Tutorial on Making Metal Beads
You can make metal beads at home for customized jewelry to wear and to give to friends and family as personalized gifts. The bead-making process is simple but does require that you have a kiln at home or have access to a ceramic store with a kiln firing service. While children can have fun stringing the completed beads to make jewelry of their own, as a safety precaution, adults should be responsible for making the beads.
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Things You'll Need
- Precious metal clay (24-karat gold)
- Thin scrap cardboard
- Mesh fabric
- Rolling pin
- Olive oil
- 1/4-inch wooden dowel
- Paintbrush or comb
- Sharp craft knife
- Kiln
- Sandpaper
- 2 Jars
Instructions
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1
Lay two thin pieces of cardboard spaced approximately three inches apart on a flat surface. Place the five-ounce piece of 24-karat gold metal clay in between the two pieces of cardboard.
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2
Smooth a teaspoon of olive oil onto your rolling pin and rub a little bit extra onto the 3-inch-square piece of mesh cloth. This is to prevent the metal clay from sticking to either item.
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3
Place the mesh square centered on top of the ball of metal clay and use the rolling pin to flatten the clay to approximately 1/8 inch in thickness.
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4
Remove the mesh from the metal clay. Use a sharp craft knife to cut a rectangle that measures approximately 1-inch by 1 1/4-inches. Make sure you cut along an indentation line left by the mesh square and not through any of the square imprints.
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5
Rub a very small amount of olive oil onto the 1/4-inch wooden dowel and wrap the rectangle around the wooden dowel. Use a sharp knife to carefully cut off any excess clay and then press the ends around the dowel together with the end of a slim comb or paintbrush. You can use any excess left over from the clay rectangle to make another metal bead.
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6
Place the ends of the wooden dowel over two jars to keep the metal clay from becoming flat on one side while it dries.
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7
Allow the metal clay 24 hours to dry and then use fine sandpaper to sand away any imperfections on the surface or ends of the bead.
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8
Fire the beads at 1650 degrees Fahrenheit in a kiln for approximately two hours. Remove the beads from the kiln and polish them to a shiny finish. If you do not have a kiln at home, look for ceramic craft stores in your area that offer a firing service.
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Tips & Warnings
You can also make beads from a silver clay, but the clay composition will shrink between 10 and 30 percent when firing in the kiln.
You can roll the metal clay, using a material with different patterns for different types of beads.
