Each earring is a little pop-art portrait: a girl with a bright yellow bob, pink skin, rosy cheeks, sideways yellow eyes and open red lips, in a yellow top, hanging from a cobalt blue disc stud by one silver jump ring. The steps build each portrait as a thin plaque in layers of Premo, model the hair, nose and lips in low relief, set an eye pin in the top, bake, then glue a post to the back of each disc and link the two with a ring. The picture is here for inspiration: follow the steps as a guide, then change the hair, the colours, the face or the hardware to make your own version.
The pictures began as AI-assisted concept images and are here for inspiration. The steps are a guide to making your own version, so change the colours, size or details as you like. Clay brands, ovens, glues, finishes and hardware behave differently, so follow their product instructions and bake a scrap before a batch. Some product links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Check listing details, dimensions, materials, and fit before you buy. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Full disclosures
What gives it this look: each portrait is about 5 cm tall and 4 cm wide and hangs from a disc about 1.8 cm across, so the whole earring drops about 8 cm. The relief is shallow: about 4 mm at the hair and nose and thinner at the neck, which keeps a drop this size light. Both faces turn the same way and both mouths are open, so this pair is identical rather than mirrored. The pink stays smooth while the yellow hair is rippled into clumps with a few loose strands flicking out at the back, and the only real shine is on the lips and the dot on the nose. The small loop in the top of the hair faces you, which is what turns the portrait to face forward on its ring.
Lookbook view
Before step 1, draw the portrait at full size on paper and cut it into templates, so both earrings come out the same. Work both earrings side by side on the ceramic tile you will bake on, so the soft relief is never lifted and you can compare them at every step. Use Sculpey Premo for every colour, so one packet's bake instructions cover the pair, and wash your hands between the yellow and the pink, because yellow specks show on pink skin.
Draw the portrait at full size, about 5 cm tall and 4 cm wide: a head and shoulders turned a little to one side, a bob that frames the face and ends at the jaw with a short fringe, and a rounded top across the shoulders. Inside the outline, draw the face, the hair and the top as separate shapes, then cut out four paper templates: the whole outline, the face, the hair and the top. For the stud, you only need a coin about 1.8 cm across to draw round. Cutting every piece from the same templates is what makes the two earrings match.
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Condition all the Sculpey Premo. Mix a pea of Light Pink with a speck of Fuchsia for the nose, and a little Cadmium Red with a speck of Black for the inside of the mouth. Roll the Light Pink and some of the yellow 1.5 mm thick, more yellow 3 mm thick for the hair, the cobalt 3 mm thick for the discs, and small pieces of fuchsia, red and white about 1 mm thick, with a guide strip or an equal stack of playing cards under each end of the roller so each slab is even. Mix and roll enough for both earrings at once, so the second matches the first.
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On the tile, lay the outline template on the 1.5 mm light pink, trace round it with the needle tool and cut along the line with the craft knife held upright, once for each earring. Peel the waste away and leave both bases where they are. The pink base is the neck and the skin round the face, and everything else is laid on top of it, so keeping it thin keeps a long drop light: large dangles are best rolled thin, because the layers on top add to the thickness.
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Cut the top from the 1.5 mm yellow with its template and lay it over the shoulders of each base on a trace of Bake & Bond. Round its cut edges with a fingertip, then tap it all over with a ball of crumpled foil for the soft knit texture in the picture. Cut a strip of fuchsia about 5 mm wide and lay it diagonally down the neck, from under the jaw to the neckline, for the shadow. Then cut the face from the 1.5 mm light pink with its template and lay it on top, over the upper end of the shadow, so the face stands one layer forward of the neck. Tap everything down through parchment. Place these big shapes first: pressing them later would flatten the small features.
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Cut the hair from the 3 mm yellow with its template and lay it round the face on a trace of Bake & Bond, pressing the fringe down onto the forehead. Push soft ripples and clumps into it with the ball end and the flexible tip of the detail tool, then draw strand lines from the crown to the tips with the needle tool, working both earrings the same way. Round the outer edge of the hair down over the side of the base with a fingertip, so no pink shows at the edge. For the loose strands at the back, roll two or three fine yellow threads by hand, or press them through the finest disc of a clay extruder, and lay them curling away from the hair on a trace of Bake & Bond. Last, snip an eye pin to about 1.5 cm with the flush cutter and bend a small hook at the cut end with the pliers, as Sculpey does for its earring charms, so it stays put in the clay. Dip the hook in Bake & Bond and push it straight down into the top of the hair, above the middle of the portrait, until only the loop shows, with its round opening facing you.
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Roll the nose mix into a small rounded wedge and press it onto the middle of the face on a trace of Bake & Bond, turned the same way as the face. Mark two nostrils with the needle tool and set a tiny ball of white on the tip for the highlight. For the open mouth, lay a small oval of the dark red, a thin strip of white along its top edge for the teeth, then a red upper lip with a dip in the middle and a fuller lower lip over its edges. Tap each piece down through parchment until its edges sit down.
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For each eye, press a small flattened almond of white onto the face, then a yellow disc for the iris toward the outer corner, so she glances sideways, and a black dot for the pupil. Roll very fine yellow threads for a lid along the top of each eye and for the two brows, and set them on with a touch of Bake & Bond. Put the two earrings side by side and check that the eyes, nose and lips sit in the same places on both.
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With a soft dry brush, rub a little pink soft pastel onto each cheek in small circles, a shade stronger than you want: Sculpey's figure-making guide notes that powder colour on raw clay lightens and softens in the oven. Keep the brush off the yellow. Blush last, once your fingers no longer need to touch the face, so no pastel smudges onto the features.
Lay the coin on the 3 mm cobalt, trace round it with the needle tool and cut two discs with the craft knife, turning the tile rather than the knife for a smooth curve. Round the edges with a fingertip and tap the fronts with the crumpled foil, for the same soft texture as the top. Touch the needle tip into each disc once, centred and about 3 mm up from the bottom edge, to mark the hole: the dot bakes in and stops the drill bit skating.
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Leave everything on the tile, stand an oven thermometer beside it and bake by the instructions on your Sculpey Premo packet, going by the thickest part, the hair. Bake a small scrap of the yellow and the pink beside them in case you ever need them for a repair. Let all four pieces cool fully on the tile before you lift them, because clay is still slightly soft while hot and firms up as it cools.
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Lay each disc front up on a scrap of card, set a 1.2 or 1.5 mm bit in the pin vise on the mark and twist with light downward pressure until it comes through, lifting the bit out every few turns to clear the dust. A hole this close to the edge keeps its shape better drilled in baked clay than punched in raw clay, and drilling from the front keeps the clean side on show.
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Brush one thin coat of Sculpey Satin Glaze over each face and its cheeks, so the pastel blush is sealed in and does not smear or rub off, and let it dry as the bottle directs. Then brush Sculpey Gloss Glaze on the lips and the dot on the nose only, for the wet shine in the picture. Keep glaze off the backs of the discs, where the posts will go, and out of the eye pin loops.
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Lay each disc face down on a soft cloth. From the mixed pack, try the 8 mm pad and keep the largest pad that lies flat with clay showing all round it, centred side to side and a little above the middle, so more of the disc hangs below the post. With a dust mask on, sand inside that spot with fine sandpaper and rub the pad face on the sandpaper a few times, wipe both with isopropyl alcohol, and from then on hold the post only with tweezers. Put a dot of gel super glue about a third as wide as the pad on it, press it on with the post pointing straight up, and keep glue off the post itself, since that part goes through the ear. Leave the discs post up until the glue has fully cured, going by its packet, before the drops go on: the glue grabs in seconds but takes much longer to reach full strength.
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Open a 7 mm jump ring with two flat-jaw pliers, one on each side of the gap, twisting one side towards you and the other away so the ring stays round. Thread it through the hole in the disc and through the eye pin loop, then twist it back until the ends meet flush with no step. The ring through the disc hangs edge-on to you and the loop hangs at a right angle to the ring, so the portrait faces forward, the same way as the disc. Hold each earring up by its post: the face should look forward and hang straight.
Metal findings like posts, hooks, and jump rings may contain nickel or other allergens. If your wearer has sensitive skin, choose surgical steel or titanium findings and test any sealant or coating on a small spot before wearing.
What you will need
Everything here is used in the steps above. The clay, pastel and findings are for this pair; most makers already own the tools, so tick those off first.
