9/30/12

DIY Fang Earrings

Ello! :)
Today I did a tutorial for DIY Fang Earrings. They seem to be in style right now, so I made a pair for myself. Whenever I wear them, everyone wants to know where did I get them and when I say that I made them myself, no one really believes me. :)
I made this tutorial, so you can make them too! And you won't need any super sculpting skills to make these. Atleast I hope so, because that's what I always say. :)




 What you will need:
- Polymer Clay (maybe you can use other clay too)
- Craft Knife
- Plastic Card (like old phone card or credit card)
- Sandpaper
- Paintbrush
- Golden Paint (or any other metallic paint of your choice)
- Earring Hooks (matching to the paint you are going to use)
- Eyepins
Now you are only going to need Polymer Clay, Craft Knife and Plastic Card.

1. Cut off a piece of clay. You can take less clay, as I took enough clay to make 5 fangs.
2. To make it easier to work with your clay, you must warm it up, so it gets soft. Hold it in your hands or place it somewhere warm. While it is warming up, have a piece of candy! ^-^
3. When your clay gets warm, roll it into a log.
4. Then roll it out, so it's longer.
5. Then roll this log using a card, to make it smooth.
6. My finished log was about 1 cm in diameter, but you can make it thicker or thinner, your choice.
7. Then I cut this log in about 2,5 cm long pieces. As you can see, I had enough clay to make 5 fangs.
8. But you only need 2 pieces for one pair of earrings. You may even make a necklace using these fangs, it looks very nice, too!
9. Then squash each piece into small, fat cylinders. You need to do it, so the finished pieces aren't too thin. You rolled your log smooth and measured it afterwards, so both fangs turn out to be the same size.
10. Now, this might be a bit confusing at first, but using a card, roll one end of each cylinder at an angle. This means you roll your clay like before, only hold the card at an angle.
11. The end result should look like this. You get two perfect cones. :)
12. This is optional, because I repeated this step afterwards, but you can do it now. Slice off end of each cone.
13. I did it again after baking, because when I did it with soft clay, both fangs lost their shape a bit and I had to re-shape them.
14. Then you can form your cones into fang shape. Just bend them to one side.
(Skip the following steps if unnecessary,continue on step 15) 
What to do if your not satisfied with your fangs and want them to be thicker? Do as I say:
- Bend them back
- Squash into fat cone shape
- Roll at an angle again using card, shape as you go
- Bend back to fang shape again
(Continue on from here, if you didn't do last steps or if you are done with the last few steps)

15. Take your eyepins. (As mine were too long, I had to crop them a bit.)
 16. Then push them into top of the fangs.
 17. Bake your finished pieces according to package directions.
Then sand with some rough sandpaper and then use nail file or finer sandpaper again.
Paint your fangs with different color nail polish if necessary (skip the sanding part).
 18. (Do this before applying nail polish!)
Chop off top of the fangs with craft knife. As you can see, if you do this after baking, the edge will look neater after slicing, rather than doing this with soft clay.
 19. Cover each fang with a piece of tape for a clean edge after painting.
 20. Paint top of the fangs with golden paint.
 21. Remove tape and reveal a nicely painted edge.
 22. Attach earring hooks and your done! :)

This is a necklace I made earlier.



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