Linnypig's Crafty Blog: Tutorial: How I make Polymer Clay Beehives

I was asked to make a tutorial on how I make my beehives featured in my little bumble bee & beehive earrings, and I thought why not?

I've never made a tutorial before so I'm hoping it doesn't suck. I would love some feedback on this one.

Anyway here goes...

First of all, here's what you'll need:

Orange and Yellow Clay
An eye-pin

Of course you can also use things like chains and jewellery findings if you like, but this tutorial is purely dedicated to the beehives. :)

Step One

To get started, I blend together yellow and orange clay until I achieve the desired colour.

I tend to use quite a lot more yellow than I do orange for these. Too much orange seems to just eat up all the yellow!

To be honest I think either of these colours would work just fine on their own as well.

Step Two

Roll the clay into a ball.

I couldn't even add on that if I tried... Other than saying it's probably better if it's smooth. :)

Step Three

Take your ball and begin to roll it into a long sausage-like shape like in the picture below.

Gradually getting longer...

The length and how thick you make it depends on the size you want the finished product to end up.

For my earrings, mine usually measures around 4cm in length and is 3cm in diameter by this point.

Step Four

Continue to roll each end into a point so it looks similar to the one in the next picture.

Step Five

Now for the fun part! (Well I think so anyway)

Start rolling it up from one end as shown below, and gradually increase the size as you go around.

This part makes me think of a cinnamon bun...

Keep going...

Stop!

Once you reach the point at which you would like to be the centre of your beehive, you should stop increasing it in size and instead, begin to decrease it.