Making It Ep. 2: Painted Clay Earrings

Hello, my darling patrons and friends, and welcome to the second episode of the new Making It monthly series, where I take you step-by-step through how I make important pieces of my freelance art business. 

Throughout the series I’ll be sharing how I make my handmade earrings, enamel pins, custom portraits, process videos, stickers, product photography, and more, so you can be empowered to try making a new product or adding new techniques to your own process. 

For this second episode, I’ll be sharing my process for making painted clay earrings. 

My first sculpted earrings in 2017!

I’m excited to share this process with you because these avocado earrings were the very first product that I made and sold. When I was working in a kitchen in 2017, I made a pair of these earrings for myself as a creative outlet, one of my coworkers offered to buy a pair, a friend suggested I set up an Etsy so they could buy them online, and that’s how the seeds for Ragonia were planted. 

Obviously illustration is my main gig now, but making earrings remains a wonderfully therapeutic break from drawing, and at conventions so many people are stopped in their tracks when they see tiny vegetable earrings. I make fruit and veggie earrings mainly, but you can make anything you can dream of! A favorite I’ve seen recently was tiny POSCA marker earrings!

My process has definitely evolved and improved since I started making earrings in 2017 (most notably the sealant I used then got horribly sticky over time, so sorry to anyone who bought my early earrings!) And there are also TONS of people who make their whole living making amazing miniature polymer clay foods and sculptures, but I don’t let that stop me from trying for myself. There’s always better tools, materials, techniques, but you’ve gotta start somewhere!

Let's get to making painted clay avocado earrings!

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S  U  P  P  L  I  E  S  

1. Cutting boards/work surface - I use old plastic kitchen sheets.
2. Sculpey Satin Glaze - This is definitely my favorite glaze/sealant so far.
3. Eye Pins - Nothing fancy, I buy mine from my closest craft store: Jo-Ann’s.
4. Square and Detail Paintbrush
5. Acrylic Paint - Not picky about this, mine’s leftover from college.
6. Oven Bake Polymer Clay - I currently use Sculpey III, but there’s probably much better clays.
7. Needle Nose Pliers and Jewelry Wire Cutter
8. Sculpting tools - I have some hand-me-down tools from a friend but you can also just use things around your house! I use a little knife like this and just my fingers most frequently.
9. Solid Titanium Earring Hooks - I am very picky about these, I buy nickel-free titanium because I have sensitive ears.

Links! I’m linking above to the only products I have any real loyalty towards, the rest I’d honestly be flexible on. I always encourage working with what you have or can borrow first, then trying new when you need to.
I also remind you to buy your supplies at local art stores when possible first, from the online shops of art stores second, from manufacturers third, and from Amazon last!

1:  S  C  U  L  P  T

1. Work the clay to soften it up a little.
2. Roll pieces into balls.
3. Gently shape into avocado/egg.
4. Cut each avocado in half with small knife.
5. Re-shape a little after distortion from knife, make sure each half is about the same size and shape.

Tip: The shape and details of your sculpt can get a little messed up in the next step, so don’t get too finicky here.

2:  E  Y  E  P  I  N  S

1. Pre-heat your oven according to clay directions.
2. Trim eye pins with wire cutter to half of earring length.
3. Use needle-nose pliers to gently bend the straight end of your trimmed eye pins. After the clay bakes this will make the pins more securely held in the earring.
4. Insert the bent eye pins into the top of the earring. I like to push it in at an angle before pushing it in straight down, to make it sit straight at the top. Make sure the eye of the pin faces parallel to the earring, so it hangs straight on the hook. 
5. Gently re-sculpt the clay so that any gaps made from the pin are closed.

3:  S  C  U  L  P  T   &   B  A  K  E

1. Flatten cut side by placing face down on work surface and smoothing the back.
2. Smooth any fingerprints or seams with finger or other tool.
3. Press out avocado hole with a tool, I used to use the rounded end of my small knife and now use a metal ball sculpting tool.
4. Roll little balls for the avocado pit, and gently press it into the hole on one half of the ‘avocado’.
5. Smooth down and adjust any final imperfections.
6. Put on a baking sheet with aluminum foil and bake according to clay package directions. Set a timer so you don’t forget!

Tip: If the clay gets too warm from your hands it may be a little too malleable and hard to sculpt correctly. If this happens let it sit for 10 minutes or so and come back to it.

I bake my clay in my regular kitchen oven according to the Sculpey directions. Some people think it’s bad for your health to bake polymer clay in the same oven you cook food in, and some say it’s only an issue if you over bake or bake it incorrectly.  Feel free to do further research for yourself if you’re concerned.

4:  P  A  I  N  T    F  L  A  T  S

1. After the clay’s baked and cooled completely, mix and paint base flat colors in relatively flat layers. Depending on your paint it might take a couple layers to build up to a flat color.
2. Paint one side and color at a time, so the first side/layer has time to dry before you flip and work on the next. It’s a lot like painting nail polish!
3. Re-shape a little after distortion from knife, make sure each half is about the same size and shape.

Tip: Work from less detailed to more detailed, and make sure the layers are completely dry before you add another.

5:  P  A  I  N  T    D  E  T  A  I  L  S

1. Use a detail brush to blend wet paint for the final details. I work a very yellow green in the center into a darker green for the edge. I like to use fairly noticeable brushstrokes because I think it looks nice and artsy.
2. Use the edge of a square brush to gently pull the dark back paint around and clean up the cut line.
3. Clean up any accidental smudges or marks with the detail brush.
4. Fill in any hole leftover near the eye pin with paint, so there’s not a noticeable white hole.
5. After the paint dries, use the small knife to gently scrape off any messy paint on the eye pin.

Note: Clean your brush well between colors to prevent them from getting muddy.

6:  G  L  A  Z  E

Once the paint is completely dry, use the square brush to paint thin layers of glaze, one side at a time. Again, it’s similar to painting nail polish. 

Try not to let the glaze pool up anywhere. 

Don’t let the wet glaze touch anything while it dries or it could get so stuck it pulls up your paint layers! :(

Note: I’m currently looking into resins as a glaze to make my handmade clay pins extra strong, but this Sculpey Satin Glaze works perfectly for me with these. You may need to ask around or experiment with different glazes before you find one you love.

7:  A  T  T  A  C  H    H  O  O  K  S

Use needle neck pliers to gently twist open the loop part of your titanium earring hooks. Always twist like this image below, rather than prying the ends apart:

Close the loops around the circle of each eye pin, making sure the earring will face the right direction when worn.

Tip: DON’T try to rotate the eye pins within the earring after they’ve been baked. The hooked end of the eye pin could break or damage the earring from the inside. Make sure the eye pin is facing the right way before you bake the earring.

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So there we have it! I hope you all found this walk-through helpful, and maybe inspired you to try a new art project for fun or to add to your product offerings! I always thought I was terrible at sculpture, but now I find it to be a wonderful artistic outlet when I’m feeling stuck with my 2D art.

Let me know if you’re already making your own clay creations, or if you haven’t yet what you’d love to make some day. I’d absolutely love to get into ceramics some day, as I see so many artists making absolutely delightful whimsical wonders with ceramics. If you have any suggestions for materials, tools, techniques, or other resources, let us know in the comments as well!

And please let me know what you think about this new series! You all seemed to really love the Arty Business series, and I’m so hoping you love this one just as much. Drop any topic requests in the comments as well, and I’ll add them to the list for upcoming topics.

As always, thank you so much for your support here on Patreon. YOU are truly making it possible for me to spend the time sharing this information with 140 other artists and creators around the world. I, and we, thank you.

Now go forth and get making!

xoxo, Ragon