Garden of Love Pendant using Swarovski Ceralun Clay

Lots of time at home has had me investing more time in my backyard, trying to create some beauty around me by pulling weeds and planting seeds (in fact I planted broccoli and dahlias right before I started this project), and I figured that creating a garden with Ceralun clay would also be a rewarding and fun project for a Friday.

I’ll be honest, no matter how many times I’ve worked with various mediums for jewelry-making, I still get nervous and try to double-check each step as I go, but this is an incredibly easy, versatile and fun clay to use! If you’ve ever thought you’d like to try it but are worried that you will mess it up, get rid of those negative thoughts because as long as you follow each step, thoroughly clean your bezel with alcohol, and thoroughly mix the clay, working with Ceralun is going to be really exciting, and I can almost guarantee you will start getting inspired for all kinds of other projects you can do with this clay.

~It’s easy to work with and easy to blend.

~Using fingers or tools you can create a smooth or textured surface.

~Ceralun clay will stick to metal, glass, crystal, plastic, rubber, wood, cork and porcelain, and can even be used as an adhesive substitute.

~Required pot/work time is 3 hrs for Ceralun & it will harden within 72 hours at room temperature (adhesion will stop after 2hrs). Store any unused, mixed clay (resin + hardener) in a ball, inside a sealed baggie, in the freezer for up to 24 hours at -20C (-4F), just remove any condensed water and let clay defrost before using. Store leftover NON-mixed clay (separate resin and separate hardener) also, in sealed plastic bags at room temp for up to 1yr for future use.

~We carry a variety of Ceralun colors that can be used on their own or rolled and mixed with other colors (see: https://blog.rings-things.com/2018/11/constellation-jewelry-using-ceralun-clay)

~Ceralun is self-curing and doesn’t require a kiln, oven or special equipment for firing!

What supplies will you need?

• 1 – Amate Studios 51mm heart bezel 46-814-512-3
• 1 – Pearl Silk Swarovski Ceralun clay 82-210-20-294
• An assortment of glass flower beads, designer’s choice! I used a flower and 3 leaves from the variety of beautiful choices from Raven’s Journey, available in Rings & Things Showroom.
• 7 – Antique copper fluted hogan beads, 3mm 26-453-7
• 5 – Swarovski 4mm bicones in Montana 05-328-04-26
• 1 – Hand-dyed silk ribbon in Spring Fling 61-479-18
• 1 – Decorative 6x15mm tube to accent the bezel. I used one from my supplies but some excellent choices are 24-451-11-5 or 24-451-06-5
• 2-3 small plastic bags for storing leftover mixed or unmixed clay 63-335
• 1 – X-Acto or Hobby Knife for cutting Ceralun amounts (or small scissors but X-Acto is a cleaner cut, and only one blade to clean afterwards) 66-021
• 1 – set of tweezers 65-040
• 1 – set of latex or nitrile gloves and a sealable plastic container.
• An assortment of metal or plastic handles: paintbrush/ burnishing tool/ cup bur for rolling/ smoothing/ texturizing Ceralun surface.

Start by prepping your work area. I usually like to work on a clean piece of mat board or plastic placemat. Clean your bezel and any tools that might touch the Ceralun, with alcohol wipes, to ensure smooth adhesion of the clay to the bezel and to prevent any errant oil, dirt or residue from bonding to the clay as it cures. After laying out your freshly wiped tools & supplies, wash your hands and put on your fancy gloves. You’ll notice in the picture above that I also have a deck of playing cards — this is for giving an even surface to lay down the bezel for planning your layout; its just the right height to accommodate the loop. The deck can then be used later to play a celebratory game of cards for making a pretty Ceralun clay project!

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Now you are ready to open your Ceralun pack and one at a time, cut a .35″ section of each (about the width of the wide/base end of an X-Acto knife blade). If you have a jeweler’s scale, you can weigh each section to ensure equal amounts of resin and hardener, but this isn’t necessary — just ensure that the amount you’ve cut off of each piece of clay is .35″ (sufficient clay to fill a 51mm bezel with room to accommodate beads pressed into it) and take care to ensure that the amounts look equal in length and width. Next comes the fun part so sit back in your studio chair with some good tunes playing!

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Start by pressing the clay pieces together. Mush them…press them…roll them together between your palms….fold the roll in half and roll it again. Use enthusiasm and vigor…pretend you are hatching a magnificent plan and rub those hands together until the clay is thoroughly mixed. You can see in the pics that you’ll start out with two very distinct colors of the white resin and gold hardener (for Pearl Silk color) but you will know you are done when these have combined well enough where you have shaped, rolled and mixed the pieces into one uniform, color (see last picture). You are now ready to press the solid color of clay into your bezel.

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Firmly press your small ball of clay into the bezel, starting on one side and pressing/kneading the clay over into the other side. After you have evenly pressed the clay into your bezel, I recommend holding the bezel at eye-level to ensure that the surface looks as uniform from all sides as it does looking at it head on. If you have a little bit of clay spilling over the sides of the bezel, this is ok to leave alone for right now because when you press the beads in, there will be a little more “pushout”and you can clean your edges once everything is in place. The amount of clay I specified is for a rounded surface, if you want a flat surface for your beads, use your plastic or metal paintbrush handle/tube/burnishing tool to roll across the surface and cut away excess clay and remember to store in a plastic bag (this is mixed clay that’s been added to the hardener so this is the clay that must be used within 24hrs and stored in the freezer until you’re ready to use again for another project — your remaining separate resin and hardener can be stored separately in plastic and will last for up to 1yr). Now you are ready to press in your beads or elements with tweezers.

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Gently place each flower/bead/crystal with your tweezers, starting with the large flower (or the largest bead in your own design), to provide a visual anchor for judging space and placement. Once you are confident with an individual beads’ placement, spread the tweezers by a hair (or about 1mm), to press slowly and firmly until the center drilled holes are submerged or until a non-drilled piece is half submerged in the clay. Once your design is complete, then you can use your X-Acto knife (or one of your scissor blades if you’re using scissors), to cut away excess clay. Laying the blade down flush with the surface of the bezel, you can also gently push/press the clay away from the edge to reveal all of the bezel edges from the clay and give the perimeter of your pendant, a cleaner, polished look. At this point you can leave the surface smooth or textured. I took the end of my plastic paintbrush and pressed softly into all of the exposed areas of clay, to give it a subtle, textured/dappled look.

Let your finished, well-placed design cure in your clean plastic container for 72hrs. Why a plastic container? Because it will keep dust from the air, lint, pet hair and other things drifting in the air, from landing on top of and adhering to your pendant. To keep people out of it and let your pendant have undisturbed curing time, I recommend putting it up on a shelf or away from house traffic. A big piece of red tape across the top that says “DONT TOUCH MY SANDWICH” might work too.

Once your pendant has fully cured, feel free to touch it, admire it and thread the loop of the pendant onto the length of hand-dyed silk. When the pendant is exactly in the middle of the silk, you can thread the decorative tube over both ends of the silk and….ta da! You now have a tiny little garden that you can carry with you, to spread beauty wherever you go.

Enjoy your blooms,

Megan H