Polymer Clay Fast-Food Jewelry

Materials:

polymer clay: champagne or beige, burgundy, red, pink, flesh, translucent, brown, yellow, green, white, purple
3" circle cutter
single-edge razor blade
craft knife
Kato Nu-Blade
Kemper small circle cutter
polymer clay gloss
E 6000 glue
parchment paper
cotton swabs
burnt umber acrylic paint
flat-nose pliers

1. To make the pizza dough clay: Mix a small block (2 oz.) of champagne or beige clay with 1/8 block white and a pea-sized piece of golden yellow. Condition and run through pasta machine at thickest setting (#1).

2. Use 3-inch circle cutter to cut one large pizza dough. Using thumb, squish center flatter and toward outside edge. Use thumb and forefinger to gently push outside edge in and slightly up to form crust (figure A).

3. To make the pizza sauce: Mix half of a block red clay, a pea-sized ball of warm yellow clay and a pea-sized ball of brown clay. Blend colors and run through pasta machine on #5 setting.

4. Set 3-inch cutter on clay, but just make slight indentation, don’t cut through. Use craft knife and cut freehand around inside circle. This will be the sauce, so you don’t want it to be perfectly symmetrical. Pinch and pull piece of sauce on edges until you like the way it fits on the crust. Smooth from center outwards to remove any air bubbles (figure B).

5. For the mozzarella: Use 1/8 block of white clay and a tiny amount of yellow and beige clay again, just trying to get a white cheese color. For cheddar cheese, mix 1/8 block golden yellow with a tiny bit of red. Blend cheese colors and run through pasta machine on #6 setting.

6. Cut a long skinny strip of clay approximately 1/3 inch wide by 2 or 3 inches long. Using a single edge razor blade, cut tiny individual pieces of cheese and drop them randomly on sauce. It’s the most time consuming and tedious step, but the results look the cheesiest (figure C).

7. For the pepperoni: Make lots of small snakes in meaty colors. At least six colors, about 2 inches long each and the circumference of a pencil (figure D). Use burgundy, warm pink, reds, dark brown, beige, flesh, and transparent. Arrange meat snakes, compress and reduce, pulling rather than twisting. Cut into six equal pieces, turning each piece slightly for a good distribution of color (figure E).

8. Compress and reduce again. Cut in half. Save half. Reduce leftover half to about diameter of a pencil (figure F).

9. To make mushrooms: Use a quarter block of champagne or beige clay. Roll two long tiny snakes. Make one into a tiny square and one into a small round snake, only slightly flattened with finger or brayer. Attach flattened round snake on the top of squared snake so that face of cane resembles a mushroom (figure G).

10. For the bell peppers, use 1/8 of a block of green clay. Run through pasta machine on a #6 setting. Using a small circle cutter again, just make an indentation of circle into clay. Take knife and cut a wiggly shape around outside of circle, then go back with circle cutter and cut out inside, leaving a wiggly bell pepper shape (figure H).

11. To make purple onions, mix 1/4 block of translucent clay and a half of a pea-sized ball of purple clay. Condition translucent clay and cut in half; add purple to one half and blend. Layer translucent clay (#3) setting on top of purple tinted clay (#6) and roll up. The purple onion is just a simple jellyroll cane (figure I).

12. Apply thin pieces of each condiment over the cheese layer. Don’t press too hard in case you need to rearrange ingredients so that each slice has lots of goodies (figure J).

13. Lastly, go over with more grated cheese to fill in. Then lay parchment paper on top and gently press everything down to secure. Cut into six or eight pieces (figure K), depending on pin/pendant or earrings.

14. Bake as directed on clay packaging. After baking, use a cotton swab with burnt umber acrylic paint to slightly darken crust. Apply a coat of polymer clay gloss for a greasy look.

1. Use champagne or beige clay about the size of a marble leftover from the pizza dough clay, or make according to the instructions for the dough clay, above. Roll it into a ball; then using a finger, roll into a small cylinder and shape into a bun. Cut in half horizontally and just slightly flatten bottom half of bun.

2. Using some pinkish clay leftover from pepperoni, roll a small cylinder about the same length as the bun (figure L). Insert the wiener between the top and bottom bun.

3. Make a tiny snake of yellow clay and wiggle it onto the wiener for mustard (figure M).

4. Using a needle tool, make a hole from top to bottom of hot dog. Insert head pin form bottom, form loop on top for earring wire.