Healing stone and crystal pendants are back in if the collection of Healing Stone Wrap Pendants in Topshop are anything to go by. Although not a big believer in the healing properties of crystals or stones (I just can't get my head around it!), I love how they look and thought I'd have a go at creating my very own faux healing crystal necklace. To keep this post from becoming too long and complicated, I've shown you how I created the crystal out of clay in this post and next week, will share with you how I wire wrapped it and turned it into a necklace.
Air-dry clay | Craft knife | Acrylic paint | Paint brush | Sponge | Varnish
1. Mould some air-dry clay into a bullet-like shape. Here, I simply cut off a small piece of clay and rolled it between my fingers. At one end, I pinched the end as I rolled it to create a cylindrical pointed tip whilst at the other I gave it a more cuboid shape.
2. Cut down the sides to create a 4-sided rectangular block with a cylindrical tip. Using my craft knife, I positioned the clay so that the bottom was flat against the cutting board and sliced off the edges of the clay from top (excluding the pointed tip) to bottom to give it 4 sides.
3. Slice off the corners of the 4-sided block, creating an octangular shaped block. Again with the bottom flat against the cutting board and using my craft knife, I went around the clay again, slicing from top to bottom (excluding the cylindrical tip), cutting off the angles created in the previous step to introduce 4 more sides to the clay block.
4. Cut the cylindrical tip in line with each face of the block so that the tip has eight flat sides. Next, I used my craft knife to cut the cylindrical tip so that it also had 8 flat sides in line with the 8 side of the rest of the block.
5. Create a hole through the block at the end furthest from the pointed tip and leave to dry. To do this, I pushed a headpin through one side of the block to the other. I did this at the end furthest from the pointed tip and then left the clay block to dry overnight.
6. Once dry, sand each face of the clay (both the tip and the main block). Using small strips of sandpaper (both coarse and fine), I sanded each face of the clay block so that the corners were nice and sharpe and the crystal-like shape more distinct.
7. Using acrylic paint, paint the clay. To create a crystal-like finish, I used both a paintbrush (with a stippling motion) and a sponge. After mixing up a purple shade, I dabbed paint roughly all over the clay. Whilst this and the sponge were still wet, I dabbed a small amount of white paint all over as well as a slightly pinker shade of purple.
8. Once the paint is dry, paint on two coats of varnish. To protect the paint and make the clay a bit more waterproof, it's always a good idea to paint all over a clay project with varnish. In this case, as I wanted the clay to look like a crystal I painted two coats of a gloss varnish to create a lovely crystal-like shine.
...and that's how you make a healing crystal out of clay!
I was really pleased with the resulting crystal and really quite surprised (though I probably shouldn't admit that!) that it turned out quite so well. With mother's day fast approaching (March 6th here in the UK!) a faux crystal necklace is a thoughtful and affordable little gift!
What do you think of healing stone or crystals jewellery?
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