What you should know

What You Should Know... about "How to Make a Bead in 85 Easy Steps"

~ This tutorial was created for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to offer a tutorial for making a bead in polymer clay that covered all aspects of design, including making the cane(s). Second, I wanted to offer non-polymer clay folks a chance to see exactly how much is involved in designing and creating a single bead. And third, I wanted to offer a tutorial that offered lots of pictures (85 to be exact!) in order to give the beginner more than a worded description.

~ Difficulty Level:

This tutorial was designed for the Beginner or Intermediate. If the Beginner has a basic understanding of conditioning, color mixing, and simple canes such as the Bull's Eye, they should have no problems following along. This tutorial should offer a new cane design for the Intermediate. And the Advanced clayer may be able to apply principles provided in this tutorial to their own cane work. Also, the Tutorial Index may be of help in selecting a specific Part of interest.

~ The cane in this tutorial was made up as I went along. In retrospect, I probably would not have used pearl clays in the design. I think non-pearl colors would offer more clarity and a cleaner, crisper look.

~ I used my chopping blade for all of the slicing in this tutorial; however, a sharp tissue blade (such as a Nu-Blade or Sculpey Super Slicer) is recommended for getting clean, straight cuts.

~ There are some optional steps in this tutorial. Steps 17 and 18 should be skipped as the quartering of that Bull's Eye was done for another cane for which I have not written the tutorial yet.

~ Yes, that is clay under my fingernail in some of the pics! :-D

~ Finally, if you have any questions or comments regarding this tutorial, please feel free to email me at tokensbeads@hotmail.com If you try this tutorial and are able to get any results with it, or if you are able to tweak the cane in new and unusual ways, I'd love to see the results - so please don't hesitate to share them!

~ Happy Claying!

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