There are many different types of tools you can use when working with polymer clay and making jewelry. I’ll go through some of the simple clay tools, and then list a few other tools that are meant specifically for jewelry making.
Basic Clay Tools
Many of the basic tools used in polymer clay art are similar to ceramic and air-dry clay tools. There are dotting tools that add texture, and can also be used to create floral shapes as well. One of my favorite textures to experiment with using dotting tools is a hammered look. Metalic clays can be used to create lightweight hammered metal lookalikes. Dotting tools can also be used to apply paint to polymer clay to create circular patterns.
Needling tools are also very handy when working with polymer clay, they can add a variety of textures like dotting tools as well. You can create floral and leaf-like patterns and textures with needling tools as well.
To create the many various jewelry shapes, cookie cutters, or metal clay cutters can be used and modified to create the desired piece. There are simple shape cutters, circular cutters, and intricate cutters. All of these can provide many different and stylized jewelry pieces.
Below I have a few pictures of the many things you can use these various tools for when working with clay.
Here are links to some basic clay working tools on Amazon:
Clay Jewelry Tools
When making polymer clay jewelry, there are more intricate and detailed tools available for use too. While simple clay tools can achieve basically the same end design, they can be more time-consuming. Below, I have a list of other helpful tools that can be used to make clay jewelry. They can speed up the production time, yet still require personalization, a perfect combination!
- Texture rollers
- Silkscreens
- Specific/custom clay cutters
- Stamps
- Gold leaf
There are a lot of different places where you can buy these materials. Etsy, Amazon, and even other jewelry creators like RoClayCo, sell these customized jewelry-making tools. I’ll leave links to a few down below.
What’s fun about these other tools, is they can add a lot of different variety to your art and jewelry. Using these tools can also make it easier to get bulk orders done more quickly.
Here are some links to other clay tools geared toward jewelry making:
I hope that this article helps inspire you and motivate you to create your own art, everyone needs their creative outlet!
-Sofie