Bezels and Stringart

In my post yesterday, I touched on the subject of making bezels out of flat aluminum wire for polymer clay pendants. Pictured below are a few I have planned for the next time I want to make a polymer clay item...I'll use them to cut the clay out and it should fit tightly. Pictured with them is one of my fauxpals encased in a bezel. If I had planned it, I would have punched holes in the bezel and poked matching holes in the clay before baking. This one I just glued in. Using the wire in this manner makes a nice, professional, polished edge for the pendants. (UPDATE: I must have subliminally copied these ideas for my bezels below! Hers are SO much nicer though!)

The sun below shows how I used it to cover the edges of my back to back polymer clay faces. I retrofitted it, meaning the pendant was done but the edges were ugly, so I had to cut pieces of wire and punch holes so it would fit tightly around the wires holding the wire sunrays on the baked clay. I'm happy with the result. It's not noticeable that the black bezel is two pieces!

Now to get to the point of this post. :) I also tried the bezel technique around a previously made faux ivory/bone pendant that I wasn't crazy about the sides of, seen below. It really punched up the appearance of it. Gave it a nice finished edge. Then I tried something a little different..I used my metal punch to punch holes as evenly as possible along the edge of the bezel wire before bending it around the pendant (polymer clay with Lisa Pavelka foils on it, love that stuff!). I did not bother to glue the bezel to the clay this time because....

...I decided to wire wrap it instead. Sort of the old technique we learned in school where you used string and nails to make a picture...this time used to hold the pendant in place. It also held the bezel onto the pendant. As you can see in the photo above, the punch left jaggedy holes along the edge (I wasn't as careful as I could have been because I was experimenting!) and although I used a file on the edges, I was a little leery it would scratch or catch. But once the wire wrapping went on, it filled all the holes and covered the sharper edges, so it worked out nicely! The holes keep the wire from slipping. Next time I'll be more precise about hole placement!

Below is a different type of string art pendant I was making a couple of years ago. It is a pink fauxpal and I wrapped it by encircling it with a coil of wire and wrapping in between the coils. It takes a little practice but is a neat way to finish a pendant. Especially when you can find pretty pink wire to match your clay. :)

Hope you enjoyed this post and got some ideas from it for your own designs. Thanks for looking! Make sure to stop by my Pinterest page and like my Facebook page!  Later!