How to Embellish an Ornament with Crystal Clay, Filigree, and Crystals

SKU VID-0373
Designer: Julie Bean
In this video tutorial learn how to embellish a holiday ornament using Crystal Clay, filigree, Crystal Splash, and crystal chatons. This is an in-depth step-by-step video and takes you through the entire process. It is a long video but one that will have you looking at your old ornaments in a whole new light!
Audio Transcript
Note: This audio transcript is auto-generated and may not be completely accurate.
Hi, this is Julie with Beadaholique.com I want to show you a really fun project. It's how to make this holiday ornament. So what this started out as is a plain ball and then I decorated it I used some crystal clay, some filigree and Swarovski chatons and some crystal splash and some flatbacks and I made it very glitzy and very fancy I actually think it came out quite pretty. I hope you agree and I thought I would do a video here showing you how to do it because it's a lot of different steps. So forewarn with this video, this is going to be a long one. This does take a while it took me about two and a half hours to finish this ornament. It was a lot of fun. It's a great keepsake and it's really a technique it you can apply to a lot of different ornaments. This one happen to be quite large so that's why it took a while. I have a lot of space to cover I want to show you how to do this and show you a little variation on this design but the technique will be the same. I'll put this aside It's kinda heavy. You'll see it likes to roll around so I'm going to actually put it right here in this little Cup and that way it'll sit upright so you can see what's happening with it. So what you're going to need supply wise is an ornament and I actually picked this up just at a local drug store. You can them from the grocery store during the holiday season, Craft Stores and what's nice about this particular ornament is that it's shatter proof. It is plastic. I highly recommend using shatterproof ornaments just because you're gonna be manipulating it a lot using pressure on it. You're gonna be doing a lot of things to it I would hate for glass to shatter in your hand of course. So if you can find shatterproof please use it. If you can't, glass will work the crystal clay will adhere to the glass but be really careful so you will need an ornament and then you'll need some filigree. I have these great shapes right here I used three of these shapes on this ornament but in the design I'm going to do with you here in the video. I'm going to only used two and they come a little bit bent but what I want you to do to shape them with your fingers so they fit the curve of the ornament where ever you're gonna lay them so that actually fits pretty well. It doesn't have to be perfect. You can see there's a gap that's fine, the crystal clay is gonna fill that in and I'm going to do a design here where I have this main centerpiece focal right there in the front and that's just a different filigree shape. I'll show you have do that you're going to need some crystal clay to apply to your ornament and to have all your items stick together. I recommend just aesthetically using the same color crystal clay as your ornament and then also as your chatons it just gives it a little bit more of a richer look. You can definitely vary that but if you want to have this look that is like all one complete piece that goes together it really helps aesthetically if you do the matching clay ornament. I've got two bags of crystal which are 50 each sized pp14 chatons I've got one bag which is size pp24 and then I've got some flatbacks as well which are sized ss12 that's what you'll need and you'll need different quantities of those, whatever you really want and are comfortable with and then my other ingredient here is crystal splash if you're not familiar with this, it is really fun. So just an a bondage of crystals. They have no holes in them and they work great for crystal clay and are really pretty and you'll see that's what gives it the same crested look what they do is because they're clear they show the clay through them. So they take on the color of the clay little and then the only tool you're gonna need is a magical pic, some type a tool to pick up your chatons with and that comes with this little pad here that is sticky. It's piece of tape on it and you can just do that throughout the process to make sure that it stays sticky and pick them up so let's begin and I do apologize that this is a long video I just wanna make sure I show you how to do it. I'm going to actually push all my supplies back. I've pulled out some white paper so that I have a really clean work surface. I've washed my hands thoroughly I've taken off all of my rings just to make it a little bit easier to work with I'm going to open up my 25 gram package of red crystal clay this is what you have inside and it too comes with a little pic to help you pick up your crystals. This pic does work. I actually prefer the magic pic a little bit but this will work if you don't have a magic pic The design we're gonna do is putting one of each of these on the sides and then in the middle we're gonna put this guy Make sure that the one we're going to start with is molded to our ornament that looks pretty darn good to me now I'm gonna put on the gloves and what I'm going to do is not going to mix all my crystal clay at once. I want to make sure that it's as sticky as possible for as long as possible and curing time starts as soon as the part A and part B is mixed and you have about 45 minutes of really good work time with it. It does say on the package you have two to two and a half hours but I find if you're putting a lot of