Craftberry Bush

Faux turquoise tutorial…

Non seasonal Crafts

Hi friends – we made it through Monday, Yay!

Today was the first time in over a year that I had the house all to myself.  It felt a little quiet and lonely, but perfect for crafting and just catching up on house work.  I also managed to put together a tutorial of a little project I did over the weekend. 

On our recent trip to Mexico, hubby bought
me some beautiful silver and turquoise jewelry.

Mexico is well known for its turquoise and silver, but as usual, you have to be careful of impostor jewelry.  

There are various ways to tell real turquoise from fake, but as technology advances so does the ability for manufacturers to make very realistic looking turquoise.  If you are looking to purchase some turquoise, you can find some very useful tips here.


But if you’re okay with just the ‘look’, I hope you are going to love this very easy tutorial.

Materials 
polymer clay: turquoise, ultra marine, white, gold, black
grater or blade
cabochon or ring blank

1. Mix clay together as indicated for:
    – Regular Turquoise: 2 parts turquoise + 1 part white +1 part ultra marine
    – Pale Turquoise: 1 part turquoise + 1 part cobalt + 3 parts white 

2. Knead together to make desired shade of turquoise; roll into a ball and place in the 

freezer to harden.  This will make the grating easier.
3. Depending on how much matrix (the veins found on the turquoise) you want in your stone,  knead the black and the gold clay and place in freezer to harden. 
4. Grate turquoise clay using the large holes on the grater or chop with a blade.  Do not press too hard and leave some as open curls. 
5. Using the small holes on the grater, grate the gold and the black clay.
6. Mix all the colours together.
7. Press them into a ball being careful not to press too hard or you will distort the matrix (you want to mix the clay but not blend to make a new colour) 
8. Cut with a blade 
9. Place the sliced interior onto ring blank, cabochon or make some beads by piercing a hole through it
10. Bake as per package instructions 
11. Allow clay to cool in the oven and polish 


The bracelet is the real thing and the ring is the brand new faux piece. Notice that  I took photos prior to the clay being cured and therefore, it does not have a lot of sheen. Once it’s cooked you can polish polymer clay to give it a beautiful luster.  

Here are some other turquoise jewelry with
different types of matrix, all via Neiman Marcus





I love the way it turned out.  Turquoise is such a versatile gem that goes with almost everything. 


I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial.  On the next post, I’ll show you some of the other polymer clay creations I made over the weekend. 


See you soon.


much love,
Lucy

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Comments

  2. You are too much!!! Your pieces look so REAL! I love that you hd the house all to yourself and spent part of it crafting and creating a tutorial for us. Love ya to the moon and back…xo Diana

    Reply

  5. Lovely

    Thanks so much for sharing this. It is just beautiful and I am just starting to play with clay so I will have to give it a try. I pinned this on my “Totally Rockin’ Tutorial’s” Board.

    have a great day
    Caroline

    Reply

  6. Oh my gosh, this is amazing! Wow, I would have never guessed this isn’t the real deal. You’re brilliant! I’m definitely pinning this to make in the very near future.

    Reply

  18. I have never worked with clay because I’ve never seen anything that looked worth the effort to me That is Untill now! I’ve been wanting a chunky tourquoise necklace but the price was too dear. I will be trying this ASAP

    Reply

  22. You are stupendously amazing Lucy. This faux turquoise is lovely. Thanks for sharing your amazing talents with us. Can’t wait to see your next pieces!

    Reply

  24. Oh my goodness, I love this, what a great idea! Thanks so much for sharing! I am stopping by fro the Funky Junk Interiors link party and glad I did! Think I’ll have to do some snooping around now! 🙂

    Reply

  28. I love this – simply lovely! I have never worked with polymer clay before, but this might be the inspiration to get me started.

    This might might a silly question, but how do you polish the cured clay?

    Reply

  29. I hope you do try it..it’s fun once you get started ..and it’s not a silly question….you buff it with a cotton cloth,some people sand it with very fine sandpaper,usually wet sanding to avoid the dust and then polishing with a cotton rag or micron paper…
    When it’s sanded and polish it can almost look glasslike….:)

    Reply

  33. I love turquoise jewelry but hate the price! This is such a fantastic idea and really opens up a multitude of possibilities for faux turquoise jewelry! I was wondering thought what you use as polish though?

    Reply

  35. Oh I love this! What a great idea! I love that first necklace from Neiman with all the gold in the stones! I’d love to make something like that! Thank you so much for sharing this you talented creative lady you!! 😀

    Reply

  38. I love your tutorial and your kindness in sharing your method. Please forgive the dumb question, but how did you get the top rounded and smooth to look like a stone rather a lump of clay? Did you have a form or template. Thank you for your response. Regards, Tish

    Reply

  39. Hello ma’am,

    I wanted to use your great idea to make an angel guardian for my mom’s urn as she recently died. If I made a mold of a stone angel, what would you recommend as a mold release so as to not mess up the creation? Thank you for your time in looking at my idea and hopefully helping. I have two angels watching her urn and wanted a blue turquoise as it was her favorite stone.

    Reply

  42. Lucy, you sprang the black and gold on us! ☺️ There was no warning it was coming, and no measurements. As someone just asked me to make him a turquoise pendant, I thought I’d look up a tutorial. You didn’t end up with areas with too much black and gold? I was thinking I’d use gold leaf and for the black, acrylic paint, that after grating and cutting the turquoise clay into lumps, I’d put on gloves and mix some thinned paint into the clay, let it dry, and then drop in some bits of the leaf before pressing it together. Your way sounds easier, but I worry that I’d end up with large areas of gold and black where I’d rather the gold and black look like “veins” instead (or what you call the “matrix,” I guess). I don’t see any of your results here so I don’t know whether my prediction came true. Or am I wrong and you posted some photos and I’m too dopey to spot ‘em? I’d love to see your results before I waste a buncha clay trying it my way! If they’re here, point me to ‘em, please?

    Thanks ever so much!

    Reply

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