Calling Crafty Types...

wigglebeena

Hallo guys,

I am taking up jewellery making as a hobby (well, I've bought some materials and I like looking through the books on it I have!) I would love to make beads with polymer clay - but it's bloomin' expensive!

Anybody know either a) a cheap supplier (not wholesale, I wouldn't qualify) or b) a homemade substitute or website with same?

kittiwoz

Fred Aldous is a very good art shop and I think quite reasonable generally but I don't know how it compares for polymer clay.

Whether you can use a homemade substitute probably depends on the effect you want. If you intend to paint the beads afterwards maybe you could use salt dough or play dough but both are very brittle. Maybe they would be OK if you used lots of coats of PVA which is tough to varnish them. You can make beads by rolling balls of aluminium foil, covering with papier mache pulp and piercing, once dry, with a needle. I wouldn't expect to get them perfectly round though. You can also make beads by cutting long, traingular strips of paper and rolling them round a drinking straw using a glue stick or PVA to stick the paper down.

I have a book called Beads, Bangles and Bracelets by Ray Gibson and published by Usborne. It is aimed at children but I think is a very good book with some really interesting ideas and clear instructions and because it is aimed at children it is very much to do with making things cheaply from scraps and household materials. I think it is well worth getting it out of the library.