The sparrow is a popular image that evokes nostalgia for home. Sailors wore them as a connection to land, and the number of sparrow images tattooed on their body would relate to the number of times they had sailed around the world. Follow your heart home with this elegant version of the sparrow, and learn a new technique to make easy, repeatable shapes for your polymer clay pendants and beads.
STEP 1 Condition the clay and roll it to the thickest setting on your pasta machine. Double the clay thickness by laying one sheet on top of the other and gently pressing them together with an acrylic rod or brayer.
STEP 2 Lay your bird stencil on top of the clay and carefully cut the shape of the pattern with a sharp needle tool, holding the tool straight up and down. Remove the pattern and excess clay.
STEP 3 Flip the clay bird over, and using your fingers and tools, gently round the edges of the bird and remove any burrs in the clay resulting from cutting.
STEP 4 Use dental tools to etch feathers and wing details into the clay, as shown.
STEP 5 Poke holes into the bird’s wings using your needle tool. Be sure the holes are large enough for wire to pass through and that they are not too close to the edge, so they remain sturdy. Use a soft brush and powdered pigment to “paint” color onto the surface of the clay. Place red on the breast and gold on the face, wings and tail.
STEP 6 Add bright blue pigment powder on the center of the body, a darker blue along the spine and wings, and black powder in the indentations of the wings. Go slowly and gently, building up layers of color until you are satisfied.
STEP 7 Use the techniques in steps 1–3 to create 2 cloud shapes and to etch details into the clay. Then highlight the edges with blue pigment powder and the interior of the clouds with red pigment powder. Poke holes in 2 spots on each cloud.
Use your black permanent pen (we used a Micron pen) to add details such as eye, beak and feather markings.
Bake all the clay pieces for 30 minutes at the manufacturer’s recommended temperature.
STEP 8 To assemble the necklace, cut 12" (30cm) of wire and dirty wrap through 1 hole on the bird’s wing. See Dirty Wrapping in the techniques section.
STEP 9 Slide a pearl onto the wire and then one end of a cloud. Pull the wire through the hole in the cloud and dirty wrap the wire above the pearl to secure. Trim the excess wire. The first necklace link is complete.
STEP 10 Cut a 9" (23cm) length of wire and attach one end to the opposite end of the cloud; dirty wrap the wire to secure it. Add a pearl, form a loop in the wire and dirty wrap it below the loop to complete this link. Trim the excess wire.
STEP 11 Cut another 9" (23m) length of wire. Form a loop in the wire and slide the loop into the loop at the end of the last pearl.
STEP 12 Dirty wrap the wire and trim the excess. Slide a pearl onto the wire. At the other end of the pearl, create a loop to start the wrap. Slide a 5" (13cm) section of rolo chain onto the loop of the wire to attach the end of the necklace. Complete your last dirty wrap on this side, then trim the excess wire.
STEP 13 Complete the other side of the necklace following steps 9–12.
STEP 14 Use jump rings to attach the lobster clasp to the right side of the necklace and the extender chain on the left. Extender chain is usually a large cable link that allows you to clasp on any link of the chain to make adjustable lengths. We chose to use a silvertone extender to harmonize with the mixed silver chain and wire in this piece.
By adding the links with wrapped wire, rather than jump rings, you make the links and necklace stronger.
For this variation, we turned our sparrow into a blackbird. We used clay to create a blackbird and gold powdered pigment to highlight the details in the wings and feathers. The leaves and a flower are links that complement the bird.