Faux Stone

Love the look of a variety of tumbled, polished stones in jewelry, but don't like their weight?  Or maybe you can't find stone beads or pendants in just the shade, size, or shape you like.  Why not make them yourself?

Almost all you need for this project is translucent polymer clay and whatever inclusions you have on hand.  Gather colorful sand, dried flowers or leaves, embossing powder-- even dried herbs from the kitchen cabinet.  The possibilities are endless, and half the fun is discovering your own personal faux stone "recipes". 

• Translucent polymer clay
• Small amounts of colorful polymer clay (optional)
• Inclusions (such as the following...)
  
  • Colored sand
  • Embossing powder
  • Dried flowers or leaves
  • Dried cooking herbs
  • Flocking powder
• Scrap clay, wet wipes, or paper towels (optional)
• Needle tool or toothpick (bead-piercing tool)
• Craft knife (optional)
• Work surface
• Oven (& related)
• Bowl of ice water (after baking/curing)

Condition the translucent polymer clay. 

If you want to experiment with a variety of different inclusion "recipes" and would like to end up with a number of similarly sized beads/pieces, go ahead and divide the clay into equal portions.  There are a variety of ways to do this.  One way is to roll the clay into a log and cut it into even slices.  Another option is to put the clay through the pasta machine (or roll evenly by hand) and use a shape cutter (a clay-dedicated cookie cutter) to cut out several pieces of clay. 

Set most of the clay portions aside and work on one at a time to avoid unintentionally "contaminating" all of your clay with a single inclusion.  (Some inclusions tend to scatter all over the work surface.)

Select an inclusion.  

In this instance, we're using colorful sand. 

You can find colored sand in many craft stores, but you can also make your own, as we did.  Mix a drop or two of liquid food coloring (as needed) into a small amount of white (or at least light colored) sand. Allow the coloring to dry thoroughly.  The sand will keep its color well, stored in small plastic bags.  Using only a few hues of food coloring (red, yellow, green, and blue are the most commonly available), you can get a variety of colors of sand.  Mix red and blue for purple, green and yellow for lime green, and so on. 

Sprinkle or scoop a very small amount of sand onto a flattened portion of clay.  Fold the clay around the sand and begin working it into the clay.  Some of the sand may fall onto your work surface.  When that happens, simply press the clay onto it to pick it back up.  Continue working the clay to evenly distribute the sand.  If necessary, add a little more sand. 

Note:  We advise you not to put clay with sand mixed in through a pasta machine, as it could possibly scratch the rollers. 

At this point, you can form the clay into whatever shape you desire.  We have chosen to form ours into slightly flattened round beads, which we have pierced (from both sides, with a thick needle) and set aside.  You may do this for all the inclusion recipes you try, as you go, or save this step until the end.  (If the clay sits for very long, it may require some handling to warm and re-soften it, depending on the clay, room temperature, and other factors.)

Experiment with adding more than one color of sand to a single portion of clay.  (Keep in mind that you'll need to use less of each color, this way.) 

For a different look, mix in a tiny amount of colorful clay with the sand.  Try adding a touch of purple clay and purple sand for one look; for another, pair the purple sand with lightly blue- or yellow-tinted clay. 

Try this with any of the inclusions mentioned elsewhere in this tutorial, too.  Just remember to add the colored clay a tiny bit at a time.  Some colors are much more potent than you might expect, and the more color you add, the more opaque the cured clay will be, which diminishes how well the inclusions will show.

You can also combine more than one inclusion into a single clay portion.  Again, add less of each inclusion when using more than one.  Having too high a ratio of inclusions to clay can weaken the strength of the polymer clay in the finished product. 

For our next portion of clay, we'll use embossing powder as an inclusion.

Embossing powder is most commonly used in paper crafts (scrapbooking and card making), but it also makes an excellent inclusion in polymer clay.  It comes in a rainbow of colors, some of them sparkling or glittery and others more like a fine, matte powder. 

Mix a very small amount of embossing powder into the clay the same way that you mixed in the sand, working it into the clay thoroughly by kneading it with your fingers. 

Our next inclusion is flocking powder. 

Flocking powder is made of many tiny bits of fiber.  It is frequently used in model building, but is sometimes used for various paper crafts and other hobbies.  When applied evenly to a surface, it produces a soft, velvety texture.  Though it's not a conventional use, mixing flocking powder into polymer clay creates another interesting faux stone effect.  (Some say it resembles Polyform's Granitex clay.)

By now, you know the routine.  Starting with just a small pinch of the colorful fibers, work the flocking powder into a portion of the clay.  If you like, try mixing multiple colors into a single bit of clay, as shown here. 

Dried botanicals-- by which we mean everything from herbs and spices from the kitchen to dried flowers from the garden-- make interesting inclusions in polymer clay.  

