19th Oct, 2010- Animal beads are funky little beads in animal shapes. One can use them for making jewelery, for crafts or for decorating any damn thing in the world. It can be all the more exciting if these beads are handmade. Mentioned below is the procedure of making animal beads at home using polymer clay, check it out:

Materials Needed

• Polymer clay
• Animal shaped clay molds (optional)
• Clay cutting tools
• Cookie sheet
• Craft pasta machine (optional)
• Bead reamer tool
• Sandpaper
• Parchment paper or bead rack

Procedure

Step 1

First of all you would need to soften a small amount of polymer clay so as to easily place in the mold. Soft polymers clays are also available in the market. You can also use craft pasta machine to soften an extremely hard piece of clay.

Step 2

In case you want to incorporate two-three different colors in the same figure, all you need to do is pinch off tiny clay pieces and press them into the mold. Thus, animal beads in single as well as multiple colors can be done. Though, one needs to be careful while pressing the clay into the mold. Pressing the mold too harshly against any hard surface can end up in distorting the shape of the bead.

Step 3

Keep adding the clay into the mold until it fills up completely. Once it is stuffed, even out the top edges and flat all the way across.

Step 4

To take out the clay shapes from the mold, turn the mold over and gently bend the rubber until the animal shape is released cleanly. Smooth out the rough edges with fingers.

Step 5

Next, drill a hole through the bead using a bead reamer tool or a thin wire so that the beads can be stringed easily later.

Step 6

In order to prevent flattening, the beads are suspended on wires in a bead rack. These decorative beads too, would be required to be placed on a bead rack or on a parchment paper over the cookie sheet.

Step 7

Now, pre-heat the oven to the temperature as instructed by the clay brand and cook the beads as per the manufacturer's directions.

Step 8

Once the beads are through with the baking, allow them to cool thoroughly. After that you can use fine-grain sand paper, paint or glaze to do touch ups on the animal beads.

Mix these animal beads with rock beads or tube beads and let you creativity splash by creating funky things out of it.