Keep your clay from sticking to the dowel by first covering the dowel in foil.
Make your own hollow clay beads for jewelry or craft projects in the comfort of your kitchen and with materials you already have on hand, plus the conditioned polymer clay. Make several batches of beads at once, and organize your dried beads on strands by color and size. Roll out pasta machine-flattened clay over raised molds to create textured, patterned beads. For a shiny finish instead of matte, cover your completed beads with a coat of polyurethane.
Instructions
1. Roll your wooden dowel into your foil piece, stopping with a ½-inch of the foil’s edge remaining. Line this edge with glue, and then continue rolling. Wipe off any glue oozing out from the edge.
2. Send the clay through your pasta machine. Lay it out over a piece of parchment paper. Cut out a long, thin strip of clay from one edge. Wrap it around the dowel. Cut off the excess left on the strip once you’ve completely encircled the dowel; now you know how long to make your bead strips.
3. Cut out enough bead strips to this length to make as many beads as you need; the width of the strips is up to you. Wrap the strips around the dowel. Lightly roll the dowel to smooth the strips and strengthen their seams.
4. Preheat the oven to the heat mentioned in your clay’s included directions. Balance your dowel over the edges of the shorter side of your baking dish. Bake your clay as long as instructed by your clay’s directions.
5. Pull the beads off the dowel. Paint the beads with acrylic paint to finish your hollow bead project.
