DIY Polymer Clay Bows
Polymer Clay Bows are so simple and fun to make. Here is a tutorial.
You will need: Polymer Clay, an old chopping board or plastic mat to work on, a cutting implement, a glass jar or old rolling pin, polymer clay gloss, an oven
1. Spilt your clay in half.
2. Roll into balls.
3. Roll out the balls of clay into sausages.
4. Flatten out with rolling pin or glass jar.
5. Neaten up edges of clay.
6. Pinch two on the end corners together and bring into the centre.
7. Repeat with other end of clay – you may need to trim some of the clay off so that they sit close together.
8. Trim around the clay to leave a bow shape.
9. Make two sausages a little smaller than the bows. Flatten them out into ovals with rolling pin.
10. Place bows onto the top of the ovals. Cut out a triangle shape in centre.
11. Get two smaller balls of clay and flatten out as pictured.
12. Wrap this length of clay around the centre of bow. Trim as necessary.
13. Place bows onto baking sheet. Bake to packet instructions (I baked this sized bow at 130oC/275oF for 25mins).
14. Allow the bows to cool slightly. Apply a polymer clay gloss for a shiny finish.
Polymer clay is available at most craft stores and art supply shops. It’s usually about $4 a packet. I used one and a half packets for these. You could make these bows into anything! Earrings, necklace pendants, charms, rings, brooches, belt buckles, hair clips or handbag clips as a few suggestions. I’ve already done most of these!
I made today’s bows into shoe-clips. I purchased the shoe-clip findings off ebay (they were very cheap) and used a glue gun to attach them. I glued felt between the finding and the bow to help strengthen the bond.
Here is a tutorial off youtube too. This is where I first got the inspiration to make polymer clay bows. This is great to watch as it demonstrates how easy and quick bows are to make!
Updated Note: I originally made these bows using nail polish as a gloss and have had comments since warning me that the polish can eat away at the clay over time. Although this is yet to be my experience it does sound like this happens to a lot of people (perhaps it’s dependant on the specific formulation of the polish?) so if you’re worried about it I’d recommend sticking to the polymer clay glosses instead – especially if you are making them to sell or gift.
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This is a great tutorial that I will definitely use. But one thing I want to point out: It’s a really bad idea to use nail polish on polymer clay. That stuff will degrade over time and become sticky :( Look it up online and you will find tons of testimonials on it.
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Hi Victoria – Thanks so much for your comment. I was actually warned about using nail polish a while back by previous readers too. I added that updated note about the polish at the bottom of the post but looking at it now perhaps it’s not clear enough. I’ll have a go at making it a bit clearer now. I’ve been using nail polish myself for over two years now and had no problems yet so maybe it depends on the type of polish used too. Thanks for the feedback and thanks for stopping by :)
Polymer Clay Shoe Clips – Polymer Clay
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[…] get clever ideas about what to build with their clay. This tutorial, for shoe clips, just goes to show that you really can make all sorts of useful stuff with polymer […]