How to DIY Cute Polymer Clay Earrings
In this tutorial I will show you how to make cute polymer clay earrings with a Hibiscus and banana leaf pattern.
These tropical flower earrings are colorful and eye-catching, and you just might want to make several pairs.
Tools and materials:
- Polymer clay in various colors
- Pasta machine or rolling pin
- Rubbing alcohol
- Acetone
- Pastel paint
- Varnish
- Craft brush
- Cutting tool
- Oven
1. Make the earring slab background
Start by rolling out some dark blue polymer clay.
2. Make banana leaves
Roll out a strip of green polymer clay, using your pasta machine, if you have one, on the thinnest setting.
Use an Exacto knife to cut out a small elongated leaf shape from the green clay.
Now, cut out small notches from the sides of the leaf to make that jagged banana leaf effect.
Place your banana leaf onto your blue earring background slab.
For the leaf stem, roll out a long skinny rope of green polymer clay and place it down the middle of the banana leaf.
Leave a bit hanging below the leaf and cut off any excess stem.
Repeat until the whole slab is covered in banana leaves, positioning them at different angles, with some extending off the slab.
3. Blend clay for flower petals
I chose to make Hibiscus flowers in three colors: Yellow, dark pink and light pink. From these colors, I will make a polymer clay blend that looks like a real Hibiscus flower.
Roll some light pink and yellow polymer clay into small balls.
Roll two different colored balls into elongated teardrop shapes, one slightly thicker than the other.
Press the two teardrops together in opposite directions.
Roll them gently so the surface is flat.
Fold the clay in half, and push the sides in a bit.
Run the folded clay through your pasta machine on the thinnest setting.
4. Make Hibiscus flower petals
Cut small petals from the blended clay strip, making sure that you get both colors in each petal. The yellow clay should be the top of your petals.
To give your petals a better shape and little curl, place the petal on a soft sponge, then use a small ball tool to stretch the sides out and push the center in.
Here is a beautifully shaped Hibiscus petal for your earrings.
To give the petal more texture, use a needle tool to score small lines through the leaf, starting at the bottom.
You can fold in the edge of the leaf in a few places, for even more texture.
Repeat until you have five Hibiscus flower petals.
Place your five leaves onto your slab to create a Hibiscus flower.
Gently press the center to hold the leaves together.
To create the pistil of the flower, roll some yellow polymer clay into a thin rope.
Then, place three tiny dark pink polymer clay balls onto the rope.
Place the pistil in the center of the flower.
Repeat making Hibiscus flowers, using different polymer clay combinations for the petal blends. Arrange the flowers on your slab.
Place some small white polymer clay dots in the empty spaces between your flowers.
To add depth to the flowers, once they are all placed onto the slab, brush some soft red pastel paint onto the middle of the flowers, around the end of the pistil.
Here is my final slab, ready to make into earrings.
5. Cut and assemble your earrings
Use cookie cutters or 3D cutters to cut out the shapes you want for your earrings from the slab.
Use rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab to clean off the earring surface.
Use solid colored polymer clay to cut out smaller earring components.
Add holes to the components that will be attached to each other and cure all the polymer clay pieces in the oven, with a tinfoil cover on top, at 275 degrees Fahrenheit for about one hour.
Clean each piece with 100% acetone, and sand the edges smooth.
Use superglue to cover the back of each earring component with gray clay, and to attach the earring posts.
Then cure them again in the oven for an additional 30 minutes.
Drill all your earring pieces as necessary and varnish just the flowers.
Assemble your earrings, and you’re all done!
Cute polymer clay earrings
Although I spent about four hours making all the flowers for my slab, it was totally worth it for these super-cute Hibiscus polymer clay earrings in so many different shapes!
If this tutorial inspired you to make some polymer clay flower earrings, please leave a comment to let me know how they turned out.
The author may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.
Comments
Join the conversation
Wow, wow, wow! These are beautiful and you are SO talented. Thank you for sharing your creativity.