#RealCincodeMayo Blog Hop: Talavera and Papel Picado Ceramic Necklace Tutorial

I never grew up truly celebrating Cinco de Mayo. Most of the time, we used it as an excuse to BBQ. As a Texan, any day is a good day for Texas BBQ. But, as I began to get older I realized that people actually celebrated Cinco de Mayo in fervor. Cinco de Mayo is celebrated far more in the US than it is in Mexico. Outside of Puebla, that is.

I thought an easy jewelry tutorial would be perfect for the kids to try out on Cinco de Mayo so I finally pulled out my air dry porcelain clay. After a few ideas, I thought that creating some Talavera and Papel Picado necklaces would be the perfect way to pay homage to these two long lasting Mexican Art traditions. Unfortunately, as I read the back of the air dry instructions I realized that it would take a few days for the clay to actually dry.

This ended up being a two part tutorial so stay tuned for Part Two. I used air dry Porcelain Clay but you could easily use polymer clay or even kids air dry clay. Remember, that you have to bake polymer clay in a craft oven.

We used Fimo Basic Air to create the pendents.

We also used some small clay cutters to cut out the shapes. It is fairly easy to use the clay. You have to manipulate it a little to get it to work for you.

Here is the necklace that my daughter and I created together this weekend. This is the pre-finished version so stay tuned for the next post that shows how we finished and assembled the necklace.