DIY Air Dry Clay Bead Garland

Hey there! I wanted to try making something out of air dry clay and I decided to make a clad bead garland. I found that it was easy to make.

You can make it as long as you want and you can even paint the beads.

I decided to paint the beads white and then I used black paint to give a paint splattered look to the beads. You don't have to paint the beads like mine because you can paint them any color that you want or you don't have to.

I did make a video for this so if you would like you can watch the video below or you can read on.

What you'll need:

Air Dry Clay

Toothpick

Plastic Wrap

Tin Foil

Water

Twine

Cardboard

Scissors

Optional: Paint, paintbrush, and hot glue

How To Make The Beads

The first thing I'll be showing you how to make is the beads. You'll need the plastic wrap, a toothpick, air dry clay, and water.

1. Lay out a piece of plastic wrap. This is where the clay will be placed to dry.

2. To make a bead, you want to start by rolling a piece of air dry clay into a ball with your hands.

3. Then you want to take a toothpick and insert it into the ball and move it around until you have a big enough hole to run twine through it.

Also if it's needed, you can place the toothpick inside of the other hole and repeat the same steps so both holes are the same size.

4. Some other things you can do is that you can smooth out the clay with water and you can roll it in between your hands again if you lost shape of the bead but make sure you don't lose the hole.

5. When you're done creating the bead, you can want to place the hole of the bead on the plastic wrap. If the clay begins to roll, you can press it down a little bit so it doesn't roll but don't press it down to much because it will be to flat on one side and you may lose the hole.

6. All you have to now is to continue making as many beads as you want using the same steps. I do recommend making more than you need because the holes may be to tiny or may close up. I ended up making 43 beads.

7. When you're done creating the beads, you can go back and make sure you didn't lose any holes and fix them if needed.

8. Once you like how all of the beads look, you can wait for the clay to dry. You can follow the instructions on the packaging of the clay that you used to find out how long the clay will dry.

How To Paint The Beads

Now I'm going to show you how to paint the beads and to paint the beads you'll need paint, a paintbrush, tin foil, water, plate, and your beads. This is an optional step so you can skip this if you would like.

I did paint them white and then I took watered down black paint to give a paint splatter look to them but you can paint them however you would like.

1. To paint the beads you'll have to wait until they're completely dry and then you can paint them any color that you would like. I painted the beads white and I did put them on a pencil so it was easier to paint them.

2. Once you're done painting a beads, you can lay the bead on a piece of tinfoil to dry and if you need to you can paint them again with a second coat of paint.

3. When the paint is dry and if you want to add a paint splatter look to the beads, you can mix water with paint to water it down with another color of paint in a paper plate and you can test it by pulling back the bristles of the paintbrush with your finger and letting them go on a test bead or a scrap piece of paper.

4. If you like the consistency of the paint and how it looks on a test piece, you can pull back the bristles of the paintbrush with your finger and let them go towards the beads. I use black paint to make the paint spatter on my beads.

Also you do want to make sure you have a large area covered because the paint will go everywhere.

5. When the paint is completely dry, you can flip each bead over and repeat the steps 3 and 4 again to get the rest of the bead covered.

6. Then you want to wait for the paint to dry before going onto the next step.

How To Put The Beads On The Twine

Now I'm going to show you how to put the beads on the twine. You'll need twine, your beads, scissors, and you may need tape.

1. When the paint is completely dry, you can run twine through the beads and you want to wait until later to cut the twine because then you'll know how much twine you're going to need for all of the beads and the tassels.

If you end up having trouble getting the twine through the beads, you can put tape on the end of the twine and you may need to trim and replace it after a few beads.

You also don't have to use all of beads. I only used 40 of the 43 beads because the holes were to small.

2. When you're done, you can cut the twine but make sure leave enough on both ends to tie the tassels on.

3. Now you can tie a knot next to the last bead on both ends of the twine. This will hold the beads in place while you're tying the tassels on.

How To Make The Tassels

The last thing I'm going to show you how to make is the tassels and all you're going to need is twine, cardboard, and scissors.

1. To make the tassels you want to start by wrapping twine around a piece of cardboard that measures to the length that you want your tassel to be about 15 times. The piece of cardboard I used measures 4 x 2 inches.

2. When you're done wrapping, you want to cut the twine you were wrapping with.

3. Then you want to take another piece of twine and tie it where you want the top of the tassel to be.

4. The next thing you want to do is that you want to cut the twine off of the cardboard where the bottom of the tassel is.

5. When you're done cutting the twine off of the cardboard, you want to make a loop with another piece of twine and place the loop over the tassel.

6. After you place the loop over the tassel, you want to take the part of twine that's the opposite of the end of the loop and wrap the twine around the tassel about 10 times. When you're done wrapping, make sure you can still see the end of the twine that's from the loop because you'll need to use it later.

7. Once you're done wrapping the twine, you can cut the twine you were wrapping with.

8. Then you want to take the twine you were wrapping with and pull it through the loop.

9. Then you can pull the end that's connected to the loop to make a knot.

10. When you're done creating the knot, you can trim both ends of the knot but not short because the twine may unravel.

11. The last thing you want to do for your first tassel is that you want to trim the end of the tassel to make it more even.

12. Then you can create another tassel and make it the same size.

Here's an example of what each tassel would like when it's done. This is a picture of the finished tassel already tied on the garland but it gives you an idea of what the tassel will look like when it's done.

How To Tie The Tassels On

The last thing I'm going to show you how to do is how to tie both of the tassels on the garland. All you're going to need is scissors and maybe hot glue.

1. You want to tie each tassel on by tying the tassel on the twine with the beads and then you want to tie one strand from the tassels onto the twine with the beads. You can keep switching which piece of twine your tying on until the tassel no longer moves and its secure.

2. When you're done tying the first tassel on, you can trim the twine but not to short so the twine doesn't unravel.

3. Repeat the same steps for the other tassel.

4. If you're worried that the twine will come undone you can put a small drop of hot glue on the knot you just tied to prevent it from coming undone but this is completely optional.

That's how you make this clay bead garland!

I love the length and I also love how the paint on the beads came out. What do you think about this beaded garland?