different crystals into it it does start to harden, start to cure now you don't wanna go too much more than about 45 minutes once you've mixed it before you place everything. I am going to take only enough clay to fill my filigree and then fill a little bit beyond for the crystal splash. So for me I think that equals about a large pea size or a small gum ball size. You can kind of put that in there about double that I think would be perfect with crystal clay you'll need to mix equal amounts of part A and part B and this is a self hardening epoxy clay you don't need to bake it and so I find the easiest way to make sure that you have exactly the right amounts of part A and part B is to make two little balls I can tell that my part B is a little smaller I'll pinch off a little bit more, add it to it and roll it again and that looks even and now because it doesn't actually start to cure until part A and part B are mixed. I'm gonna go ahead right now pinch of another what I think is an equal amount I might want my balls a little bit smaller Just a hair just keep playing with it, there's no harm in just make sure you get the right amount. It's not going to cure properly if you don't have equal amounts I'm just gonna make matching ball sizes since I have two of these filigree pieces that way when it comes time to do the next one it's already ready to go and I know I've used the same amount of clay those all look pretty darn good to me. I'm actually going to take one of my hardener balls, put it back into my little clay packet but I'm not going to squish it and do the same with one of my red balls, close those up so that they don't dry out and put that aside and I'll squish them together and I'm going to keep squishing, keep mixing until all striations are gone you want a nice uniform color, so just mix back and forth. It'll will take two to three minutes Once this is fully mixed go ahead roll it into a ball. Now I want to try this just in a general sense mimic the shape of the pice you're gonna put it on behind. So the filigree in this case. So that's kind of a triangle shape It's very basic, kind of flatten it out a little too At this point you'll wanna take off your gloves, put them aside. You'll need to put them back on later this the sticky but it's not so sticky that I can't touch it I'm going to go ahead and put it on my filigree on the backside I'm going to just carefully spread it to the edges. For my design I want it to not surpassed the edges up here but I do want it to be a little longer and wider down at the base. Right now I'm just pressing it not too hard into the back of the filigree to fill in that space see what it looks like from topside and now I wanna just actually kind of pulling it a little from the back and squishing it and pressing it so it goes beyond the edges and now I'm ready to put it onto my ornament my ornament has a seam, why not just cover that seam with this pretty decorative piece. I'm just gonna do that you see there's a little notch in my filigree I'm going to line that up with the same just up towards the edge here and now I'm going to press on the part of the filigree that doesn't have holes you can see it's squishing out that's okay. I'm going to go back and do something decorative at the very end so now I want to do is to squish out some of these top holes because that's going to make it easier to adhere my chatons too, I'm just passing it this too is why it's good if you have shatterproof ornaments because you are applying some pressure. See what it looks like from the side okay now I just want to go ahead and squish this down really press this into place look at it, make sure you're happy with how it looks I like the look that's just being encrusted, so this doesn't have to be perfect if you want to be you can really work on it and go ahead and squish it around. Make sure that it's all even but I don't I feel that's necessary for this design but you can if you want to. Now's time to apply some chatons and it's gonna roll around when you put it down its gonna roll the bottom which is fine because it is heavy when I say heavy I don't mean super heavy, just heavy for the plastic ornament. To pick up the chatons with my magic pic and place it into the clay and that's why you want the clay to squish out because you want to have some clay for it to be placed into It's up to you where you want to place each chatons. There's no right or wrong way. If you can see I'm just picking it up. Pick it up on the tip and putting it in place that actually looks good to me. I'm pretty happy with those there. So I'm going to go add some smaller ones It can be kinda fun figuring out where you want to place these and I think that's good. I'll do two more and then we'll call it good for this part now is the time to add the crystal splash to do that pour some out on the table. I'm actually gonna take a little pile in my hand and just squish it into the clay do a little bit at a time you could do one at a time you can try to do several at a time they will fall off not once they're stuck in there but they will fall off as you're trying to apply them and you don't actually get them into the clay just keep going keep applying them. You wanna squish them into that clay. You want them to really have a good hold Once you pretty much filled it in and after there is a rough fill in, I want you to take some smaller crystal splash and fill in the big gaps. Also I want you to look at the edges and see if there's any where that you can squish all the little crystals as well Feel free to like really push these in there and make them move around and make them expose extra little areas of clay I have a gap right there, place a crystal just push it