Sweetheart Necklace and Earrings

Use oven bake clay to create the perfect jewelry set for Valentine's Day. Sculpt red hearts for the necklace and earrings and choose your own stone or gem to accent the pendant.

Materials:

• Sculpey III oven bake clay    
  (1) ½” x ¾” chunk for pendant
  (2) ½” x ¼” for earrings

• Creamcoat enamel glaze-clear/air dry
• Stone or gem, approx. 1/8” oval/flat back (I used hemalyke)
• Eyepin (silver or gold)- 1 ½” long
• Hook and Eye-14.5 x 6mm
• Fishing swivel-smallest size available (buy in hardware store)
• Straight Kidney Earwire-2 (silver or gold)
• Bead glue in tube
• Cord, Ribbon or Crochet chain. 9Using #10 cotton and #8 steel hook)

Tools:

• Pasta machine (optional)
• Small paint brush
• Non-stick board work area or pan with parchment paper
• Needle nose pliers
• Old rag (dampen with water for clean up and smoothing clay surface)
• Wooden skewers (for baking and markings)

Instructions:

Knead or roll clay to soften. Make 1 large ball for pendant and 2 for earrings. Flatten balls to apprx. 1/8” thick. For pendant use pliers to shape dip on any side of ball, pinch opposite side with fingers and shape heart, flatten and smooth. Hold carefully and push eyepin from bottom of heart up through top dip until even with clay and using pliers shape hook at top of heart for hanging. Carefully reshape and flatten heart to original design. With skewer make a small circle of indented dots for a slot to insert stone or gem. Press gem into lower part of heart face keeping close to even/flat on surface of heart. Use skewer to make very small lines around gem (like a sunburst design) to help fuse when baking. Use skewer to write 100% above gem. Flatten and smooth rough edges and all sides.

For earrings use same shaping method, instead of eyepin, insert fish swivel halfway its length into top dip of heart. Using skewer you can make a little feather design down center of heart.  Flatten and smooth rough edges and all sides.

Line pan with parchment paper, place all hearts flat on top of paper, bake in pre-heated oven 265° for 14 to 15 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes, squirt a pinhead amount of glue into swivel and hook on top of hearts. Let dry 2 hours. Take a medium thick black ball point pen and draw in the lines of 100%, let sit 10 minutes. Paint the hearts with a light coat of glaze, let dry 1 day.

In the mean time, cut cord or ribbon to 23” and tie and glue hook and eye on each end, trim. Or chain a 20” cord as follows: using #10 cotton thread (color of your choice), thread the hook and eye on thread. Cast on 1 chain, chain around hook for first end, leave eye on working yarn, chain 150, pull up eye, work 1 chain around eye, slip stitch and fasten off. Weave in loose thread on each end, trim and put a dot of glue to secure. When hearts are dry, put earwires on ear hearts and cord into pendant hook.