Polymer Clay Daily

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Extruded string beads

Since several people have inquired about extruded string beads lately, it must be time to feature them again.

As luck would have it, the link to Vera Kleist’s “rough cut” extruded bead necklace came to me today via Lindly Haunani.

And Annerose Doering had just emailed me the address for Dominique Franceschi’s tutorial (from 2006) for the technique.

Annerose prefers a smooth finish on hers. She says, “Before I smooth the clay around the scrap base bead, I let the beads rest for a few hours so that they are not too soft. This helps to get clearer lines. I let them rest again before I pierce them.”

The basic material for these colorful, chaotic beads is dry, old clay and most of us have that readily available.

  • reply Norma ,

    Thanks for the post. I checked the tutorial. So simple and yet so amazing results. Isn’t polymer clay magnificent?

    • reply Sarah ,

      Very intriguing! Upon zooming in to Vera’s beads on Flickr, it looks like each bead is a combination of about 7 slices! Wow! It’s more complex than it seems at 1st glance. Nice job!

      • reply NanjoDogz ,

        Very cool look — love polymer clay — you can get so many different looks from it.

        • reply Vera Kleist ,

          Thank you Cynthia and Lindly! I have to say, that the inspiration for this beads came from Margit Böhmer and Judy Dunn.

          • reply Margit Böhmer ,

            • reply JeannieK ,

              I’m curious what kind of extruder Dominique used.
              Those beads are the kind of beads I have attempted many times, but my extruder is so hard to use it doesn’t even extrude the clay.

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