This tutorial was inspired by the wonderful work of Elise Winters. Donna Kato also does a similar controlled crackle.

1.  I first made two Skinner blends in different colors, one twice as thick as the other.  On the thicker one I painted a thick layer of Viva Precious Metal Colour paint. I let it dry and then sliced the paint in a small, square, grid pattern with a sharp Xacto blade.  This paint worked the best of the several brands I tried. It only comes in a few metallic colors. Be careful to not cut too deeply. Just cut the paint, not all the way through the clay.

2. I then ran this veneer through the pasta machine in one direction and then perpendicularly, until its thickness matched the plain clay veneer. This allows the clay underneath to show between the gold metallic squares.

3.  I cut strips of each veneer and put them together to make small veneers the size and shape needed for each side of the earrings.  I found this easier than applying separate strips to the form, though that works too. The templates I made are below.

4.  I had pre-baked two forms I’d made of Ultralight.  I drilled fairly large holes into the top centers of these and filled them with a paste of polymer and liquid clay.  Then I adhered the veneers to the forms using a thin layer of liquid clay.

5. I made a loop in one end of a piece of wire and bent over the other end so it wouldn’t pull out after baking. I inserted this wire into the clay-filled holes and baked the earrings in a bed of cornstarch.