Lark Crafts

Booth 236 at Bead&Button was jammin’! As if the cool new Japanese product on display wasn’t revolutionary enough to attract passersby, the sparkle and shimmer of crystal bling on the tables was arresting.

So what’s the product? DeCoRé, a substance that resembles polymer clay and that self-hardens in 24 hours. You read that right: It self-hardens!

• Since you don’t have to bake it, you can embed anything at all in it, and it won’t be damaged.
• It comes in a rainbow of colors, which can be combined to make other colors, or lightly kneaded for a marbled effect.
• Embed clear crystals into it, and they’ll take on the color of the clay beneath. So you could apply DeCoRé in striped or spotted patterns, embed clear crystals into the clay, and the finished bling would look striped, spotted, etc. You can also apply colored beads or stones to add other hues.

DeCoRé sticks to almost anything—metal, stone, glass, pearl, plastic, polymer clay, itself. You could cover an entire bead with DeCoRé, then encrust it with glittery crystals. Or you might prefer to apply DeCoRé in only judicious areas…for example, along just the edge of a shell, which you would then embellish with tiny beads…or capping just one third of a bead, near the hole, to create a sort of crystal bead cap…or make your own encrusted cabochon…or add some je ne sais quoi to your eyeglasses.

• It’s malleable just like polymer clay, but doesn’t require conditioning.
• You can apply a flat layer, or form it into shapes.
• DeCoRé has a working time of 90 minutes, after which it starts to harden.
• Zero shrinkage.
• All the skills you need to work with DeCoRé, you mastered by 1st grade—seriously.

You might have caught on that I got a little excited by the possibilities. So I bought a kit, which contained a ring blank, a sample of black DeCoRé, a few big crystals, and small crystals in jet, gray and clear. I mixed, I applied, I sculpted a little mountain, I stuck the crystals in. It solidified as promised. The result:

The original design of the ring in the kit was a lot more tasteful, kind of flat like a pinky ring, but I decided to heap on ALL the clay to test how malleable the clay was, so the top of the ring got ginormous. At the booth, they were selling about a dozen different kits for rings and pendants, and all of the designs were quite elegant. The designer of all the jewelry kits, Yoonhae Kwon, hails from Korea.

At the same time as I bought the kit, I was able to purchase a couple of packets of just the clay (I got khaki and tanzanite, and will show you the results here after I experiment some more) at $12 apiece. So where can you get this stuff? Sadly, for now, it seems only wholesalers Helby and Czech Beads carry it, so you’ll have to clamor for it from the buyers at your favorite beadstore or craft retailer. The DeCoRé website isn’t up as of today.

Finally, let me assure you this blog post is NOT a paid promotion! I just thought this was a seriously fun product with lots of possibility, and I wanted to share it with you!

I’d love to hear your comments on this product, especially if you played with it at B&B.