TUTORIAL / How to create a howlite marble effect with polymer clay

Have you caught onto the latest polymer clay howlite marble effect trend? Honestly, the opportunities are endless with this technique as you can use as many clay and paint colours as you like, meaning you could create a version of it that is unique to you and your business 'cos #DifferentiationIsKey in the handmade industry!

Want the inside scoop on how to create this effect? Keep reading...

What you need [to make a monochrome howlite marble effect]:

• White polymer clay 
• Black heavy body acrylic paint (or any other black thick acrylic paint)
• Sculpey Liquid Polymer Clay
• Zip lock bag [you're not reading wrong - go to your kitchen and get one out of the draw]
• Acrylic rolling pin
• Blade or knife
• Pressing tool [not a necessity but will come in handy]

Follow these steps:

1. Using a blade or knife, chop your white block of polymer clay [whichever brand you prefer] up into small pieces
2. Put the chopped up pieces of clay into a zip lock bag
3. Add a blob of black heavy body acrylic paint on top of the polymer clay in the zip lock bag
4. Securely close the zip lock bag and use your hands to start moving the clay around the bag to cover all pieces in the black paint
5. Once all white clay has been covered in black paint, take it out of the bag and drizzle a somewhat minimal amount of Sculpey liquid polymer clay over it and mix it in
6. Using your hands, start moulding all of the chopped up pieces of clay together to create a rectangular cane. Using a pressing tool and rolling pin can make this process a lot easier 
7. Once moulded into a cane, use a blade or knife to cut 3mm thick pieces off the cane 
8. Line the 3mm cut pieces next to each other and start mooshing [not a word but hopefully you understand what I mean] the pieces together and use an acrylic rolling pin to help bond the pieces together to turn into a slab. 

Alternatively, instead of following step 7 and 8, you can cut the cane into 1mm pieces and place them onto a 2mm rolled out slab [a great opportunity to use your scrap clay as the cut up cane will cover the entire slab]. This method will create more howlite effect overall. 

Are you a visual person and want to see all of these steps being performed? Click here to watch an Instagram reel of us doing *exactly that*.