Van Gogh’s Almond Blossoms as Clay Earrings

Ever since I made my Starry Night pair of clay earrings, I’ve gotten into using clay to emulate paintings and painting techniques.

This past week, I made a dragon in the theme of the Almond Blossoms set of paintings by Van Gogh.

These earrings were made from the leftover clay from my dragon. This blog post details the process of making them.

Here are the materials I used:

1. Polymer clay
2. Wire (16-22 Gauge should work)
3. A silver bead for the lower dangle
4. Fish hooks
5. Jump rings
6. Head-pins
7. Soft Pastels

Here are the tools I used:

1. X-Acto Knife
2. Needle
3. Hand clay drill
4. Round-Nose pliers
5. Wire Cutters
6. Size 2 brush

Step 1: Start by mixing your colour palate. I used Burnt Umber, Cobalt Blue Hue, Mint Green, Green, White, and Black to mix up this palate.

Step 2: Flatten the blue clay into a thin sheet about a quarter inch thick.

Step 3: Sketch out shapes for your earrings on a sheet of paper. Cut out the shape and use it as a stencil to shape your clay.

Step 4: Roll out your ‘woody’ shades into logs and twist them together, tapering as you twist.

Step 5: Add these coils to the sheet of clay.

Step 6: Roll and flatten out tiny balls of white clay

Step 7: Arrange them into a flower and use the tip of your X-acto knife to add dimension to the flower. Add the flower to the end of one of the branches.

Step 8: Use your blade to create tiny slivers of white clay for thin petals.

Step 9: Repeat till you have your desired fullness. Use some yellow/ochre soft pastels to shade the flowers subtly using your brush.

Step 10: Cut out the earring from the sheet of blue clay.

Step 11: Use the hand drill to create two holes: one at the top and one at the bottom. You can also do this post-baking if you have a power tool.

Step 12: Repeat 1-11 for the second of the pair.

Step 13: Bake clay as per the package’s directions.

Step 14: Thread your bead through a head-pin and use the round-nose pliers to fashion the wire into a loop.

Step 15: Use jump rings to attach the bead charm to the lower hole and a fish hook to the upper hole. The earring is done!

Step 16: Enjoy Van Gogh-related humour.