How to Make Patriotic Beads- a Picture Turtorial!

So when Sarah (the Clay Rosary Girl) left my house, I just couldn't stop making beads! So I made a bunch of red, white, and blue ones. They are a lot of fun to make because they have such high contrast, and they're really cheery! Once you make them, you can use them for religious necklaces, bracelets, rosaries- whatever! (I did not make the letter beads.)

I used Sculpey for making mine, although any polymer clay will work. You can get sculpey at any craft store- in fact I think you can get it at Wal-Mart! It's great for kids and adults! But use a cutting board for working because it will ruin your finish. I seriously don't care about my table- I have already ruined it with past crafts. Lol! So here's my picture tutorial on making your own patriotic beads.

Making Star Shaped Polymer Clay Beads:
1. Take some white clay and make 5 triagular "prism" shapes by pinching with your thumb and first finger while "smooshing" the clay against the table for the 3rd side. Also, make one fatter round coil.

 2. Arrange the prisms around the coil as evenly spaced as possible, and stick them on firmly. Then trim off the edges to make all the ends even.

3. Make 5 more long triangluar prisms with some blue clay, and fit them in between the spikes of the star pointing inward.

 4. Make a nice big flat pancake with some more blue clay by rolling it out, and wrap your star cane inside.

 5. Trim the edges to make everything even again.

 6. Roll the cane with your hand until it is the desired size for your bead. Be sure to do this slowly and evenly so you don't distort your shape too much.

 7. Slice it into beads about 1/4 inch thick.

 8. Put holes through your beads using a paper clip, or whatever you want.

 9. Bake according to package directions.

Making Patriotic Stripes Beads:
1. Roll out your red and white clay.

 2. Stack the clay and trim the edges to make them both the same size of rectangle. Cut this in half and stack it on top of each other again. Then slice it four times.

 3. Rearrange the four pieces into your desired design.

 4. Press the cane smaller into a square rather than rolling it into a tube. You can also flatten it with your fingers and keep flipping it on different sides as you go. Finish up as you did with your star beads.

Here's a patriotic "jelly roll" bead. I just stacked red white and blue, then rolled it jelly roll style! Use your hand to roll it out to your desired bead size.

Here's a variation on the stripes to make a little flag. Just rearrange your stripes differently, then add a blue square to the corner. Roll it out as you do with square beads.

When you bake them, try not to burn them. Unless you want a really cool "antiqued" look. That's what I did. Burnt them on purpose. *eyes shifting*. Ya. Purpose.... (Ok, I've only ever claimed to be an artist, not a chef!)

They did come out kind of cool.

Use them to string whatever you want! 

We made a "God Bless America" necklace:

"In God We Trust" bracelet:

Yes, I even made a rosary!

To make the round beads that I used for the "Our Father's", just slice the beads off the cane really thin. Then make a ball with your clay, and stick the thin slices of bead on all the way around. Next just roll it gently in your hands again until it is smooth!

Hope you guys have as much fun with this as I have! Be careful- making beads is totally addictive! ;-)

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