Faux Turquoise Necklace

You'll never believe that this Faux Turquoise Necklace is made with clay!  Turquoise jewelry is always in style, and these simple DIY secrets are a great way to get the look for much less!  This Faux turquoise necklace shouldn't cost more than $5.00!

Materials:

• Turquoise colored clay
• Tiny bit of black clay
• Finest grade sandpaper
• Soft cloth
• Floor wax (optional)

Instructions:

1. Start with a ball of turquoise colored clay and a tiny bit of black clay, rolled into a super thin rope.
   
   
    
2. Drape a little bit of the black haphazardly around the turquoise. Don’t use too much, a little goes a long way.
   
   
    
3. Then you just manipulate the clay around until the black becomes subtly incorporated (NOT blended in) and some interesting ripply patterns come out. Sculpt the clay into the shape you want your bead.
   
   
    
4. Remember to make a hole for stringing an bake as the package instructs. You could stop here and use the beads you’ve made, or you can go through a few more steps to make something really pretty and finished looking.
   
   
    
5. With the finest grade sandpaper you can get your hands on, give your bead a good sanding. For smaller beads just sand by hand, but with this big pendant I used my palm sander with great results. I used the sander to get rid of any fingerprints I left behind or uneven spots, but I also used it to make facets like you’d see on a cut stone.
   
   
    
6. Sanding leaves a rough texture, so after sanding you have to buff. This basically just involves taking a soft cloth – a scrap of leftover jersey from a sewing project in my case – and rubbing the bead with it. I used my palm sander again to save myself some elbow grease.
    
7. If you’re tempted to skip these steps, check out this before and after. One looks crafty and homemade, the other looks like a bead. What a difference, eh?
   
   
    
8. I wanted a SUPER high gloss shine on these beads, so after consulting with the internet I decided to try floor wax. According to some experts, using anything but Future floor wax will eventually get sticky, but they don’t seem to make Future floor wax anymore, so I’m hoping this is the same stuff. So far, so good. I just rubbed on about a dozen coats, letting it dry between layers. But I was going for SUPER high gloss. One coat will still look great.