DIY Clay Earring-Making Kit

WELCOME to your digital written instructions. Please note your VIDEO instructions will have been sent separately to the email address that was provided at the checkout with a link to view your chosen DIY earring-making session.

1. Conditioning - Knead your clay colours until they are soft. Condition each colour separately, washing your hands in-between conditioning each colour to avoid colour transfer. Some colours can be more stubborn than others and could take up to 10 minutes to condition. The clay is ready to use once the clay is no longer cracking. The clay should be soft but not sticky. If your clay is sticky, this means it has been over conditioned (leave in a cool please for 10 minutes before using). Please make sure to keep clay out of direct sunlight before baking.

2. Create your Pattern - Please scroll down to the pattern section for instructions on how to create your leopard print, ombre or marble pattern slab.

3. Cutting - Once you have finished creating your pattern, cut your earring shapes out using your two chosen cutters. Make sure to push your cutter down slowly to avoid cracks around the edges. Use a little oil on your cutter to help with this process if you are struggling but remember to pat it off afterwards with a piece of paper. Once you have cut your shapes we can now removed the excess clay around them. Use your finger to pull up the excess clay or use the earring post to help you get in-between smaller spaces. If you are finding it hard to remove all of the excess clay, you can leave it to bake with your earrings to avoid damaging the shapes you have already cut. If you do manage to remove your excess clay, keep this clay and reuse at a later date.

4. Bake - Bake your pieces at the top of your oven for 45 minutes at 120° Celsius. It is perfectly safe to bake your earrings on the tile that was provided in your kit so please do not try to remove your earrings from this tile as it will mis-shape them. Once baked, leave to sit in the oven for 20 minutes with the oven door open before touching your tile or clay pieces.

5. Sand - Once cool, remove your clay pieces from your tile ready for sanding. You should be able to pop these off with your fingers. Dip your clay piece along with the sandpaper in a small bowl of water and proceed to sand around the edges until they are smooth. You DO NOT need to sand the top or bottom of your clay piece. Repeat this process for each clay piece.

6. Varnish - Dry your clay pieces off using a piece of kitchen roll. Clean your tile and place the baked clay pieces back onto the tile. Use your paint brush to apply a thin layer of gloss varnish. You can repeat this process as many times as you like if you require a higher gloss finish. Be careful not to put too much varnish onto your brush at one time to avoid it running down the side of the clay piece. The aim is to make sure the top of the earring is covered, don't worry too much about the sides of the earring. This could take 30 minutes to 1 hour to dry.

7. Glue - Once dry, glue the earring posts onto the back of your earrings. Leave to set for at least 8 hours.

8. Assemble - Once dry, we are now ready to assemble the earrings. Pop your butterfly backs onto your earring posts and you are READY TO GO!

 1. Conditioning - Knead your clay colours until they are soft. Condition each colour separately, washing your hands in-between conditioning each colour to avoid colour transfer. Some colours can be more stubborn than others and could take up to 10 minutes to condition. The clay is ready to use once the clay is no longer cracking. The clay should be soft but not sticky. If your clay is sticky, this means it has been over conditioned (leave in a cool please for 10 minutes before using). Please make sure to keep clay out of direct sunlight before baking.

2. Create your Pattern - Please scroll down to the pattern section for instructions on how to create your leopard print, ombre or marble pattern slab.

3. Cutting - Once you have finished creating your pattern, cut your earring shapes out using your two chosen cutters. Make sure to push your cutter down slowly to avoid cracks around the edges. Use a little oil on your cutter to help with this process if you are struggling but remember to pat it off afterwards with a piece of paper. Once you have cut your shapes we can now removed the excess clay around them. Use your finger to pull up the excess clay or use the earring post to help you get in-between smaller spaces. If you are finding it hard to remove all of the excess clay, you can leave it to bake with your earrings to avoid damaging the shapes you have already cut. If you do manage to remove your excess clay, keep this clay and reuse at a later date.

4. Bake - Bake your pieces at the top of your oven for 45 minutes at 120° Celsius. It is perfectly safe to bake your earrings on the tile that was provided in your kit so please do not try to remove your earrings from this tile as it will mis-shape them. Once baked, leave to sit in the oven for 20 minutes with the oven door open before touching your tile or clay pieces.

5. Holes - Once cool, remove your clay pieces from your tile ready for the holes. You should be able to pop these off with your fingers. Place your clay pieces back on your tile and use your hand drill to make holes where you require your jump rings to be attached. This is roughly 3mm in from the edge.

