How to Make Autumn Theme Polymer Clay Succulent Earrings

by Shuang Liu September 12, 2019

View the Product Used in this Project

As the weather turns cold, it’s time to add autumn color pallet into your jewelry collection. Therefore I created a pair of polymer clay succulent earrings using orange yellow, olive green and dark red. In this tutorial, you will learn three different shapes of polymer clay succulent and how to arrange them on an earring.

If you’ve read my polymer clay tutorials before, you know I don’t like any guess work. In the post, I’ll show you the structure of each succulent, the size of each petal, and the color recipes for all three succulents. This is a very informative post and you can learn a ton from it. So read on!

1. Orange Yellow Succulent

Using a rolling pin or clay roller, roll a piece of yellow polymer clay into 1mm flat sheet. Then as shown in picture 1, cut small circles from it using a Wilton No.7 cake piping tip (4mm in diameter).

The yellow polymer clay color recipe and succulent structure are listed below.

Orange Yellow Succulent Color Recipe

Fimo Soft Sunflower 4g
Fimo Soft Tangerine 0.2g
Fimo Effect Translucent 3g

Orange Yellow Succulent Structure (picture 2 below)

Center: 1/4 of a circle
1st Layer: 1/4 of a circle +1/2 of a circle +3/4 of a circle
2nd Layer: 1 circle *3
3rd Layer: 1 1/2 of a circle *5

Shape and arrange the succulent leaves based on the pictures below. Then set aside.

2. Dark Red Succulent

Using a rolling pin or clay roller, roll a piece of red polymer clay into 1mm flat sheet. Then as shown in picture 1, cut small circles from it using a Wilton No.7 cake piping tip (4mm in diameter).

The red polymer clay color recipe and succulent structure are listed below.

Dark Red Succulent color recipe

Fimo Soft Cherry Red 2.5g
Fimo Professional Bordeaux 0.5g

Dark Red Succulent Structure (picture 2 below)

Center: 1/4 of a circle
1st Layer: 1/2 of a circle +1/2 of a circle +3/4 of a circle
2nd Layer: 1 1/4 of a circle *3
3rd Layer: 2 circles *5

Shape and arrange the succulent leaves based on the pictures below. This time, the leaf should be slightly wider and thicker than the yellow succulent above. In addition, arrange the leaves tightly against each other.

Using a rolling pin or clay roller, roll a piece of green polymer clay into 1mm flat sheet. Then as shown in picture 1, cut small circles from it using a Wilton No.7 cake piping tip (4mm in diameter).

how to make polymer clay succulent

3. Olive Green Succulent

The green polymer clay color recipe and succulent structure are listed below.

Olive Green Succulent Color Recipe

Fimo Professional Leaf Green 3g
Fimo Soft Black 0.2g
Fimo Effect Translucent 4g
Fimo Soft White 2g

Olive Green Succulent Structure

Center: 1/4 of a circle + 1/4 of a circle
1st Layer: 1 circle +1 circle
2nd Layer: 1 1/4 of a circle + 1 1/4 of a circle

The olive green succulent mainly serves as a “filler”. Therefore we need to keep it small. Shape and arrange the succulent leaves based on the pictures below. Then set aside.

4. Assemble the earrings

Using 26/28 gauge soft wire, attach a 12mm gold plate on to a wired circle. You can read about how to make a perfect wired circle in here.

Apply the liquid clay on the metal plate and arrange the unbaked succulents on top of the plate. Remove a few leaves as needed (in picture 5 you can see I pulled out a few leaves from the red succulent to fit the limited space). If there are any uncovered spaces, stuck in a few individual leaves to make the bouquet full.

Bake the whole thing (wires plus succulents) in the oven at 230f/110c for 30 minutes. Then remove the baked succulents from the plate. Since we added liquid clay to the metal plate, after baking, we will get a smooth surface at the back of the succulents as shown in picture 7.

Apply super glue to the metal plate and pop the succulents right back on. Here you have it — a beautiful and lush polymer clay succulent bouquet — on a simple hoop earring.
how to assemble the earrings