Carved Antiqued Bead

Here is a simple carved bead.  Adding embossing powder to translucent clay gives it a stone like appearance.

You’ll need:  Translucent clay (Kato Polyclay), embossing powder (I used white, red and orange - Ranger Industries), needle tool, Nublade, fine “V” gouge carving tool, oil paint.

Step One

Onto a sheet of translucent clay, place embossing powder.  Mix in by folding the clay over the powder, making a pocket.  Through the thickest setting of the pasta machine roll through.  Fold and roll until it is mixed thoroughly (right).

Step Two

Shape a base bead - mine is almond shaped.  Roll the mixed clay into a sheet of medium thin thickness.  Cut a strip wide enough to cover the bead from top to bottom.  Cut a straight edge and press it to the bead.  Wrap the sheet around. Trim to make a butt joint (no overlap).

Step Three

At the top and bottom, cut away excess clay with a blade.  Smooth the seams together with fingers.  At this point, drill through the clay with a needle tool or bamboo skewer to make the bead hole. 

Step Four

Roll needle tool on bead to lightly incise the pattern.  I begin with the ends, then pattern the sides.  Sorry, this is hard to see!  Bake the bead.

Step Five - Carving

Here the ends and the sides have been partially carved.  When carving, make sure to carve away from yourself.  I hold the carving tool like a pencil and when carving in the round, move the clay into the carving tool.

Step Six

Here is the carved bead. 

Step Seven - Antiquing

Thanks to advice from Leslie Blackford, antiquing is easy.  Use oil paint!  I’ve mixed burnt umber and raw sienna (I think).  Brush the paint onto the bead and into the crevices.  Wipe excess off with a paper towel.  The oil paint stains the clay, it doesn’t just sit on the surface.  Let dry.

other examples

Here you see verdegris embossing powder mixed into translucent clay.  The two tiles on the right are raw (upper) and cured (lower).

The pattern was created by rolling the raw bead against the rubber stamp.  It was antiqued with white oil paint.

This piece was made by mixing weathered white embossing powder into translucent clay.  Sorry, it’s so blue - that isn’t the way it looks.  This piece was antiqued with the umber/sienna mix.

I tinted the translucent with ultra blue clay and a bit of black then mixed lapis embossing powder into the clay.  This bead was antiqued with parchment color oil paint.

copyright 2007  Donna Kato

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