I opened 2 custom slots at the end of December, and 1 of those customs was for a stone dragon with real crystal accents.
If you have followed me long enough, you may remember my birthstone series from several years ago. I had planned to expand it and bought crystals and crystal chips to incorporate into my sculpts, but then I never actually did it. This was a fun opportunity to explore!
The dragon would be created with granite clay with black clay for accents, and then rose quartz would run down the back as if it were growing out of the dragon.
The crystal that was wanted was rose quartz; my local craft store did not have suitable crystals (size was a big challenge), so I turned to Etsy and found some. I also had rose quartz crystal chips in my stash that I thought could make for fun filler in tighter areas.
Today, I wanted to show you how I integrated the crystals in polymer clay. To make them look more natural, I think it’s important to arrange them in a manner so are taller toward the middle. At first, I was considering breaking these crystals down to get smaller pieces, but since I don’t own any kind of tumbler, the edges would probably be pretty sharp and be a safety hazard.
Supplies:
- Your unbaked polymer clay piece
- Crystals
- TLS
- Extra polymer clay for anchoring
- Silicone tipped tool
- Crystal chips (optional)
- Tweezers (if using crystal chips)
Step 1: Test your crystal
Even if a crystal is okay with the heat, sometimes they may change color in the process. I tested a couple of crystals and chips before I sculpted, and it handled 1 bake okay.
If you think you will need multiple bakes for your piece, I would test bake the crystal multiple times too.
For my dragon, I changed around my process to allow for 1 bake only, and luckily this was a pose that didn’t need multiple bakes.
Step 2: plan out your crystals
You’ll want to get an idea for how you want to arrange your crystals before embedding them into the clay. You’ll have the best “fit” with the clay when embedding them correctly on the first try so that you aren’t creating a hole too big for your crystal.
If you’re working on a flat surface, you can do this by resting the crystal on top of it where you want to place it. If you’re working on a 3D surface (like me), I placed the crystals I wanted to use in a line (in order) next to my dragon.
Step 3: Embed your crystals
Using your fingertip, smear a little TLS on the side of the crystal you’ll be sticking into the clay. You don’t want to add too much or else it will slide around as you’re trying to place it. Push the crystal into the clay, making sure that side is completely embedded.
Step 4: Adding extra clay
To help keep a tight wrap of clay around the crystal to secure it in place, I took a little more TLS and added it to the base of the crystal, then laid a small snake of clay. Using my fingers and my silicone tool, I smoothed this into the rest of the clay, firmly pushing it against the crystal/TLS to create a good bond.
I did this on all sides of the crystal and added extra clay in between the crystals to make sure they would be held in place.
Step 5: Adding crystal chips (optional)
While this step is optional, I think it really enhances the crystal look. For me, this is where my piece really felt like it was coming together.
I found this cute little set of crystals at Michael’s a couple of years ago while I was planning my previously mentioned crystal series, and I didn’t open it up until this project.
Dip the crystal chips into the TLS and place them around the base of the bigger crystals. This part became a little trickier when I was adding the chips in between crystals, so that’s where a pair of crafting tweezers would come in handy.
Overall, I think this really helped create a cluster look, like it was all one big crystal growing out from the base.
Step 6: Bake
When you’re happy with the way everything looks, it’s time to bake it up! Follow your polymer clay’s baking instructions. Since I’m using premo clay and TLS, I baked mine for 30 minutes at 275 degrees Fahrenheit.
You can add glaze if you’d like; since I used granite polymer clay, I wanted to keep this more natural looking so I chose not to add a glaze.
And here is the dragon this look was created for!
