How to make polymer clay jhumkis or jhumkas with swirls

It took me a long time to realise that paper quilling is big in India! So popular, that the Paper Quill Jhumkis stays on top of the star list among all my blog posts.

Interestingly, it was my friend Sankgetha Sripathy who is known best for her terracotta jewellery on Smudgy Trove Facebook page, who painstakingly pictured the process and sent to me. This time, she came up with a short tutorial on polymer clay jhumkis. 

Classic jhumkis or jhumkas are all-time favourites with some. Of late though, it looks like they're seeing a resurgence with fresh design experiments. I prefer the earthy clay over polymer any day. But the medium offers its own options for creativity. Crafters have umpteen methods to come up with polymer masterpieces in jewellery.


Am pasting here what Sankgetha tried with the polymer clay she has.

I love the yellow design on this jhumki, with its swirl pattern that sways between a rose effect and marble effect.  I googled polymer jhumkis and found that while jhumkis get made a lot with moulds, using such marble effects for a traditional form of jewelry is not so common. For the how to of this, read on.

Here are the materials she lists:

working board or tile

roller to roll the clay

three types of clay - she uses Sculpey brand clay packs, and a bit of base clay 

    in any colour for a ball (here she used white - the smallest of clay balls in the pic above)

a circle shaped cookie cutter

pasta machine or clay kneading machine

eye pin

Nichrome wire (scroll down to see picture)

pliers - nose plier and one to cut the wire

a thick plastic sheet to place over your table for cleanliness

a potter's tool or scoop (see later pics for reference) would be handy too

For a start, pick your clay sheets from the Sculpey pack.

Soften them using the pasta machine or clay kneading machine.

If you do not have a pasta machine at home, you could use your dough roller or chapati roller. Another option according to Sankgetha, is to knead it with your hands, using some baby oil.

The rolled clay needs to be cut into square shapes by cutting off the uneven edges.

 

You then need to stack the squares or rectangles one over the other. Roll this stack, to make the sheets stick, and also to make it thinner. And now roll the whole stack into a cylindrical shape, the way you would roll semi-solid dough to make spring rolls.

Once this becomes a tube, you will need to slice it. If you wish to understand this better, here is a Youtube video for your reference: How to make polymer jewelry

This is a picture of the rolled stack, you need to tighten a bit so that the layers stick better. Slice them, and you get these spiral cuts like below. You then need to pick up the base clay ball now.

Here it is the small white clay ball that she used. Check the second picture in the post.

And then, stick the spirals on to it.

To blend the swirls on to the ball, roll this between your palms. The balls will look like this:

Aren't the balls gorgeous? They look like delicately made chocolate! Am so tempted to have them!

The next step, is to cut these balls. Not in half, but make sure you have two thirds on one side and one third on the other.

This is how they look after you cut through them. Scoop out the white using a potter's tool, or a tiny scoop if you have one. Leave just a little layer - a layer that holds the swirl design topping.

Now, you make fix an eye pin through the center of this tiny cup. Before that, do add another small ball of the swirl design on top of the cup so that the eye pin stays firm. To get familiar with how it is done, you could check Sankgetha's previous post on paper quill jhumkis where she has explained it.

Pick up some green clay now, or an accented coloured clay, and roll many tiny beads from it.

Now is when the nichrome wire comes into picture.

``I use nichrome wire as it does not burn when I bake the clay jewelry,'' says Sankgetha.

Nichrome wire is commonly made of nickel, chromium, often iron and is usually used as a resistance wire. It is used in clay sculptures and other clay work, to hold the pieces together. It can be fired in the kiln, and withstand high temperatures.

Measure about half an inch, lesser or more, depending on how comfortable it is for you.

And cut it.

Insert the bits into the jhumki  base edge and then fix the tiny clay balls on top of each of the bits. The tiny balls work as an extension of the jhumki design.

Notice the protruding nichrome bit against the index finger, in the picture below.

This is how they need to look after you have inserted them on to the bits.

This is how the jhumkis will look after you have finished with the base.

The next step is to bake them. Each brand of polymer clay requires different temperatures and time to bake them in.

This is how a home-based clay oven looks like. Clay jewellery makers cannot live without it.

In this case, she fired them between 20-30 minutes in the home kin.

And then, fixed the fish hooks.

And the exquisite piece of Indian design jewellery is ready! A mish-mash of traditional and modern. Conventional jewelry with a modern twist! Whatever you'd call it.

Optionally, you can glaze this piece with a few coats of clay glaze for a shine.

``I wanted it in this finish, which is why I did not use the clay glaze,'' says Sankgetha Sripathy.

Go ahead then, try your hand at this. And share pictures of your wonderful effort.



Picture courtesy: Smudgy Trove

Content, thanks to Sankgetha Sripathy.

For permission to use pictures, write to: radicreative@gmail.com

Drop in your queries and comments, and I will forward them to Sankgetha.