Halloween Cat Earrings {Polymer Clay Tutorial}

Hello dear friends!

I’ve just finished a tutorial on the Halloween theme. This is surely a theme that I particularly like and that is present often in my work.

This is not the first time that I make a Halloween cat cane, but this time I started from the question whether I could make the process even simpler. This was my first attempt to make such a cane. https://learnpolymerclay.blog/2015/10/31/halloween-cat-meow/

And I thought that it would be interesting to make a video tutorial, because the first one is just a photo tutorial from the days when I made only photo tutorials.

Here’s the cat silhouette that I used. Just use the right-click of your mouse to save it and use it in your work. It is free for personal and commercial use.

Here are the process steps:

1. I started by properly conditioning the clay. I used black polymer clay, true yellow polymer clay and Christmas red polymer clay.
2. I mixed a little bit of Christmas red (the red pigment is very strong, so mix just a little bit and then add some more if necessary) with yellow clay (put some yellow clay aside for the eyes of the cat, a tiny bit, not too much).
3. I printed out the cat silhouette. I printed out in several sizes so I would have the possibility to choose the right size and cut it out with scissors.
4. I used a variation of the skinner blend technique to make the background of the piece. I wanted to have a background, mostly orange with just a little bit of yellow on the margins.
5. I put the orange and the yellow through the largest setting of my pasta machine. Then I cut out two rectangles of clay (a large one for the orange clay and a small one for the yellow clay).
6. I used my rigid blade to cut diagonally and ended up with two triangles for each color of clay.
7. I put each triangle of each color one on top of the other.
8. I pressed the resulting double-layered triangles into one another.
9. I then put this sheet of clay through the pasta machine (aligning it to have orange on one side and yellow on the opposite side).
10. I passed it through the pasta machine 12 times.
11. A skinner blend is a technique that allows you to have a perfect gradient from a color to a different color with a very smooth transition between the colors.
12. I wanted a visible transition between these colors that would form some “waves” of colors and I thought this would be a cartoon-like effect.
13. I then folded the sheet of clay from one end to the other end.
14. I would add more yellow to the yellow side and more orange to the orange side to make sure I would a block of clay of the desired size and height.
15. I used my roller to flatten the clay.
16. I cut it in the middle and put it aside.
17. I passed the black clay through the largest setting of my pasta machine.
18. I used three such layers to make a block of clay.
19. I used the cut out silhouette to cut a cat shape using my craft knife.
20. I used the colored halves of clay to create the background. I added one of each side of the cat shape and I decided to add a little block of orange clay (of the same height) on top of the cat as well.
21. I used my hands and my roller to reduce the cane to the desired size.
22. I cut thin slices of clay.
23. I flipped one slice to have a mirror-like effect in the finished earrings.
24. I put some black clay into the pasta machine through the medium setting.
25. I used Lisa Pavelka’s Bloomin’ texture plate to texture the clay. This is going to be the back of the piece.
26. I flipped the clay over and I applied the slices on top. I used the roller to roll them flat.
27. I used a square cutter to cut out the shape.
28. I smoothed off the edged and then I baked the pieces for 45 minutes in the preheated oven at the temperature recommended by the polymer clay manufacturer.
29. I let the clay cool down then I used a fine sanding sponge and warm water with liquid soap to sand a little bit the piece.
30. I then buffered the clay.
31. I used Super Glue and Soutache cord to make a beautiful frame around the pieces. You can use black clay to make such a frame, but you’ll have to think of a way to attach the earring findings.
32. I used earring findings to turn them into earrings.

Of course you can tweak this idea and use any other silhouette. Anyway you’ll end up with beautiful canes that will allow you to make lots and lots of beautiful clay beads and clay components.

I wanted to remind you about the PCA 2020. If you haven’t enrolled yet, I encourage you to do so and to prepare for a year of polymer clay inspiration. 23 clay projects, meaning almost 2 amazing projects each month for the whole year. Yes, the whole year. And more surprises to come.

Just click here to learn more about PCA 2020:

And, for if you enroll before Oct 26th, you could even win a goodie bag and I was told that this year the goodie bags are awesome;)

As always I hope that you’ll take this inspiration and use it in your work with clay!

Happy claying!

Mihaela

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