A pair uses about a quarter of a 2 oz (57 g) block each of yellow and light pink, and small pieces of the fuchsia, cobalt, red, white and black for the shadows, discs and features.
The bright yellow of the bob, the top, the irises, lids and brows. All the clay is Premo, so one packet's bake instructions cover the pair.
The smooth pink of the base, neck and face; a pea of it with a speck of fuchsia makes the darker nose.
The hot pink shadow down the neck, and a speck in the nose mix.
The red of the lips; with a speck of black it makes the dark inside of the open mouth.
For the eye whites, the teeth and the highlight dot on the nose.
For the tiny pupils, and a speck to darken the inside of the mouth. A corner of the block is plenty.
A little pink rubbed onto the raw cheeks gives the soft blush in the picture, which bakes into the surface; seal it with the satin glaze.
A trace under the top, the face, the hair and every feature bonds the layers in the oven, and a dip on the eye pin's hook helps it hold in the hair, so nothing lifts off a drop that swings.
The deep blue of the two stud discs, rolled 3 mm thick so the post and the hole both have clay round them.
Snipped short and hooked at the end, one pushed into the top of each hair piece before baking gives the small loop the jump ring hangs from.
Tick what you already have, then get only what is missing.
Rolls each colour between guide strips, so the base, face and top are even and the drop stays light.
Slid flat under the thin face and top pieces, the tissue blade carries them to the base without stretching them, and later scrapes old glue off a disc back.
Cuts the curved outlines of the portrait, the hair and the round discs, which a straight tissue blade cannot follow.
Traces the templates, draws the hair strands and nostrils, and marks the hole in each disc.
The ball ends and flexible tips push the soft ripples and clumps into the hair without flattening the face beside it.
A ball of crumpled foil tapped over the raw top and discs gives them the soft knit texture in the picture.
Lay a scrap over each piece and tap through it, so the layers go down without fingerprints on the pink skin.
A soft dry brush rubs the pastel onto the cheeks, and small soft brushes lay the satin glaze on the face and the gloss on the lips.
Build and bake both portraits and discs on the tile, so the soft relief is never lifted before baking.
Sits beside the tile so you bake at the temperature on the Premo packet, whatever the oven dial says.
Drills the hole near the bottom of each baked disc by hand, so the edge beside it stays round.
Small metric bits for the pin vise; a 1.2 or 1.5 mm bit leaves room for the 0.8 mm ring wire to turn.
For the rings, the posts and the shine on the lips.
One thin coat over each face seals the pastel blush so it does not smear or rub off, with the soft sheen in the picture.
Brushed on the lips and the nose highlight only, it gives the wet shine in the picture while the rest stays satin.
One ring per earring links the hole in the disc to the eye pin loop; a spare one turns a portrait forward if it hangs sideways.
Two pliers with smooth flat jaws twist each jump ring open and closed so it stays round, and bend the hook in each eye pin.
The flush cutter snips each eye pin to length with a clean end before you bend its hook.
Flat-pad posts in five pad sizes with backs, so you can try the 8 mm pad on the back of each disc and keep the largest one that lies flat with clay showing all round. Check the listing for the steel grade.
Slide a disc pad on before the clutch if a stud tips forward under the drop.
The gel stays put on a small post pad instead of running. Leave the glued discs for the full cure time on its packet before the drops go on.
Sands the post spot on each disc back to bare clay and roughens the metal pad, so the glue has something to grip.
Wipes skin oil and sanding dust off the post spot and the pad before the glue goes on.
Hold the post by its stem while you press the pad on, so your fingers stay off the cleaned pad and clear of the glue.
Wear it while you sand the post spots and any repair, to keep baked clay dust out of your lungs.
For even loose strands of hair, or a repair after baking.
Only if you want the fine loose strands at the back of the hair even: the finest disc presses out thin yellow threads.
Only for repairs: it sets an eye pin back into the hair, glues back a loose feature, or mixed with dust from a baked scrap fills a crack.
Each one walks through a technique used in this piece, in full detail.
Custom range
Ask for a build pack to make it yourself (a supply list and a making plan for your version), or ask the studio to make the finished pieces for you.
More pieces with a related form, finish, or making path.
Pin it to a board, copy the link, or keep it saved here while you make your own version.
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