3 grades of sand paper, buffing, polishing, all by hand, beads TOO SMALL to do with any degree of comfort, but...I think it might have been worth it! I figured I can put up with fingerprints on my own jewellery but if I'm going to make prezzies, maybe I'd better put the effort in and do it properly.

The pain! I think my fingertips are now a different shape as well as a different texture! But I have lots of marbled blue beads drying on cocktail sticks, and I'm mighty chuffed with them! (Hope my stepmum is, too when they eventually get made into her birthday present.)

Does it get any easier, or do your fingers either harden up or drop off, whichever comes first? I did try DH's sanding tool, but the beads kept flying off and pinging around the room!

Louise. Welcome to the forum and the world of polyclay.

Nope, it doesn't get any easier, hun. Not if doing tiny beads by hand that is.

Get yourself a dremel (unless that's what you're on about with hubby) and at least that will do the polishing for you.

As for the sanding, I've sanded the tops off my fingers many a time and even made them bleed, but...oh! what we go through for the sake of our art, eh?

I look forward to seeing your work, hun.

Thanks, Lorraine. Guess I'd better get used to having wrecked fingernails and hurty fingers! There's nothing like awful hands to show off your handmade jewellery! I think DH's sanding thingy is like a Dremel but cheaper, but he hasn't got a decent polishing disc for it. I shall persevere, but looking at my beadies this morning, I think the pain was worth it! Playing with polymer clay is scarily addictive...

Sanding is a pain isn't it? It is worth it though - the clay has a lovely feel when it's smooth.

Di

It does, doesn't it? I'm wearing one of my first creations at the moment, and I love the colours, but it would look so much better without the fingerprints! I really want to make something pretty with my new beadies, but I'm going away for the weekend, so it'll have to wait till I get back I'm not addicted. Honest.

I have sort of managed to avoid the pain of sanding small beads by folding up a towel into a wad, putting some sandpaper on top, then some beads, then more sandpaper, and working them about with the palm of my hand pressed down on them....also you can do most of a round bead if it's stuck onto a cocktail stick, or even a row of them on a thin piece of rod, and rolling them about on the paper, on a towel.

Another thing you could try is putting on thin rubber gloves just to give the beads a final smoothing in your hands before baking.

Oh, that sounds like a good idea, Caroline. Thank you! Will give that a go when I make my next batch. And I thought about using gloves last time I made some, but didn't - and I really should have, I put pearl powder on them before baking, and they look terrible with all the highlighted fingerprints!

I'm sure Carrie's suggestion will work. When I sanded silver pieces I used to always rub the silver against the sandpaper which I put on a sponge.

Or maybe you could leave the fingerprints on for authenticity. I know leonardo da vinci left his fingerprints on the mona lisa

Melanie

OW

What we do for love No pain no gain
(as I've lost all my nails so far)


Tracey