A short while ago the lovely people at www.craftmerrily.co.uk sent me a couple of Fimo polymer clay jewellery kits to play with.
The kits contain all of the clay and findings that you need to create several pieces of jewellery and come with pictorial instructions that are relatively easy to follow.
As I was new to working with polymer clay I searched online and found several ‘get started’ tutorials on You Tube that gave me a greater degree of confidence and covered some of the basics, such as how to condition your clay to get the best results.
I would recommend acquiring a little bit of background knowledge before getting stuck in but the techniques are all fairly easy and the kits would work for children with a bit of adult supervision. Once you have formed and cut your clay shapes you need to bake them in a domestic oven and then let them cool before attaching them to the findings. If you intend to make a lot of polymer clay pieces then it’s also worth investing in a cheap pasta machine as that is by far the easiest way of conditioning and rolling the clay before use.
Being a contrary sort I eschewed the instructions that came with my kits (I received the retro swirl and beautiful blues kits) and went off-piste instead, ending up with enough pieces to make rings, earrings, pendants, buttons and bracelets. My favourites are shown below, what do you think?