on in there, if some of the other ones move around so that it fills a gap so a crystal won't stay unless it has enough clay to grab onto and you'll be able to fill when it grabs. So don't be surprised if you have one or two that d o pop off you can always use E6000 glue to glue them in place afterwards but they will stay if they have enough of a hold on that Clay they will stay. So there's one side and if you look at this ornament here you can see we've actually done three segments like this put this ornament right here in a little cup here's one segment. This is a totally separate unit. This was done later here's another segment and here's another segment and they were all done identical to this so if you're going to do this pattern you adjusted three of these and then why did was I took clay night is put a nice pic blob of clay there but then they're a little stem between the filigree pieces and then push the crystal splash into it so that's how this one mister know what I'm in India as I'm going to now go and to you the other one off-camera just because I don't to take up your time thing just seen the technique and I come back I have the other one done this one ton of course and I'll show you how details and nice folk peace as well as you can see have gone ahead and act and the other side so now we have two sides tan if you're doing this design ever hear you edit three and now and then it is focal piece I want this case right here re-started bend it so they'll fit my Paul that happened a little bit more what's great about the silver plated stampings said pretty flexible actually to spend time with your fingers you don't need a mantra or any special tool keep bending time really conforms to that ranching looks pretty good get it doesn't have to be perfect and that's when the beauties using this crystal splash is that it kinda feels in all those gaps you don't have to worry so much so what I wanna do now someone apply it so I think some crystal clay ask you the same method as we used to put these on but what I want. I'm can look at it here and I know that I'm gonna wanna fill in this area here and right around here with Marcus to splash so I cant use all my clothes at this point have to make sure I leave a little bit extra so when I put my clothes back on and I pick %uh much clay to keep that in mind so time for the club's again pretty well used at this point but still definitely work summit take my breath am gonna say I wanna prolly leave hopefully about that much extra clay you little bit tight on this one it's gonna work you little less role that Interpol changes before we want to make matching balls little too much harder attention away that looks good to me now I'm gonna go ahead squish them up and mix them together saw mixed said I rolled into a ball and I flap all can you just can't tap this process for whatever piece/pieces filigree anything and how much crystal splash one hears just have take these techniques news and as a guideline whatever it its take my glass look at this again see where I wanna put it think it's going to write about their go ahead but that in the center on this one I don't think I won a lot across the splash coming out the bottom seven become a careful just hole there since question I don't really want it to squish out the bottom part on this one you can see from the side looks like but I do want to squish laptop because I wanna feel that in splash I'm gonna can I all that don't want that one actually to pull out too much either more rate this top part sends pull it out squish okay I feel like I'm good go ahead put this on just Linea Intel act like a lotta clay there you look at the might squish tests a little bit more a lot more to come out the top scientists push it up wash your hands really get a soap and water after you do this me bat X create a darn good to me I'm just going to go from the center Press the little uneven their year ago ken I'm really happy I have a shatterproof Paul at this point is I am applying a bit of pressure here squished alling splash I'm not see that looks nice and not coming out the bottom there happy about by do want some clay squish added these holes have something to put my chatons and a little uneven scat their remove it looks pretty darn good now and clinical back fill in some these holes many stones same process you pick one up press it down the place to wherever you like no real rhyme or reason here see issued stands I have left here and separately is one package so I'm a firm believer I can make it work less ingredients and going to you so where is this ornament used to pack so the smaller and one pack a larger I think they can get away with just one package but this ornament so why not signs can text me bigger ones I have left was put them wherever I want make sure there's enough clay for them to stick into otherwise you're gonna have to go back but this doesn't really happen of clay self-pride I put it there gonna have to go back in at some Cali later want to use on main just need to be cleaned at afterthought later a patented that looks pretty good to me I woke up academically that one in there later shall be fun some now I have this stuff up here still quite fresh so well actually didn't accept what I have left the crystal-clear right now and then I'm gonna fill in the gaps I could do at all at once with a custom splash so I messed take what I have left the mayer et a roll into a ball you would think I should have equal parts apart and happy at help I'm still gonna roll into a ball because you never know had a little bit of here there other segments looks like I did as can pinch a little bit part B away that and that match next okay that balsamic step my hands are quite