You may have seen polymer clay earrings that have paint in the embossed areas of the design, and you are given advice to use a baby wipe or acetone to take the paint off! THAT DID NOT WORK FOR ME! I am going to show you my technique for painting the embossed areas of a polymer clay earring and how you can get a clean look, every time. PLUS, it’s so easy!
Note: I solemnly swear that I only share links to items that I love or have first-hand recommendations from close friends, and that I think will also benefit you! Some of the links in this article are affiliate links, which means I may make a small commission to help my polymer clay earring business ♥️
To Paint Embossed Polymer Clay Earrings You Need…
- Your clay earring that has embossed areas (like the ones left by this type of polymer clay cutter)
- Acrylic Paint (I use any craft aisle acrylic paint!)
- Paint Brush
- Wet Paper Towel
Create Your Embossed Clay Earring
You get an embossed clay by using a polymer clay cutter that leaves an embossed design on the clay. Here is an example of a polymer clay snow globe cutter that leaves an embossed design on the clay
Typically I roll out my clay on setting 1 (the thickest setting) on my pasta clay machine. If you are manually rolling out your clay, this is typically 2.5-3mm thickness.
A polymer clay cutter with embossing features will be shallower than the cutting edge, because it will only emboss the design onto your clay, NOT CUT. For this reason you want to make sure your clay is thick enough so the embossing features will show up!
TIP! When using clay texture rollers like this sandpaper roller, or other textures on your clay, it will flatten your clay a small amount so the thickness will thin. Keep this in mind when using embossing clay cutters, you will want to start with a little bit thicker clay than usually.
Once you have your clay earrings with the embossed design, bake to the directions of your clay. You will want your clay piece fully baked before painting.
Paint Your Embossed Clay Earrings
BEFORE you paint your embossed clay earrings, you will want to get your paper towel and wet your paper towel. You don’t need it dripping wet, but you will want it wet like a baby wipe.
With your fully baked polymer clay earrings, take your paint brush and paint over your polymer clay piece. Make sure to get into the grooves.
I use acrylic paint for this method and you can get this paint from any craft aisle in any color!
If you are painting with only a single color, cover the entire clay piece, if you want to use multiple colors make sure you are careful not to paint over the areas you want in a different color. You can use painters tape to block off different areas on your earrings.
Try to get enough paint on your earring so that it stays “wet-ish”. Using too little paint may have it dry too fast.
Paint your earring quickly, maybe less than 30 seconds of this next step.
Wipe Off The Paint Of Embossed Clay Earrings
With your wet paper towel, wipe over your polymer clay earring.
YEP. Just wipe right over it!
Keep folding the paper towel and wiping until all the paint is removed.
You will see the paint wipe away and leave the embossed areas of your polymer clay earring painted.
These Methods That DID NOT Work For Me
These are popular methods for wiping paint from your embossed clay earring that you will find online and honestly, they did not work AT ALL for me. The clay would get stained and the earring did not look crisp. Adding resin over the clay earring helped conceal the imperfections from these methods.
❌ Using a baby wipe to wipe off the paint on my embossed polymer clay earring DID NOT WORK for me. The paint that I got over the regular part of the earring ended up stained or the paint just didn’t come off. Especially when using black or red paint.
❌ Using Acetone or nail polish remover DID NOT work for me. I tried using this method when I wanted to create baseballs and used red paint. But using acetone and q-tips or a paper towel did not work at all. The white clay was stained and the paint just got super messy.
I would love to know your experience with these methods in the comments!!
Sealing a Painted Polymer Clay Earring
When the paint dries you have so many options for how to seal your polymer clay earring OR you can just leave it!
If you’d like to seal the painted polymer clay earring using UV Resin you will need to cure the resin with a UV light. Here's how I like to use UV resin on my earrings,
Or you can use a polymer clay glaze just needs to air dry and will give your clay earrings a little shine. I use this Sculpey Polymer Clay Gloss Glaze, but there is also a satin glaze that will be more of a matte look.
I used UV Resin on this snow globe earring because it gave a glass effect. Here's how the final result turned out!
Using a Wet Paper Towel To Wipe Off Paint On Polymer Clay Earrings
Using a wet paper towel is by far the most effective way to wipe off paint and leave your embossed areas painted. This method worked even on white clay and red or black paint!
If you still find that you have paint on the regular part of your earring, try using a Magic Eraser by buffing the clay piece after the paint has dried.
I hope this method of painting your embossed polymer clay earrings is helpful and opens up entirely new possibilities for you!