Make and Share Craft Tutorials
About
Published
over 3 years ago
Time
Difficulty
Posted By
S U S A N ✽Whether or not you celebrate Valentine’s Day, it’s hard to avoid these brightly colored candies in February. I feel as if I’ve made it incredibly clear to everyone I know that I can’t stand the taste of these things, but a box or two inevitably appears on my desk from festive colleagues. Even though the actual candies seem inedible to me, there is something about food that talks that I just can’t resist, whether traditional and sweet (“be mineâ€) or oddly tech-savvy (“email meâ€).
This recipe uses the phrase “kiss me†since it is both traditional and symmetrical, and therefore easier for beginning writers. Once you’ve got the writing down, feel free to personalize these charms for your friends, family, and, of course, those per- sistent colleagues (or classmates).
Yield: 1 heart
Tags
Crafts
Extract from
The Polymer Clay Cookbook: Tiny Food Jewelry to Whip Up and Wear by Jessica Partain
Published by Potter Craft
The Polymer Clay Cookbook celebrates favorite foods with 20 tiny, deliciously realistic food charms to make from polymer clay and fashion into unique jewelry. Styled as a cookbook for the beginning miniaturist "chef," the introductory chapters discuss the "basic ingredients" and techniques used for polymer clay and jewelry-making. The remainder of the book offers 20 "recipes" grouped by category: fruits, breakfast, lunch and dinner, sweets and snacks, and holiday foods. Each recipe has a list of "ingredients," step-by-step directions with photographs, and suggested variations. Each piece is presented as a particular finished jewelry item, such as a necklace, but readers are encouraged to adapt the piece into any type of jewelry they choose. Each chapter also includ...
© 2013 Jessica Partain / Potter Craft · Reproduced with permission.Instructions
You Will Need
- 1/8" (3.2 mm) ball magenta Clay
- 3/16" (4.7 mm) ball cadmium red Clay
- 3/8" (9.5 mm) ball white Clay
- Figure Eight Loop
- Utility Knife
- Safety Pins
- Project Cost
- Cheap
-
1
Thoroughly mix the white and red clays. Flatten the ball into a 1/8"-(3.2 mm-) thick pancake, then pinch the clay to create a triangle.
-
2
Make a small cut in the center of one side with your utility knife, then push each side of the cut outward.
-
3
Smooth each side by pulling the inside of the cut outward onto the side of the triangle.
-
4
Create a small incision with your utility knife in the notch at the top of the heart, then insert the figure- eight pin. Gently press the heart to fix the pin in place and close the incision.
-
5
Using the back edge of a utility knife, smooth any remaining roughness around the figure-eight pin.
-
6
Before you start writing, create guidelines. Use a safety pin to make two faint lines: one marking the vertical middle, the other the horizontal middle.
-
7
Use your safety pin to imprint the letters from the center outward.
-
8
Space your letters evenly.
-
9
To fill in the text with color, roll the magenta clay into a thin snake, roughly as wide as the pin imprint.
-
10
Cut the thin snake into short segments, and guide each segment into the letter impressions.
-
11
Smooth out the finished written surface by press- ing the heart gently against your work surface.
-
12
Bake for 15 minutes at 275 ÌŠ F (135 ÌŠ C). Leave the baked heart unglazed to keep the chalky quality of the candy.
The Many Colors of Love
Although their flavor never changes, conver- sation hearts traditionally come in six pastel colors: pink, white, violet, yellow, orange, and green. The mixing directions below cover every flavor in the box.
WHITE: 3/8" (9.5 mm) ball white clay ORANGE: 1â„4" (6.4 mm) ball orange + 5/16" (8 mm) ball white clay
GREEN: 3/16" (4.7 mm) ball cadmium yellow + 1/8" (3.2 mm) ball green + 5/16" (8 mm) ball white clays
YELLOW: 1â„4" (6.4 mm) ball cadmium yellow + 1â„4" (6.4 mm) ball white clays
PURPLE: 3/16" (4.7 mm) ball purple + 1/8" (3.2 mm) ball cadmium red + 1â„4" (6.4 mm) ball white clays
For even more variety, try other popular phrases: “love you,†“hug me,†“be mine,†“so fine,†and “maybe.†You can also create your own messages, but be prepared to break out the texting skills; any word should be five let- ters or less to fit, and for authenticity be writ- ten in all capital letters. -
13
To Make a Candy Heart Bracelet
1. Create six hearts, one in each color. Wrap a 3mm opaque pink accent bead above each heart, and leave the top loop open (see page 36).
2. Individually attach each charm onto a silver bracelet chain, spacing each charm so there is just less than 1" (2.5 cm) between each heart for a 7" (17.8 cm) bracelet.
Comments
Recent Favorites