6. Sand -  Dip your clay piece along with the sandpaper in a small bowl of water and proceed to sand around the edges until they are smooth. You DO NOT need to sand the top or bottom of your clay piece. Repeat this process for each clay piece.

7. Varnish - Dry your clay pieces off using a piece of kitchen roll. Clean your tile and place the baked clay pieces back onto the tile. Use your paint brush to apply a thin layer of gloss varnish. You can repeat this process as many times as you like if you require a higher gloss finish. Be careful not to put too much varnish onto your brush at one time to avoid it running down the side of the clay piece. The aim is to make sure the top of the earring is covered, don't worry too much about the sides of the earring. This could take 30 minutes to 1 hour to dry.

8. Assemble - Once dry, you are now ready to assemble the earrings. Use your pliers to open one jump ring. Hold with the flat nose plier and twist with the needle nose plier, twist one part of the jump ring away from you to create the opening, slot the jump ring onto your earring piece then twist the jump ring back towards you to close it. You will need two jump rings on each earring, then you can slot the hook onto the top jump ring. If you are finding this section difficult, it may be best to watch the video provided. Repeat this process for each earring and you are READY TO GO! 

1. Conditioning - Knead your clay colours until they are soft. Condition each colour separately, washing your hands in-between conditioning each colour to avoid colour transfer. Some colours can be more stubborn than others and could take up to 10 minutes to condition. The clay is ready to use once the clay is no longer cracking. The clay should be soft but not sticky. If your clay is sticky, this means it has been over conditioned (leave in a cool please for 10 minutes before using). Please make sure to keep clay out of direct sunlight before baking.

2. Create your Pattern - Please scroll down to the pattern section for instructions on how to create your leopard print, ombre or marble pattern slab.

3. Cutting - Once you have finished creating your pattern, cut your earring shapes out using your two chosen cutters. Make sure to push your cutter down slowly to avoid cracks around the edges. Use a little oil on your cutter to help with this process if you are struggling but remember to pat it off afterwards with a piece of paper. Once you have cut your shapes we can now removed the excess clay around them. Use your finger to pull up the excess clay or use the earring post to help you get in-between smaller spaces. If you are finding it hard to remove all of the excess clay, you can leave it to bake with your earrings to avoid damaging the shapes you have already cut. If you do manage to remove your excess clay, keep this clay and reuse at a later date.

4. Bake - Bake your pieces at the top of your oven for 45 minutes at 120° Celsius. It is perfectly safe to bake your earrings on the tile that was provided in your kit so please do not try to remove your earrings from this tile as it will mis-shape them. Once baked, leave to sit in the oven for 20 minutes with the oven door open before touching your tile or clay pieces.

5. Holes - Once cool, remove your clay pieces from your tile ready for the holes. You should be able to pop these off with your fingers. Place your clay pieces back on your tile and use your hand drill to make holes where you require your jump rings to be attached. This is roughly 3mm in from the edge.

6. Sand -  Dip your clay piece along with the sandpaper in a small bowl of water and proceed to sand around the edges until they are smooth. You DO NOT need to sand the top or bottom of your clay piece. Repeat this process for each clay piece.

7. Varnish - Dry your clay pieces off using a piece of kitchen roll. Clean your tile and place the baked clay pieces back onto the tile. Use your paint brush to apply a thin layer of gloss varnish. You can repeat this process as many times as you like if you require a higher gloss finish. Be careful not to put too much varnish onto your brush at one time to avoid it running down the side of the clay piece. The aim is to make sure the top of the earring is covered, don't worry too much about the sides of the earring. This could take 30 minutes to 1 hour to dry.

8. Assemble - Once dry, you are now ready to assemble the earrings. Use your pliers to open one jump ring. Hold with the flat nose plier and twist with the needle nose plier, twist one part of the jump ring away from you to create the opening, slot the jump ring onto your earring piece then twist the jump ring back towards you to close it. You will need two jump rings on each earring. If you are finding this section difficult, it may be best to watch the video provided. Repeat this process for each earring. Once you have two jump rings on each earring, make sure to close them, your hoop charms are now finished. Slot one pair of hoop charms onto your 2cm hoops and you are READY TO GO! 

Patterns

1. Roll the background colour of clay out on your tile using the acrylic roller provided. This should be around 3mm thick. Don't worry if it isn't perfect or is uneven as we will neaten this up at the end. 

