Stunning statement necklace in a crocodile skin look

Big is better! This cool necklace in trendy colours and effective crocodile skin look is guaranteed to attract attention and transform any outfit into a fashion statement. You can make this XXL gem out of FIMO soft – hand-crafted in your very own jewellery design studio. Incredibly quick and easy: Use the FIMO accessoires ‚croco' texture sheet to create a great crocodile skin effect.

1 First take the coloured blocks of FIMO soft and the black FIMO soft and go over each of them with the acrylic roller to make them slightly thinner before using the clay machine on setting 1 to roll each one out to a thin sheet. Then roll each of the coloured sheets of FIMO soft through the clay machine on setting 4 to make them even thinner.

2 The coloured sheets are then given an impressive crocodile skin pattern: Place a sheet of FIMO soft on a piece of baking paper. Moisten the ‚croco' texture sheet with a little water,
place it on the sheet of FIMO soft and roll all over the texture sheet firmly using the acrylic roller. Carefully remove the texture sheet – the crocodile skin pattern is now visible on the sheet of FIMO soft.

3 It's time now to cut out the black FIMO soft gemstones: Print the pattern sheets out on paper and cut them out. Place a sheet of black FIMO soft on a piece of baking paper.
Place the template on the black sheet of FIMO soft and press on gently with your finger to make the paper stick. Then cut the gemstone out of the sheet of clay by going around the edge of the template with the kitchen knife. Remove the template. Repeat the procedure for all seven black gemstones.

4 The black FIMO soft gemstones are then decorated with embossed, coloured crocodile-look gemstones: Take the template used to create the black gemstone and place it on one of the coloured, embossed sheets of FIMO soft. Cut a coloured gemstone out in the same way as described in step 3. Using the kitchen knife, cut 2 mm off all four sides of the crocodile skin gemstone to make it slightly smaller. Place the croco gemstone on top of the black gemstone and press on gently.

5 To create a two-coloured design, cut the crocodile skin gemstone horizontally or diagonally across to the desired size and cut 2 mm off all of the edges as described before. Place the coloured gemstone on top of the black gemstone. Use the template to cut out a second, different-coloured croco gemstone. Cut this second croco gemstone horizontally or diagonally across too, making it the right size to fit on the black gemstone along with the other coloured piece. Make a hole in all four corners of the black gemstone with a small wooden stick. Repeat the procedure for all gemstones.

6 Place the FIMO soft gemstones on a piece of baking paper and harden in the oven for approx. 30 min at 110°C.Take them out and leave to cool. Now paint over the front of all gemstones with black acrylic paint. Once dry, sand the paint off the surface using a sanding sponge from the grind'n polish set. Paint will be left in the recesses thereby making the
crocodile skin design visible in black.

7 Varnish the gemstones. Once the varnish has dried, join the gemstones together using the oval eyelets. Add one oval eyelet to each of the two holes in the gemstone on the far left and then add a round eyelet to each of these oval eyelets. Do the same with the gemstone on the far right. Thread a length of ribbon through both round eyelets on the left side of the necklace and again on the right. That's it – the new FIMO soft statement necklace is finished!

Tip:
Don't stop there – go on to make crocodile skin earrings to go with your statement necklace.
Use a template to make a FIMO soft gemstone. Turn it over to make a second, mirror-inverted
gemstone. Once finished and varnished, use eyelets to attach the gemstones to hook  earrings.

Template:

Idea, photo and text: Staedtler GmbH