Sheep Knitting Needles

So I saw bamboo knitting needles online that had polymer clay sheep on the end. Totally sweet. I have polymer clay. I have bamboo needles. I'm reasonably crafty. so I went online to find out how to bake bamboo needles safely. there was no info to be found, so i decided just to give it a shot. The needles are pretty cheap and so if they caught on fire, i figured i'd just get a new pair. well, they DIDN'T catch on fire, or do anything else weird. you can totally bake Clover brand bamboo needles with polymer clay. and when you do, you get this:


crazy good. here they are in their natural environment:

like that glass? it was $1 at CVS.

i'm sure there will be improvements as i make more, but here's how i made polymer clay bamboo needles. metal would probably be fine too...maybe even acrylic or plastic due to the low temp. let us know if you try any of those. sorry for the lack of pix, but i really wasn't expecting this to work out. i'll take some when i make another pair.

1. condition the clay (mush it around until it's soft)
2. cover the top of the needle in a thin layer of clay. be sure to fold the clay under the tip so it won't fall off after it's baked.
3. decorate the tops as desired. i obviously went with sheep.
4. lay needles across a baking pan like this:


5. bake according to the manufacturers instructions for the clay. mine was to bake at 275 degrees for 15 min per quarter inch of thickness. i have no idea how thick they ended up, so i started with 20. they seemed bit soft, so back in for 10 min they went.
6. knit something awesome.

one more pic because they're so sweet

awesome.

-Leigh