How to Create Fimo

Mix clay colors to create original fimo beads.

Fimo beads usually feature a flat, round shape with colorful designs on the front and back. While these beads look as if they're intricately painted, they're actually made from rolling and combining different colors of sculpting clay.

You can use scraps of clay left over from other projects to make colorful fimo beads. You may also carefully plan special pieces of jewelry around fimo designs.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Polymer clay in several colors
• Sharp scalpel
• Rolling pin
• Bamboo skewers
• Metal baking pan

1. Create a design for your fimo beads. Shapes like flowers, stars or marbled beads are the easiest for beginners. Choose the colors to go into your design. You want colors for the main design and another color for the outer layer.

2. Build your design. For a flower, slice a 1/8 inch thick piece of yellow clay, four pieces of pink, red, or white clay for petals and four pieces of green clay for your leaves. Cut a ½-inch slice of clay for your outer layer. Sky blue works well with flowers because it represents the sky.

3. Roll your yellow clay piece into a long, thin cylinder about 1/16 inch thick. Do the same with your petal and leaf pieces.

4. Stretch a petal piece and a leaf piece out next to each other, pinching them gently together. You want them to stick together while still holding their shape. Lay the yellow middle piece on top, forming a long, thin pyramid.

5. Place a leaf piece against your petal piece, and a petal piece against the new leaf piece. Continue until your yellow center is surrounded by leaves and petals and you have a long clay cylinder.

6. Roll your outer layer into a rectangle 1/16 inch thick, as long as your clay cylinder and three times as wide. A cylinder 10 inches long and ¼ inch wide requires an outer layer 10 inches long and ¾ inch wide.

7. Place your clay cylinder on one edge of your outer layer rectangle. Roll the cylinder up the rectangle. Gently roll the whole piece under your palms to smooth the outer layer and meld the inner pieces together.

8. Slice your cylinder into 1/8-inch thick discs. Thread the discs gently onto a bamboo skewer, spacing them about ½ inch apart. Bake the beads according to manufacturer's directions or for about 10 minutes at 325 degrees F.

Tips & Warnings

• Build a star by making the petal color the same as the center color and cutting five petals instead of four. Pinch the top edge of each petal to make your star points before rolling on the outer layer.

• Marble beads by twisting two to four colors together in a rope. Gently mold and roll them between your palms until they fuse and meld into a swirling design.

References

• Wicket How Tos: How to Make Fimo Beads
• Mom Scape: How to Make Fimo Beads

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish