Fossil Theme Challenge: Faking it With Polymer Clay

Necklace with faux lizard fossil pendant

The theme for this month’s Art Elements challenge is fossils.  When I signed up to participate in the design challenge I had zero ideas for interpreting the theme. Probably because my brain went immediately to the enormous dinosaur skeletons featured prominently in natural history museums.  “Dinosaur bones” was all I could think of because, as usual, I was being too literal. I just needed to let my muse free associate a bit and then I had more ideas than time to execute them.

Technically, a fossil is the remains or impression of a prehistoric organism preserved in petrified form or as a mold or cast in rock.  The “or impression” and “as a mold or cast in rock” parts of that definition sent me into the polymer clay studio to mix up some faux stone recipes.  And then I went on a scavenger hunt around my home for “organisms” to impress or mold. I gathered some metal charms – including an itty bitty dinosaur skeleton! and the obligate ammonite – and leaf stamps.  When you don’t have the real thing but you’ve got polymer clay, faking it to make it is what you do. 

Polymer clay faux fossil pendants
These faux fossil pendants (and a cabochon) are my interpretation of organisms cast in rock.  After the polymer clay was cured, I used acrylic paints and inks to tint them, referring to images of actual fossils for the colors.  In overly simplistic terms, the color of a fossilized organism is determined by what the organism is made of and the type of minerals that infuse or encase it. The colors of fossils cast in rock range from red-browns to greys and blacks. i can’t remember which minerals result in what colors but I’m sure Google knows.

While making molds and casting them in clay, I was also thinking about other ways organisms become fossils.  Like insects trapped in amber …and the amber itself. Thinking about fossilized tree resin caused “petrified wood” to pop into my thoughts.  Petrified wood – wood that has been replaced and infilled by chalcedony or opal – is the official “state fossil” of my home state of Arizona, where you will find the Petrified Forest Natural Park.  Naturally, I needed to incorporate petrified wood into something for this challenge. I didn’t have any in my bead stash and decided to fake it with polymer clay.

Almost any semi-precious stone can be imitated with polymer clay, including amber and petrified wood.  I have a couple [dozen] polymer clay technique books and seemingly half of them include faux amber recipes.  While none of them have a petrified wood recipe, I thought the banded patterns of petrified wood should be relatively easy to imitate with a combination of a few polymer clay techniques.  Unfortunately, that included making a cane. Making canes is probably my least favorite way to use polymer clay. It’s tedious and fiddly: two things for which I have nearly zero tolerance. Nevertheless, she persisted.

Faux petrified wood cabochons made from polymer clay veneer.
My first attempt at faux petrified wood did not turn out very realistic.  I think the colors are a close match for some of the reference photos I worked from.  However, I wasn’t paying careful attention when building the cane and managed to stack layers the “wrong” way: the “tree rings” should all be aligned.  I think the cabs look okay, but they aren’t what I had in mind vis a vis the Hell’s Canyon (OR) herringbone specimens I used as reference. Please don’t ask why I made soooo many cabs from the messed up cane. I don’t wanna talk about it.

Since my first attempt at faking petrified wood with a polymer clay cane didn’t yield the results I was aiming for, I had to start over.  I’m lazy, but I’m also stubborn. For the second version of the petrified wood cane I used a less complex cane technique and scraps from the first cane.  It’s still not the accurate imitation I wanted and if I had time for a third try, I think I could have achieved the exact look I was hoping for with some slight refinements to the process.  But I didn’t have time for that because I wanted to make some amber and petoskey stone beads (more on them in a moment) to give with the faux fossil pendants I created initially.

Faux petrified wood beads and cabochons made from polymer clay
The second version of a faux petrified wood veneer used for these cabochons resembles some of the Tuscarora (NV) specimens I looked up online.  The banding is less distinct and the colors are more mottled than in my first attempt.

After two attempts at creating faux petrified wood, I had a bunch of cabochons.  You must be wondering why I made cabs since you’ve never seen me use one in a jewelry design and you know I don’t bead embroider.  There was a method to my madness and it involved a design based on a living fossil. Living fossils are organisms that have remained essentially unchanged from earlier geologic times and whose close relatives are usually extinct.  You’ve probably seen one IRL if not on tv. Living fossils include alligators, crocodiles, sturgeon, horseshoe crabs, ginkgo biloba trees, opossums, pelicans, and snapping turtles.

The living fossil that inspired me to create all those cabs is the leatherback sea turtle, the only living member of the family Dermochelyidae.  I wanted to incorporate a faux petrified wood cab into a pendant setting shaped like a leatherback. Some sawed, etched, and soldered silver would have been the perfect setting for one of my cabs.  But I don’t have the tools, materials, or skills to metalsmith a silver setting so I’d be faking it with polymer clay again. And Swellegant metal coating.

Faux silver turtle pendant with faux petrified wood cabochon.
This leatherback turtle pendant with a faux petrified wood cab in a faux silver setting wouldn’t fool anyone into thinking it’s the real deal.  Especially not once you touch it. The Swellegant silver coating is real silver with an actual dark oxidized finish but doesn’t have the weight of solid silver. It’s also a bit thicker than an actual silver setting would probably be – because thinner polymer clay would have been more bendy than I wanted.

Now that I had a turtle pendant and all those faux stone pendants, I needed some accent beads to turn them into jewelry.  I have some amber chips in my bead stash but they are super duper tiny and the scale just didn’t seem right. Polymer clay to the rescue again: faux amber coming up.  And also some faux petoskey stone (a type of fossil coral) because why not make yet another polymer clay cane for this challenge given how much I just lurve making canes?

Faux amber nugget beads made from polymer clay
In hindsight, I wish I had given some thought to an actual jewelry design before I made these faux amber nuggets. The largest beads were too big for any of the faux fossil pendants. And I didn’t make enough of the smaller beads to complete a necklace after i came up with a design.
Faux petoskey stone beads made from polymer clay.
The petoskey stone cane making was a test of my spatial skills, which I failed. These cabs and beads are made from a second attempt at the cane because I had to scrap the first attempt after I reduced the first section of the cane in the wrong direction.  Du’oh! As with the petrified wood cane, if I had time for a third attempt, I think I could get it “just right.” But, lacking time, I’m going with “close enough” instead.

Making the faux fossil rocks took up most of the first weekend this month. Making, and remaking, the petrified wood and petoskey stone canes and resulting beads and cabs, along with the faux amber – took up most the second and third weekends.  Which left me one weekend to assemble some jewelry before the reveal date.

Sea turtle pendant necklace with faux fossil beads.
The “Living Fossil” leatherback sea turtle necklace pairs the faux silver pendant with faux petrified wood and petoskey stone beads and silver-plated accents. It doesn’t go with anything in my closet so I’ll either have to do some shopping or try to re-home it via my etsy shop.
Necklace with faux dragonfly fossil pendant on faux amber beaded chain.
Despite my lack of planning as i made beads, I ended up with some faux amber nuggets of the right size, and in the right amount, to make a beaded chain for one of the faux fossil dragonfly pendants. Antique-finish brass chain and components complete the necklace.
Faux fossil lizard necklace on beaded chain.
One of the faux fossil lizard pendants paired with beaded chain. The chain links alternate brown quartz rounds with stacks of tigereye chips. Textured brass chain completes the back of the necklace.
Necklace and earrings with faux amber nuggets and turquoise beads.
Because the largest of the faux amber nuggets were too large to pair with the faux fossil pendants, I made them into a necklace sans pendant. I added some turquoise (real and dyed howlite) beads including large rough cut nuggets and little rondelle spacers. Because I used some of the medium-small amber beads for the dragonfly, and didn’t make enough in general, I used yellow calcite and brown goldstone beads, and more turquoise, to finish the length in the back. And i saved a pair of the amber nuggets for coordinating earrings.

There was supposed to be an embroidery project for this challenge.  I bought thread and prepped some fabric. I had time in the evenings to work on it, the same way I have for the past few challenges.  But I just couldn’t seem to get started. I never even got the design outline onto the fabric. Instead, I spent the evenings re-reading novels in Kim Harrison’s ‘The Hollows’ series because I recently discovered there’s a prequel out now, and a next chapter coming this summer. I’m not worried about the embroidery project though. There will be time for it during the six to eight months next year when it’s too hot to play with clay.  

This challenge is also a blog hop.  Be sure to visit the participating artists to see how they interpreted the fossil theme challenge.

AE Team: Jen  Lesley  Sue  Claire  Jenny  Niky

Guests: Cat  Tammy  Susan  Dawn  Michelle  Sarajo  Evie & Beth  Divya

20 thoughts on “Fossil Theme Challenge: Faking it With Polymer Clay”

  1. Susan Kennedy

    Oh WOW Tammy you hit it out of the park! I love all your fossil designs. Great job making canes – I don’t really know how and I love how you persisted – I love petosky stone! Love everything you made!

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Susan. I don’t make canes very often, which is probably partly why I didn’t get these right on the first tries. I find myself in the that awkward place of not wanting to make them frequently enough to be good at and wanting to be, you know, good at it. LOL

  2. Cat

    You have been so busy, Tammy, and persistent! Next time I’ll need a cup of your motivation, please 😀
    The Petoskey stones are amazing!
    Nevertheless the tiny dinosaur skeleton is my personal favorite <3

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Cat. I think it’s more stubbornness and a pinch of perfectionist more than motivation that gets me through. Nevertheless, the result is the same. 😉

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Susan. How fun that we both used polymer clay to make petrified wood and came up with such distinctly different results. Polymer clay is awesome.

  4. Niky Sayers

    What a wonderful and entertaining post! I really enjoyed reading through your process and seeing all of your photos. I love all of the things that you created and I have a soft spot for Hell’s Canyon cab’s, I have a couple that I have been hoarding! All your pieces are wonderful but the petoskey stones are just wow! Thank you so much for joining in with us this month Tammy it has been a pleasure!

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Niky. I used to have some Arizona petrified wood, in a childhood rock collection. And now I’m wondering what ever happened to it. This was a great theme; thanks for the inspiration.

  5. Michelle

    Tammy, you knocked it out of the park! I am so impressed with your polymer clay work, and the resulting necklaces. Absolutely amazing!

    I’ve been toying with the idea of trying polymer clay myself. May I ask what types of paint you use with polymer clay?

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Michelle. I use acrylic paints on my polymer clay. It’s not the only type of paint you can use though. If you’re looking for thorough reviews of what paints, pigments, sealers, etc do and do not work with polymer clay, I highly recommend Ginger Davis Allman’s website, TheBlueBottleTree.com

  6. Dawn

    OMGosh! My jaw just fell to the floor! Absolutely stunning work and you were able to do so much – all of it amazing. They are just perfect; if I had to choose a favorite, I think it would be the dragonfly. I’ve often wanted to try my hand at poly clay and seeing the caliber of work you do makes me want to try it even more!

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Dawn. I encourage you to give polymer clay a try. You can get started without any special equipment and I’d love to see where you take it. There’s a lot of very helpful and thoroughly researched information about getting started and more at TheBlueBottleTree.com.

  7. Evie and Beth

    Tammy – I LOVE everything you created. Your petrified cabs are amazing – even though you hate working with cane. The turtle pendant is amazing and I love the necklace you created with it. So many stunning pieces!
    I loved reading the references about the fossils and petrified wood. That was interesting to read.
    Love the “Hollows” series too.

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Beth. I was thinking of the spectacular metal work you and your mom do when making the turtle pendant. And wishing it could have been actual silver sheet and bezel wire. The Hollows novels are some of my favorite urban fantasy. I especially love the dialogue and cursing from Jenks.:)

  9. Jenny

    OK – those faux amber!!!! YES! And the petrified wood! Wow. I hate making canes. I never do it, so its even harder bc I have no experience. You are a master! I mean – Petoskey? Yikes. I like last necklace the best – sorry Mr Turtle – because that amber is so enticing!
    Thank you for joining us!

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Jenny. I deeply admire people who specialize in making complex canes. Dabbling in the few simple canes as I have gives me great appreciation for the skill and time that must go into those works of art. But I much prefer making less fiddly things, like those rustic amber nuggets. 🙂

  10. Divya

    Really amazing pieces Tammy. I am not a bones person but I love the dino pendant. It is freaky in a very good way. Also, just by looking at the photos of your necklaces I wouldn’t be able to tell if the beads are polymer clay. You have done a great job and you must credit yourself for that. Your initial cabs may not look like petrified wood but they are still gorgeous and will look amazing wire wrapped in silver colour wire.

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Divya. I truly appreciate your perspective on the beads. Sometimes I’m too close to my work to see that what didn’t turn out the way I wanted is still something worthwhile. 🙂

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