Before you get too excited, this is not a tutorial. This is a tutorial flop. Or as I like to call it, The Clay Necklace That Could.
This project started with great potential & enthusiasm. Isn’t that how it goes with most new projects?
I was determined to make this necklace:
read the tutorial here via A Beautiful Mess
Cute, right? I wanted to make a few of them as gifts this year.
While Eden was at a birthday party a few weeks ago, I headed to a nearby Hobby Lobby and gathered all my supplies.
The next day I set aside some time to make the necklace. Everything was going great until I grabbed my carving tool & tried to carve the geometric shapes into the hardened clay. Um, I was expecting it to be a little softer. Silly Caroline. It was baked clay. But as I told you before, I was determined. My enthusiasm still in tact.
I sat at our dining room table & carved those little suckers for over an hour. Maybe longer. I lost count. My butt was numb & I developed a blister on my right middle finger & almost threw it all in the trash when my x-acto knife slipped through my fingers & I cut through the chain! The enthusiasm was gone. But I had to finish. I wasn’t going to quit.
And my end result:
Yep. Almost looks like our carrot crop that we harvested last week.
Maybe I should have just poked holes through our carrots, painted them with metallic paint & strung them through the necklace string? Hmm. What do you think?
Oh, and my necklaces were HEAVY. Probably a few pounds. I was somewhat defeated but still about 75% determined to make something work & I had all this extra clay…so…
Scratch that project & onto ROUND TWO!
After a few Pinterest searches, my enthusiasm returned & I just knew that I could make something like this:
Roll the clay. Poke holes through them with a toothpick. Bake them. Put 2 coats of paint on them. Let them dry. String them. Gift them. Wear them. Toss them on the ground & let your cats play with them. Victory!
The point of all of this was to try something new. Sometimes you need to learn something new, work hard at it, fail, do it again but better & then you will know whether or not you want to continue.
The Clay Necklace that Could.
ellen says
i’m so glad you gave those necklaces another go. i love the second incarnation, especially the squarish bead with the design! and i miss you.
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Caroline TeSelle says
miss you too!
Tracey says
I like your version better than the original!
Caroline TeSelle says
thanks Tracey!
Reeve says
I love how they turned out! And just like Ellen said, especially the gold and white one…so pretty!
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Caroline TeSelle says
if we lived closer, these would be so fun to make for a craft day!
Dana at Happy Little Lovelies says
Oh, I love them! That looked crazy hard. Good job!!!
Caroline TeSelle says
thanks Dana!