Do you want something really unique to give Mom for Mother's Day? How about making her a bracelet that honors her life achievements?
This bracelet can be made in a day but will have impact and lasting sentiment all year long.
Materials Needed;
- Pen
- Paper
- Polymer clay
- End caps
- Spacers
- Baking rack
- Memory wire
- Rolling pin
- Knife
- Clay tools
The first thing you need to do is sit down and begin making a list of all of the moments in Mom’s life you would want to highlight. These can include births, marriage, grandchildren, education, career and personal goals.
When choosing the polymer clay, try to pick colors that would be relevant to the event. For example in representing children you could use the color of their birthstone. Or you can represent all the girls with one color and all of the boys with another. For a marriage you can use the wedding colors or the birthstone color for the month of the wedding. For education you can use school colors while for a career you may want to use the colors from the company logo. You can see this will take a little planning.
Cut a piece of memory wire about 12” long. Attach an end cap to one end and set this aside.
In making the beads, keep in mind that each bead will mark a moment in Mom’s life. You can make the beads a variety of shapes but for simplicity's sake, we are going to use rectangles. Feel free to make yours any shape you want. For this project, I prefer using rectangles because it gives me flat surfaces to work on. Actually it gives me four for each bead. In this way I can either repeat a design four times around the bead or use the design on one side only for a more subtle effect.
We are going to make ten one inch rectangular beads ahead of time. The colors would have been determined by our list.
Making a Marriage bead:
Take the bead in the appropriate color and using your clay tools, make a design in the clay that represents the wedding (rings, candle, etc.) or maybe just carve out the date. As you finish each bead, spear it with a baking rack wire and put it on the rack.
Child or grandchild bead:
You can draw a design representing an important trait in the child or a significant event they played a major role in. If you want you can also simply put the date of birth.
For Education bead:
You can etch a diploma or get really ambitious and do the school mascot.
Once all the beads are made, bake as directed on the package.
Slide the beads on the memory wire alternating a bead with a spacer. When you get to the end trim so there is only enough room for the end cap
This is a great gift - add a card that lists the story behind each bead.
