In this tutorial I played around with hard-in-soft inlay.  I wanted to make an interesting bead with gaps around the bull’s eye cane. I've been trying to be more disciplined with my work in the past few months, so I look for any excuse to experiment when I write tutorials. This is not a technique that you’d use for everything. If you want a smooth bead you should use soft-in-soft inlay.

Materials

• Clay - 3 different colours - I used white, light green and turquoise green*
• Bulls eye cane - read this tutorial if you don't know how

*Stiffer clays work better. If you’re using Fimo soft, leech it, before using it.

Tools and equipment

• Glass sheet or ceramic tile to work on
• Additional glass sheet to help with rolling the shapes
• Stiff blade
• Polisher - I use a Dremel
• Sandpaper
• Needle tool, darning needle or something similar
• Toothpicks

Method

Reduce the bull’s eye cane to the size you want the bead core and the parts on the side to be. Put it in the fridge and cut the bead core as well as 9-12 thin slices to put onto the bead. 

Put the slices in the oven and bake according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Make the hole for the bead. The bull’s eye cane will form the core for the bead [image 1], so you will only see part of the cane after the bead’s been covered and strung. But that is one of the small touches I like to add when making my jewellery. 

Bake the pieces according to the clay manufacturer’s instructions. 

Condition some white clay and roll it out on the thickest setting of your pasta machine. Trim the sheet. It should be wide enough for the bead core and long enough to go around twice. 

When the bead core is cooled down, roll the white clay around it twice and trim the edge off. Roll between your hands to smooth the join [image 2].  

Condition some of the green clay and roll it out on your pasta machine. Trim the sheet so that it is wider than the diameter of your bull’s eye cane. Place it in the centre of the bead [image 3], roll the bead until it is covered by the green sheet, trim at a 45 degree angle and smooth the join. 

Condition the turquoise green clay and roll some strings that are long enough to go around the bead. You can also use an extruder for this step. Press the edge of the string against the green sheet. Go around the bead [image 4] and smooth it against the starting point. Do the same on the other side. 

Use your blade to push the string close to the sheet. 

The main design for the bead is done [image 5]. You need to smooth the clay to get rid of fingerprints. 

Put the bead on a toothpick and put it on something elevated - I used wooden planks. Put the baked cane slice on the green strip. Press it so that it is embedded in the clay. Turn the bead around and put another slice on the opposite end. Put the third halfway between the other two slices, put the next slice opposite the one you just placed. You should have 4 pieces placed [image 6]. See how many slices you can fit between the placed slices. 

Right. Did that make sense? I hope so. I prefer placing the slices in the manner mentioned above because if you just place them next to each other it is easy to misjudge the spacing. 

Now roll the bead between your hands to embed the slices properly. With this rolling action you are making holes around the slices as the baked bits move around which is the effect I was looking for [image 7]. I had one of my clumsy days and dropped the unbake bead behind my desk, hence the dust. Annoying.  

If you want the bull's eye cane to be a raised element in your design, then don't roll the bead, just press each slice to make sure it sticks. You could also add some liquid clay to the bottom of the slices if you want to make sure it is secure.

Check for finger marks and smooth the piece. Bake according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Sand and polish to complete the bead [image 8].