sticky stuff I wanna touch me on but I do wanna look at where and I wanna put this clay I think I want to like a little line right here I'm going to pinch of little segments sale hatch do right in there me like a little tube shaped to go along the edge so this what you can do if you doing as different as I Hung just gonna look at it identify what you mean and then make cash according shape accordingly and fill it in a quiet place now got just a little bit left men decide what to do with that K gloves are coming of for the final time thankfully send now my team I finishing touch shape right in there that handle that them actually go ahead and just fill that with my crystal splash right now sorry policy these popping off and you can hear them popping off and that is because I they've been laid on top the client if not then press fully into it Tucson actually really depressed your crystals and back clay even if it's a matter just like moving them around a lot but it's gonna be fine you want them ticket good solid foothold in there which I know I mentioned before just it's really important otherwise they're not gonna stay for you so that folks get Manning going to the back side member I mean that's ok while things coming along pension are precedent places do you wanna villainous too little caps cuz I want to look like goes all the way around capital all right there another one right can just go ahead and fill it in him and take the end of your magic pic if you want yeah I push the crystals into place if you want said we've got this done so far so we have a lot of extra clay so I do wanna go ahead and use it I think where I want to use it is right here and right here cell that back and look up and if I had this in here keeping out just a little emergency pile as a kind account shapes can make internal come cheap Skype set into place same on the other side time that Mc Crystals an end to the other side and there we go we have the top part for ornament time because shake it off a picture all the crystals are set you might hear couple drop-off see if they we're just loose on top of the need to fill a hole a little hole right there and take crystal pop it into place ok so that's the top car and and all that's left now is to go back and help the little polka dots which would be the flat back rhinestones when I suggest doing is going to let this cure overnight but try fully hardened so when you start turning around manipulating it to put on a little polka dots that way its you not going to dislodge anything here so I would do that right now take a break come back to it tomorrow morning and to finish it up so that's what I meant the right now take a break when I come back will be fully cured and will be ready to go ahead and add the final touch we patiently waited and now the crystal clear arnett has here as an hour scan and a little sparkles and to do that grannies E6000 glue helped us enough to put it on we're going to use his flat back which are sized SS 12 and then you like a toothpick piece a wireless applicator at the side and used the little wax take that came with my crystal clay I'm use it to apply these Sep but some E6000 paper it dries really quick so don't put a lock down once you're gonna have to add more status can take applicator get a little bit on their you don't wanna lot now if there's any imperfection with your ornament got to put a dot right over it now is kinda cool about using the wax take a second just turn it around and pick up way plaque otherwise I'd have to say magic pecan and we are just can't do this we're gonna get a little bit a clip but a little dot on ornament go ahead pick up a flatback and precedent to the clean and just gonna do this at random intervals I just wanted to look sickly like coconuts clear crystal puck try not to put too much clearer that squishes over it's like a line you want be pretty clean no changes rotate your ornament around you see this is already trying stuff that happens is kinda wrap your stick on your little PAP their get off the excess and pick up some more clip you know got going here pretty little dots any a little bit more glue getting a little bit right after me need a little more glue meant okay this is cured just let it sit like that we have so far and looking at my flatbacks Axtell only have four left so what you can do couple diesel crystals are coming off if you need to you can go ahead and clear them back in place or its prolly just a fact that they were just kinda on top of other ones Sep you can I their just make it work with having me actually have left which is what I meant to hear because you're not gonna really see the bottom out this mornin or you can purchase another pack a flat access whatever you want so I'm gonna do that right now have a little bit more glue is going to a couple where might be seen and not worry about their last not worry about that their on Sat got four left put them in nice obvious spots a recap we are done and now this is a hugely long project I think it was worth that now hair you have your ornament so feel free to play around with this Technol have fun with what choose to embed in the clay with the crystal splash the pattern the polka dots just like yourself place a great way of exploring creativity and just having fun at the holidays so these two ornaments here but made using the same technique get other quite different that which is nice and you can see all other ingredients and further details at beadaholique.com in the free project section and both that these will be under crops are under our holiday projects. Go to www.beadaholique.com to purchase beading supplies and to get design ideas!

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