My first polymer clay "button"

My first polymer clay "button"
Originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals

I've been frustrated trying to find interesting but reasonably priced decorative buttons for some of my bags. I had heard about polymer clay and seen some Etsy artists who use it t make jewelry and other items. I happened to ask my Administrative Assistant at work if she had ever used polymer clay and she told me how easy it is to use. I went out and bought some Sculpey and went looking on the web for more information. As usual, I found a plethora of information including a wonderful site called Polymer Clay productions:
http://polymerclayproductions.com/ where I subscribed to a series of podcasts on polymer clay techniques. They downloaded to my IPOD and I got a chance to watch two of them on a recent business trip.

Fast forward to today and I kneaded and rolled my clay and cut out a sun shape with a cookie cutter, made two holes for my button, and baked it for 15 minutes at 275 degrees. Couldn't have been easier. Now, I just need to paint my button to match an upcoming bag. I'm excited to get more sophisticated with the polymer clay techniques (I have many more podcasts to watch) but what a fun start!

Bonus to my adventure in button making...Jerry was struggling with a way to do a repair to the bottom of the door handle on our refrigerator. Guess what we fashioned the missing part out of? You got it, polymer clay.