From Corny to Classy

The kids were in bed, Ryan was preparing for his class he was to teach the next day and I was sitting quietly beside him making candy corn beads. He finished up and scooted closer. I somehow convinced him to join in my project. "Too bad we already brushed our teeth," he says as he rolled the second or third candy corn carefully on the table. "Why?" "Because I'd like to eat some candy corn now."

This. This coming from a man who will have nothing to do with candy. He asked me to pick up "some meat" from the grocery store one day. "What kind do you want?" "Oh, it doesn't really matter, just some meat." Me, "Ryan, that's like me sending you down the candy aisle to pick up something that looks good." "Oh." Yeah, oh. So, I figured this project to be a complete and utter success when Ryan craved candy corn. I hadn't even completed it. Happy.

When I was in middle school, I used to make tiny converse earrings out of clay. I'm glad I found a pair to show you. My dad made me approach potential stores all by myself, which was much worse than asking for condiments at the fast food restaurant by myself. I loved making anything miniature. Apparently, I still do. The smaller, the better.

Materials:

24 gauge wire

Wire cutters

Sculpey III

(I've tried other polymer clays before, but I always come back to this one)

Small nail

Oven

Cut the wire into 1" pieces. Fold over the nail, cross the ends over each other and twist the rest of the way down.

Take 3 small pieces of yellow, orange, and white clay, about the size of the studs you first wore when you pierced your ears. Remember how boring those were? Stack them together and roll in a cone shape. Insert wire loop.

Bake at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-20 minutes (I did mine just 10, as you DON'T want these golden brown, which I have mistakenly done before.)

They kept getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. I'm going to use Monday's tutorial for these sweeties.

And, I shouldn't have my blood sugar checked anytime soon, although I managed to miss more than I made it.

So if you notice everyone getting out their Halloween sweaters and you turn to your closet to find that you don't indeed own a Halloween sweater, do not worry. You're keeping Halloween classy with your Clustered Candy Corn Necklace.