Syndee: Okay Marie, you’ve been taunting me all week with the way-cool extruded clay cording—time to ’fess up and tell me all! Oh my gosh! Look at that bundle of cords—that’s clay? (See photo 1)

Marie: Remember when I leaned over at Clay Day and whispered “Premo cording?” That’s what got me going on this and I just couldn’t stop! My macramé days have come back to haunt me—but then again, everything old is new again.

Syndee: Hey, that means there is hope for me—I’m old—someone bring me back!

Marie: I’m not that much younger than you are. Macramé is like riding a bike—you never forget the basics, but you forget that it can take you 10 hours to make a little purse.

Marie: That is true! I’ve experimented with different ratios of mix for Premo and Flex. The first purses were a ratio of 1-to-1 Flex and Premo and the rainbow purse is 4 parts Flex to 1 part Premo. I think for doing the macramé, I like the 1-to-1 ratio mix because of the flexibility of the cording. But for durability, the 1-to-4 ratio is my preference. For fluidity, I prefer 4 parts Flex to 1 part Premo.

Syndee: All righty now—let’s make some cord—put the spoiled dog down. (Marie just HAS to spoil my pocket dog, Barky—carries him, rocks him, talks to him and feeds him treats.) What is that color? (See photo 2)

Marie: This is Fuchsia Premo and Flesh Flex, mixed to a ratio of 1-to-1. Warm the mixed clay by kneading in your hand. Roll a coil slightly smaller than the barrel of the clay gun. Select the diameter disk you want. When you extrude the clay, keep moving the clay gun so that your extruded strand coils around on your work surface without touching. (See photo 3) In fact, you should extrude directly onto your cooking tray or baking surface. Extrude as long a length as you can with the clay gun onto your baking surface. Obviously, the larger the disk, the shorter the length of cord. Bake the cord at 275 F for at least 20 minutes. Once it’s baked, and still hot, start to stretch the cord slightly and wiggle it to help remove the kinks. Stretch gently.

Syndee: My first thought when you told me about the cording was Pearl Ex-ed cording to match the pendant. Then this woman walked by wearing the most interesting metal pendant. By the time I got back to my office, I had the design worked out and, by the end of the afternoon, the colors were picked. It always kind of bugged me that I thought I had to have black somewhere in my design to tie in the black rubber cording, but now my cording can match.

Marie: I think this is one of the most important aspects of making your own cording, besides always having a ready supply of it available.

Syndee: When the polymer-clay-design-genie grants my creative wishes for new designs, I don’t have to frantically call Howard at the Clay Factory for more cording.

Marie: It’s right there and ready to go—not that I don’t like bugging Howard. But if I am up at 3 a.m. and I need cord—voilá.

For the Pendant

Syndee: I texturized a sheet of black clay with a Scratch Art Texture sheet. Now I’m going to use a circle cutter to start a crescent shape. (See photo 4)

Add a little Antique Copper to highlight the texture. I’ll flip the crescent over to cut another layer. (See photo 5)

Let’s put a large bamboo skewer in to hold the place for the cording. (See photo 6)

Roll out a large coil of black clay, and taper it at one end. Apply Pearl Ex to this coil—I’ve used True Blue on the top and Copper at the bottom. Wrap the coil around the crescent and place an index card on top and press to flatten together. (See photo 7)

Apply Pearl Ex to your cording by placing a small pile of Pearl Ex on a sheet of paper with the cording and work the Pearl Ex into the cording while it lays on the paper. (See photo 8)

Marie: Use those nails like a skiploader to carry the Pearl Ex to the paper. Don’t you love how they dump at the worst possible times?

Syndee: Like when you are almost done with the piece and a small pile comes tumbling out?! Use Translucent Liquid Sculpey (TLS) to attach the two ends of cording into the pendant where we had the skewer. (See photo 9)

Arrange the pendant with cord on your baking surface the way it would look around your neck. (See photo 10)

Marie: You want it to be larger in the back, so it looks like it’s already hanging on your neck. You also don’t want to seal the Pearl Ex after baking, so let’s use a damp cloth to rub it and remove the excess when it’s cooled.

Syndee: Oh great idea! The sealer would inhibit the stretch, right?

Marie: It might also cause cracking in the sealant and Pearl Ex—Ohhhhhh—but that could be interesting...

Syndee: Bake the pendant and cord assembly according to package instructions and allow it to cool.

Syndee: So let’s do the corded bracelet—I’m the photo dog for this project. Now, what color combo is this? It’s the color of the exterior of my house!

Marie: It’s Premo Gold and Green Flex, mixed at a ratio of 1-to-1. I love this color! Now this is pretty basic too. Measure your wrist with the cording and cut it. Then, measure and cut 12 cords the same length. (You can vary the number of cords.) Cut four rectangles 1-1&Mac218;2" x 3/4" in length out of black clay. We’ll use two of them to start the bracelet. Cut two matching center pieces of black clay, using a Shapelet of your choice. Use the back of your blade to mark the center of this shape for the center of the bracelet. Then fold your cord pieces in half and press to find the center of the cord. (See photo 11)

Place the center of the cord into the center of the Shapelet. Press gently into place. (See photo 12)
Stretch the cord and press it into place on the rectangles. (See photo 13)

Repeat with the other cords—spacing them about 1/8" apart. Alternate by placing one above the center cord and then one below the center cord to keep it even. (See photo 14)

Cut two pieces of cording 23&Mac218;4" long for the clasp. Press one of these loops into the center of one of the rectangles on the outside to form the closure loop. (See photo 15)

A ball of black clay 3/4" in diameter will become the other part of the clasp. Roll this ball into a football and pierce in the center with your bamboo skewer. Thread the other 2-3&Mac218;4" piece of cording through the center hole, and press it into place on the opposite rectangle. (See photo 16)

Apply a layer of TLS over the cords and the clay piece and place the two remaining rectangles on top. Gently press together, matching the edges. (See photo 17)

Ink the stamp and press into the top of the black clay sections. (See photo 18)

The ink will set when the clay bakes.

Marie: Put this puppy in the oven and let’s bake it! You know—you don’t even have to make the cording round—you can use any of the extruder shapes! (Insert maniacal laugh here.)

Syndee: Ohhhhhhhhh.

Marie: If you don’t remember your macramé techniques, there are plenty of craft books available with macramé information.

Syndee: And if you like the bamboo handles on those purses, check out our article on bamboo made from clay in an upcoming issue of Expression. Marie, the spoiled pocket dog wants a macramé dog collar.

Photo 17