Here's an unexpected way to use a gear cutter: for making steampunk style strips of clay that form a flower shape. Add your rosette to a ring for a unique piece of jewelry.
Tools and Materials:
Metallic polymer clay (I used Premo! Sculpey® Silver)
Tiny Gears Deco Disc (Infinite Possibilities Create Along Box)
Cog Wheel clay cutter (Infinite Possibilities Create Along Box)
Craft knife
Clay blade
Mica powder
3/8 inch steam punk gear (Infinite Possibilities Create Along Box)
Polybonder glue
Filigree ring blank
Liquid clay
Roll out a sheet of clay, any metallic color, on a medium thin setting, 1 millimeter or less thick. Texture this clay by pressing in the Tiny Gears Deco Disc.
Then press in the Cog Wheel clay cutter twice.
Use a craft knife to carefully cut around the inner lines imprinted by the Cog Wheel cutter. Also cut out the center imprint and set aside one circle of clay.
Rub metallic mica powder over the texture to highlight.
Use a blade to remove these clay rings from your work surface. Cut between two of the gear teeth on each to turn your rings of clay into strips.
Roll the set aside circle of clay into a teardrop shape. Add a dab of Polybonder glue, then press a 3/8 inch steampunk gear onto the rounded end of the teardrop. This will be your flower center.
Starting with the gear teeth close to the metal gear flower center, wrap your strip of clay around the tear-drop.
Once you make one wrap around the center start pinching the bottom of your strip to ruffle it and flare it out as you wrap it around.
As you are wrapping the strip of clay around the center twist the bottom of your flower with the hand that is holding it too meld the clay together and thin out the bottom.
When you reach the end of one strip of clay start where you left off, adding the second one in the same manner.
Once you've wrapped the second strip around, take a little time to press the bottom edges of the clay strips into the back, twisting and thinning the “handle” you've been holding it by. Then use a blade to trim the handle off flush so you have a rosette that is flat on the back.
Bake your rosette at the manufacturer's recommended temperature for at least 30 minutes.
Press a small ball of the same clay you used for your rosette onto the back of your ring blank, making sure that some of the clay comes out through the holes in the filigree.
Now add a small ball of clay to the front of the ring blank, sandwiching the ring between the clay. Make sure these two balls of clay contact each other through the ring. When baked this clay will hold firmly in place on your filigree.
Add liquid clay to this ball of clay, then press in your baked filigree.
Bake your ring one more time for 30 minutes.
You can use a bit of scrap clay to prop your ring upright for the second baking.