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| Making striped Polymer Clay Beads |
| To make striped polymer clay beads, form a snake, preferably with some stripes running down the length of the snake. Butt the ends together and join them forming a circle. Form the circle into a triangle with the butted ends in the middle on one of the triangle sides. Place the triangle in your opposite hand with one corner pointing toward your wrist. Hold the right corner between your thumb and little finger and the left corner between your index and middle finger. Begin to twist the clay in the middle between the left and right corners with your dominant hand. Either twists it inward or outward consistently for the entire bead. Also do the same number of twists on each side. After it achieves a nice look, turn the triangle in your hand to a new side. Repeat the above steps. Then twist the third side of the triangle. Take a point of the triangle in your hand and push the sides of it together. Do this with all three points of the triangle. After you have decided which side you want on the outside, fold the three points of the triangle upward and push them together enough to adhere. You can either leave the bead that way or you can roll it in your hand until the creases disappear. Both ways have a pleasant appearance. |
| The initial snake must be of a uniform thickness, the stripes must also start out uniform, the three sides of the triangle must all be the same length, and when you're twisting, you must be careful that the twisting doesn't make the sides too thin. You need to be very careful to match the mirror-image stripes exactly. The final rolling-the-bead-into-shape stage should be very careful. The more twists you can manage to do without losing control of the diameter; the better/more detailed the final bead looks.
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