2. Pick up the colour you want to use for the middle of your leopard print spots and pull off balls of clay the size of half a pea. These do not need to be perfect balls, the rougher the better and if in doubt go smaller. The smaller the balls, the smaller your leopard print pattern will be. If you have chosen mini size cutters, small spots are best. Place the balls on top of your base clay around 5mm to 1cm apart. The closer the balls, the more crowded your leopard print pattern will be. Try not to place them too close together otherwise, you could risk them merging into one.

3. Place your piece of paper over the top of your slab. Press down with your fingers, flattening the balls slightly before rolling over. Keeping the paper on top of the clay, hold your roller and move it from side to side over the top of your paper to flatten the balls into the slab as much as you can. This motion is more of a hold and move rather than a roll. If you are finding this section difficult, it may be best to watch the video provided.

4. Pull the paper off the top ready for the next stage of our leopard spots. Using your third clay colour pull off pieces of clay, the shape of a grain of rice with your nail or side of your finger. You want these pieces to be roughly a quarter in size compared to the larger spot.

5. Place two to three of these pieces around the outside of your larger spots. These can be touching but they can also have gaps. Try to make each one different to the next for the best results. 

Helpful Tip; use the other end of your paint brush to pick up and place these rice grain shape spots.

6. Place your piece of paper back over the top of your slab with the clean side facing down. Press down with your fingers on the raised shapes to flatten them slightly before rolling over. Keeping the paper on top of the clay, hold your roller and move it from side to side over the top to flatten the rice shapes into the slab as much as you can. This motion is more of a hold and move rather than a roll. If you are finding this section difficult, it may be best to watch the video provided.

7. This is where we need to perfect the slab so it is as even and flat as we can make it with no air bubbles or marks. If you can see some air bubbles in your clay, pop them slightly using your earring post or hand drill, pop the paper back over the top of your clay and flatten in the same way we have previously. Remove your piece of paper when you are happy all of the clay is flat. You are now ready to start cutting.

1. You only need two colours when making an ombre pattern. You can use three colours however, this is harder. Roll your two colours of clay into thin sausages and place them next to each other, make sure they are the same length.

2. Push these two colours together with your hands. Start to roll the clay flat on your tile using the acrylic roller provided. Don't worry if it isn't perfect or is uneven as this is still a work in progress. The thickness of your clay when rolled out should be 5mm max at this point.

3. Slowly pull the clay off the tile, make sure NOT to tear it or leave any clay on it. Fold the clay over, marrying up the centre line then place the clay back on the tile and roll over again. You will need to repeat this process up to 20 times to create the ombre effect. 

Helpful Tip; try to keep the clay in the same sausage shape we started with for a tighter ombre. Ideally, we want the top to bottom of the long slab to be the same length as your largest cutter to be able to get the most out of your ombre.

4. Once you are happy with your ombre, this is where we need to perfect the slab so it is as even and flat as we can make it with no air bubbles or marks. If you can see some air bubbles in your clay, pop them slightly using your earring post or hand drill, pop the paper over the top of your clay and flatten. Hold your roller and move it from side to side over the top of the paper. This motion is more like a hold and move rather than a roll. If you are finding this section difficult, it may be best to watch the video provided. Remove your piece of paper when you are happy all of the clay is flat and even. This should be around 3mm thick. You are now ready to start cutting.

1. Cut your three colours into small chunks the size of a pea using the tool provided.

2. Shuffle the cut up clay pieces with your hands then push together to form one piece of clay.

3. Roll the clay into a thin sausage using your hands, twist the clay, fold over and repeat the process. You may want to do this 3 or 4 times however, you can check how marbled your clay is by cutting it in half and seeing what it looks like in the centre.

4. Once you are happy with the marbling of your clay, cut your clay into slices around 4mm thick.

5. Place the slices next to one another on your tile, pushing them together, leaving no gaps. Start to roll the clay flat on your tile using the acrylic roller provided. Don't worry if it isn't perfect or is uneven just yet.

6. We now need to perfect the slab so it is as even and flat as we can make it with no air bubbles or marks. If you can see some air bubbles in your clay, pop them slightly using your earring post or hand drill, pop the paper over the top of your clay and flatten. Hold your roller and move it from side to side over the top of the paper. This motion is more like a hold and move rather than a roll. If you are finding this section difficult, it may be best to watch the video provided. Remove your piece of paper when you are happy all of the clay is flat and even. This should be around 3mm thick. You are now ready to start cutting.

Thank you and Goodbye

I hope you've enjoyed your DIY earring-making kit! It would be great if you could send me some photos of your finished makes and if you need any help, please don't hesitate to contact me via social media or email. S x