Sunshine Rainbow Arch Clay Earrings

The arch polymer clay earrings are really trendy, and this design stands out more than your average polymer clay earring. A cute sunshine smiles above a bright rainbow arch to remind you that happy days are just around the corner. I will show you how to make these without using cutters, so don't feel intimidated or pass it by if you don't have any polymer clay cutters!

1. Clay (polymer or air dry, your choice) in Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet.

2. Clay in Black

3. A work surface (I am using an acrylic board)

4. Round Nose Pliers

5. Two Jump Rings

6. Two Flatback Stud/Post Earrings

7. Two flat surfaces (I am using both my workspace acrylic board and a second identical board. You can use your work surface for one flat surface and whatever else for your other flat surface. Just make sure it isn't something that will stick to your clay and can be easily held in your hand. The next step will explain this better so you can know what you need).

8. Clay Roller tool

9. Clay Knife tool

10. Ball tool

11. Clay Stylus tool (or a tooth pick)

12. Varnish (optional; I am using Duraclear Polyurethane Varnish in Gloss).

13. Brush to apply varnish

This is a really easy way to roll out logs of clay. You need two flat surfaces (I am using two small acrylic boards) and your clay.
Put the piece of clay on your flat surface (first board) and then lay the top board on top of the clay, pressing slightly while moving the top board back and forth. The clay will become a smooth log! How even it is depends on how good you are at pressing evenly on the top board, but it is easy to apply more pressure to one side and even out a lopsided log. I first saw this done by Kaylana Design Tutorials and have since seen other polymer clay artists do this. It really makes rolling logs so easy!

I included a gif that hopefully works, but if not I included photos as well.

Starting with the violet clay, I roll out a thin log of clay in the way I showed in the first step. If you don't want to do that, obviously you can just roll out the logs with your fingers.

My clay log is about the thickness of a standard round toothpick.

With the violet clay, I bend it into an arch or upside down "u" shape with my fingers. This is the start of the arch, so don't make it huge. Mine is a skinny arch.

Set that aside and move on to the blue clay. Roll it out into a toothpick sized snake, then take your violet arch and carefully wrap the blue log around the violet arch. Make sure the two colors are touching so they bond to each other. Don't worry about loose ends right now; we'll deal with that later. You should now have an arch with a violet middle and blue outside.

Proceed to do the rest of the colors the same way in this order: green, yellow, orange, and lastly red. I didn't include photos of me rolling all the separate colors out because that would get exceedingly boring.

Once the red as been wrapped on top of the orange arch, you should have a rainbow arch! Now with the knife tool we will trim the ends even with one another. My arch measures about an inch and an eighth (1 1/8th inches) from the trimmed bottom to the tip of the arch, but you can make it as short or tall as you like. The ruler will come in handy for making sure your second arch is the height of your first arch, or you can just lay the first arch on top of the second one and then trim it evenly.

With the stylus tool or toothpick, poke a hole in the top of the arch in between the red and orange layers. This is the jump ring hole.

Make the second arch in the same way you made the first.

With the yellow clay, roll out the clay into a flat sheet. Don't make it too thin. With your stylus tool or your knife tool, draw a small circle on the yellow clay and then cut it out with the knife tool.

*If you are worried about not being able to make a good circle, lightly press the top of a nail polish bottle onto the clay so it makes a circle you can trace around.

Set the yellow circle aside.

Roll out the yellow clay again. This time place the little circle on the rolled out clay. On the rolled out clay, draw out the little spikes/triangles for the sunshine beams. With your knife tool, cut out around the spikes and then peel back the excess clay. Now you have a sunshine shape (make sure not to get it stuck to your work surface like I did!).

With the ball too, lightly press two indents for eyes on the sunshine's face. Get out your black clay and make a tiny little ball for the eye. It should be the same size (about) as the indent you made. Place the eyeball into the eye socket. Make a second one and now the sunshine has eyeballs.

Roll out a tiny, tiny log of black clay. Cut off a little bit with the knife tool, then pick up the little bit with the stylus tool and place it on the sunshine's face for a smile.

I'm so tempted to leave him like that.

But I won't, so with the stylus tool, move the ends of the clay log into an upward direction, causing it to become a smile.

Awww!

With the stylus tool, poke a hole into the bottom of the sunshine. This is for the jump ring.

Make a second sunshine.

To attach the earring post, get out the yellow clay and the sunshine.

Roll out the yellow cay and place it on top of the earring post, poking the stick end up through the clay. Trim around the flatback, making sure to leave an edge that can stick the sunshine and form a bond of clay.

Place the earring onto the back of the sunshine. Smooth down the edges of clay that are on the earring, sealing it to the sunshine back.

A word of caution - don't accidentally cover the hole you made in the sunshine. Like I did...

Do the same to the other sunshine, and now your sunshine and rainbow are ready to be joined together.

First, if you are using polymer clay, bake your earring pieces. If you are using air dry clay, wait for it to dry.

To attach the sunshine to the rainbow, get out your jump rings and pliers. Open the jump ring by twisting the sides apart, not pulling them away from each other. Put the jump ring through the hole in the rainbow and the hole in the sunshine (make sure they are facing the correct way) and close the jump ring. Do the same to the second set.

Now all you need to do is varnish the pieces. You don't have to do this for polymer clay, but you do have to do this for air dry clay. I simply apply with a brush, let dry, then apply another coat. I generally do three coats.

Once the varnish is dry, you are ready to wear your earrings with a smile on your face. I hope that you enjoyed this Instructable, and if you make these earrings maybe they will make someone who sees them smile. Have a great day!