Sun Sprinkles' Top 10 Picks for Designing Your Own Polymer Clay Jewelry

Sculpey Premo and Sculpey Souffle can be used pretty interchangeably in clay design work. When looking for a polymer clay suitable for jewelry design, durability is very important. Both of these clays become very strong and flexible when cured in the oven for at least an hour. 
 
I slightly prefer Sculpey Souffle over Premo because the colors are trendier and the clay has a smooth texture that is never sticky. However, it's marginally more expensive and much harder to source than Premo.

Also, neither of these clay varieties noticeably shift in color after curing. The only exception is Sculpey Premo’s Translucent and White Translucent colors, which become much more yellow-tinted when cured. For this reason, if you are looking to create with a lot of translucent colors, I would recommend Cernit instead. Otherwise, these clays cannot be beaten.

You truly don’t need to have a Lucy Clay Roller to get clean, smooth clay sheets for creating designs. Cheaper models are available, and they work fairly well. I find that as long as I am taking care of my clay by properly conditioning it and cleaning it, there isn’t a noticeable difference between cheap and expensive models.


If you do roll out a darker color clay prior to a light color or white clay with this roller, you may notice a little bit of discolored clay on your lighter sheet, which is obviously not ideal. 

In my experience, it takes more than a roll or two through the machine to get clay adequately conditioned, so I typically just keep rolling and the discoloration will start to diminish as it mixes into the base clay color. Occasionally, I do notice some roller bumps, but they are not very pronounced.

If you are looking to make pieces that need to be an even thickness all the way through, an extruder is essential. There are high-end and cheaper options for extruders on the market. This extruder is the product I am currently working with, and it performs adequately for the price. 

If I were to purchase another, I would probably try a slightly better one, as this extruder is very squeaky and loud when used and is prone to becoming more and more difficult to use as the lubricant wears down. 

Plus, they do break pretty easily, making them unusable. For the price though, it isn’t a bad product, as long as you don’t expect it to last forever.

These paint pens get the job done. They do require quite a bit of shaking to activate the paint inside. Once the paint is running, it can be difficult to get the stroke just right. 

Sometimes the paint clogs up, making the marker difficult to use or sometimes they run too quickly, creating unsightly puddles of paint on your project. When I use these pens, I do test strokes on a spare piece of paper first. I shake the pens and apply firm pressure to the tip on the paper several times to unclog them. 

Conversely, I scribble a bit on a blank sheet of paper when the pen is releasing too much paint until I reach the desired stroke thickness. I find the black pens to be easier to use than the white ones.

I prefer large, flexible jump rings such as these because they are easier to open and close securely than smaller ones. I never run out of attachment space with this size, which is essential to me as I drill my own holes in my clay pieces and require some variance in size constraints. 

I have never had an issue with these jump rings and highly recommend them. They have a beautiful gold finish that never flakes, and they are very light. They are easy to open, but not easy enough that they come undone while wearing jewelry made with them.

In order to turn everyday items or clay components into wearable earrings, you will need to attach some sort of earring attachment. These earring posts are ideal for gluing to the back of clay pieces, instantly transforming them into earrings. 

I recommend a post no smaller than these 8-millimeter ones because an adequate surface area is essential for making earrings that do not break. I have tried other brands of earring posts, and these are definitely my favorite. Many other types are flimsy, so they move or bend. These are rigid and strong.

This work mat is the best low-fuss way to keep your desk and clay clean while you are working with it. Dirt, dust, and other debris show up more easily on this surface than most desks, as wood can hide dirt and add unwanted texture to a working surface. 

Plus, this mat can be wiped down with some water and a bit of acetone to remove hard-to-clean clay color stains. This becomes very important when you switch from working with black clay to white, for instance. The work mat protects your desk surface from collecting clay pigment and dirtying your clean clay.

I tend to use matte versions of this acrylic paint for detail work when designing clay earrings. This paint is very affordable, which is a plus. However, it can be a bit runny and therefore not completely opaque. 

Depending on what technique you are trying to achieve, its buildable quality may help or hinder the design process. 

Personally, I love it due to its price point. Since the paint is so affordable, I have it in nearly one hundred colors, which cuts down on color mixing. This convenience is worth it to me.

This varnish is absolutely wonderful. I cannot recommend it enough for working with polymer clay. Most varnishes will react with the surface of polymer clay over time and slowly become tacky. Once varnish is tacky, earrings start to stick to hair and collect dirt, which is beyond frustrating. 

Aleene’s varnish dries on completely clear and almost undetectable. It protects detailed surfaces such as paint, markers, or pens. 

The most important attribute of all, of course, is that it never feels sticky or tacky on a project, even months or years later. It leaves no fingerprints once dried and touched, and is applied easily with a spray can.

An X-Acto knife is a must-have tool for a variety of arts and crafts. I recommend it for making clay jewelry because it can allow you to cut your own shapes. There are plenty of shape cutters on the market, but an X-Acto knife gives you full creative freedom to create any shape you could imagine. 

The only issue I’ve ever had with my X-Acto knife is that the blade doesn’t seem to fasten into the base securely. Therefore, the blade sometimes falls out and I need to refasten it. This is only a minor inconvenience and doesn’t really bother me.