Polymer Clay Peppermint Candies

These clay peppermint candies were inspired by an episode of How It's Made on the History Channel that I watched a couple of years ago... on how peppermint candies are made of course. As much as I LOVE polymer clay, there are a lot of tools and techniques that I'm not familiar with, so there might be a name for this kind of technique. But this tutorial, and my whole philosophy on polymer clay, is that there are a lot of amazing things beginners can make with just their hands, or just with a couple basic tools (like these, these, these, these, or these).

What you need: 1. White and red Polymer Clay

2. PolyBlade

(you could improvise with a box cutter) 3. Acrylic Clay Roller

(you could also improvise) 4. Glossy Glaze

What you do:

1. Start with a clean work surface and clean hands. White clay will especially pick up and show any little pieces of dust, fuzz, or other colored clay.

2. Knead pieces of white clay and roll them into tiny little tubes. They don't need to be perfect, but try to make them generally the same size as each other.

3. Roll out pieces of red clay into tiny red tubes. Wash your hands again after working with the red clay or your white clay will all look pink. Line up your tubes to be white red white red, etc...

4. I ended out using 7 red tubes and 7 white tubes. I would recommend a minimum of 7 of each, and I think even using a few more would look better. Gently roll together the tubes so that they become a sheet. Don't flatten them too much though.

5. Roll a large white tube. This will be the center of the peppermints. This takes a little trial and error to get the middle tube to be the right width.

6. Wrap the red and white tubes around the large white tube. (You may have to make the white tube bigger or smaller to fit). You want the edges to line up perfectly. You may also need to use the clay knife to carefully lift the red and white tubes from your work surface.

7. Now roll the whole new tube together gently. It will get smaller, so it's good to make everything a little bit bigger than you want it to be.

8. Use your knife to start slicing pieces of peppermint. They do not need to be absolutely perfect, but you should try to make them pretty close to the same size. If you find that the pieces are slightly flattening as you cut them, try putting your clay in the freezer for about 10 minutes. It will make the clay harder, but you will still be able to cut it.

9. Bake according to the directions on the package. Let it cool fully before doing anything else.

10. Coat each side of your peppermints with glossy glaze for that finished candy look.

And you're done. Since it's hard to perfectly recreate a tube, if you're wanting to make a lot of peppermints, I would recommend making one very long tube. I was able to make about 40 peppermints from one small package of white clay. However, this will vary a lot based on the width and thickness of your tubes.

You can now use these in all sorts of fun peppermint crafts. And what's great? They're not sticky, and they can last from year to year. I turned a bunch into a peppermint garland by hot gluing them to some red and white baker's twine. They would also make beautiful little ornaments.