burn and be ruined. Once it’s cooled you can glue on the flowers, paint the eyes, nose and teeth.
Paint on a polymer glaze, or a water based polyurethane glaze to seal in the paint and make it nice and shiny, it also protects the piece for years to come.
Jump ring (split O ring)
Now it’s time to attach the jump ring to the eye pin on top of the sugar skull and thread through your necklace chain and you’re done.
I’d love to see your sugar skull polymer necklace design, so be sure to share your picture with me at http://facebook.com/artcraftcrazy and Instagram artcraftcrazy #artcraftcrazy #sugarskullsartcraftcrazy
Youtube channel artcraftcrazy
cheers Donna
sugar skull polymer necklace