The thoroughly dried, finely ground of them can be mixed into the clay directly, with no further fuss.  (Here, we've sprinkled a little rubbed sage onto a portion of clay.)

Other botanical inclusions may require a little more preparation.  

First, it is important that they be thoroughly dry.  (You can let them air dry or possible speed up the process by spreading them over a cookie sheet and putting them into an oven on very low heat.)

Second, they may need to be crumbled or cut into tiny pieces.  Some dried flowers (like these crepe myrtle pictured at right) will crumble during conditioning.  Thicker or tougher petals or leaves may not crumble so easily. 

Chop botanical inclusions finely using whatever method you prefer.  A craft knife is a simple but effective way to cut up a small amount of inclusions, but if you'll be processing a lot of material, you may prefer to try something else-- such as a food processor.  (To the right, you'll see that we tried chopping dried rose petals and even the needles from a bald cypress.) 

You can achieve different looks depending on how finely you chop or pulverize a botanical inclusion. 

Remember, you need not limit yourself to carefully cultivated flowers.  Even some portions of weeds or wildflowers can make unusual and attractive inclusions.  For one of our inclusions, we used the dried blooms from a form of goldenrod. 

Cure the polymer clay according to the manufacturer's instructions (which you can find on the package or the manufacturer's website). 

We recommend tenting translucent clay-- that is, placing a folded piece of aluminum foil over it in the oven to prevent scorching or a slight darkening or yellowing of the clay.  Translucent clay (and clay that contains a high proportion of translucent clay, such as glow-in-the-dark and pearl/mica clay) has an increased tendency to darken if the temperature spikes.  The aluminum foil tent provides an extra layer of protection.

Many clayers swear that dunking cured polymer clay into a bowl of icy water improves translucency. 

It's up to you to decide whether there's a discernible difference, but we frequently use the ice bath.  If nothing else, it cools your beads in record time.

We leave the beads in the ice water at least until they are cool, but they can stay there as long as you want to leave them.

These beads contain the following inclusions or combinations of inclusions:

• blue sand
• blue sand & green sand
• purple sand & purple polymer clay

These beads contain the following inclusions or combinations of inclusions:

• carnelian (red-orange) embossing powder
• yellow & dark green embossing powders
• dark purple & lilac embossing powders
• blue & yellow embossing powders
• black embossing powder

These beads contain the following inclusions or combinations of inclusions:

• lime green & blue flocking powders
• pink, red, & blue flocking powders

These sets of beads contain the following inclusions or combinations of inclusions:

First set:

• rubbed sage
• rubbed sage & pink flocking powder
• rubbed sage & aqua sand

Second set:

• crepe myrtle bloom
• crepe myrtle bloom & yellow polymer clay
• crepe myrtle bloom & purple sand

Third set:

• rose petal & peach polymer clay
• rose petal & lime polymer clay
• rose petal & medium green polymer clay

Fourth set:

• bald cypress needles
• bald cypress needles & black & carnelian embossing powders

Fifth set:

• goldenrod bloom, lilac embossing powder, & lime polymer clay
• goldenrod bloom

Sixth set:

• white clover & plum polymer clay
• white clover & lime polymer clay

There's no reason why you should limit yourself to the inclusions mentioned in this tutorial.  If something is small (or can be crumbled or cut to make it small) and able to safely withstand curing temperatures, it might make an interesting inclusion.  Try a little bit of it in a small piece of clay and see what happens!

For instance, crayon shavings are a popular inclusion.  Here are some beads made with nothing more than translucent polymer clay, crayon shavings, and a light colored embossing powder.  (For another look, you could use chopped up shavings from color pencils.)

For something a little more off the wall, tiny glass microbeads embedded in lightly tinted translucent clay yield an interesting result.  Here are silver-coated glass microbeads embedded in green-tinted clay.  (Caution:  Never run clay mixed with glass balls through your pasta machine.  Be careful what you do with an scraps left from such a project.  A single errant microbead can mar the smooth surface of your pasta machine's metal rollers.)

Leave the beads as they are or give them some shine-- either a little (with matte acrylic finish or hand buffing) or a lot (with high gloss acrylic finish or sanding and the buffing wheel.)

With a single 2-ounce package of translucent clay and a few materials you probably have lying around the house (or yard) you can create a necklace-worth of unique beads.  Find a recipe you like and make a string of uniform beads or play around and get an eclectic mix.

Faux stone beads are an interesting way to preserve dried flowers given or bought on special occasions-- births, weddings, romantic dates, anniversaries, graduations, "coming of age" parties, prom nights, or (on a sadder note) funerals.  Transform a handful of petals from Grandma's favorite rosebush into a bracelet, eyeglass leash, or keychain.  Flowers or fallen leaves collected on vacation can also become one-of-a-kind souvenirs. 

Of course, if you don't want beads, you can use the same techniques and mixtures to make pendants, small sculptures, or anything else you like.