Sweetheart Necklace and Earrings

By: Berta Gilholm from Birdies Crochet and Craft

Use clay to create the perfect jewelry set for February 14th. This Valentine craft involves sculpting hearts for a necklace and matching pair of earrings. You can choose your own stone or gem for the pendant. This is such a simple and fun gift to make. You could even add a name to the heart pendant to make it more meaningful. This is a sweet and charming way to show your mom, sister, or friend how much you care. What better way to show the love on Valentine's Day than with something you made with your own two hands?

Materials:

Cord
Bead glue in tube
Straight Kidney Earwire-2 (silver or gold)
Fishing swivel-smallest size available (buy in hardware store)
Hook and Eye-14.5 x 6mm
Eyepin (silver or gold)- 1 ½” long
Stone or gem, approx. 1/8” oval/flat back (I used hemalyke)
Creamcoat enamel glaze-clear/air dry
(1) ½” x ¾” chunk Sculpey III oven bake clay for the pendant
(2) ½” x ¼” chunk Sculpey III oven bake clay for earrings
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.