Tutorial: How to Add a Charm to a Clay Pen

 This is the third tutorial in a series showing how to make a polymer clay charm pen.  The first shows how to cover a pen in clay and can be found here.  The second covers sanding and buffing/glazing and can be found here.

So this week it's adding the charm to a clay-covered pen.  Let's get started.

Supplies:
1 clay-covered pen, cured, sanded, and buffed or glazed
2-3 charms- clay or otherwise
1 headpin
5 or more jump rings big enough to fit onto the charms

Tools:
Hand drill with a small bit (mine is about 2/32" I think)
Round-nose pliers
Flat-nose jewelry pliers
Wire cutter


Step 1: Putting the loop on the end of the pen.
Drill a hole in the end of the pen with the hand drill.

Drop a headpin into the other end of the pen, head last.  If your hole is too big and the head can go through, bend the end of the pin over so it can't go through the hole.

It will look like this:

 Make a loop with your round nose pliers...

... and trim off the excess with your cutters.

Step 2: Preparing the charms.

Open a jump ring.  Make sure you use a twisting motion rather than just pulling it open, otherwise you will weaken the ring.

Add the charm.  These are just a couple of slices from the same cane I used on the pen.  I just baked them between two layers of glass to make them shiny so I wouldn't have to sand/buff/glaze.

Close that ring and add another one to it.

 

Now add three rings to your other charm.  (Don't want them to hang at the same level.)

Step 3:  Attaching the charms.

Open up the top ring on each charm (if you closed them before) and attach them to the loop on the end of the pen. (Photo only shows one ring on the charm- I added another one later.)

 All done!

Step 4: Finishing
Now use your round-nose pliers to put the ink barrel back in the pen.  DO NOT push on the metal tip of the pen as this could cause it to not work, or worse, leak ink all over.

 Finished pen!

Enjoy!

Korrina