This past Monday was the last formal meeting of the year for the
Grand River Bead Society of which I am a member. I made sure I didn't miss it because
Cindy Goldrick was teaching us how to make our own molds. We also had a garage sale by the members and there were treats to eat!
You can buy molds but customizing molds for yourself will make your jewelry pieces unique. Making your own mold out of anything is relatively easy although it helps to get helpful tips and creative ideas from someone who is experienced.
Two part silicone putty is great to use as you do not need any releasing agents. As it was the first go at making molds, most of us brought small objects like shells and buttons. All we had to do was to mix and blend equal amounts of the two part part - enough for the subject. We worked on wax paper sections.
Then it is a matter of pressing what it is you want to make a mold of into the putty. I picked a gold tone button of the two I brought.
Once the mold is made it has to air dry before we added either resin or paper clay. As there was limited time, and so many of us, drying was speeded up on an electric griddle as shown below. The ones with white in the molds are those with paper clay. The others are at the molding stage with buttons etc.
Once the resin or paper clay was dried, Cindy showed us how to finish them. They can be embellished with different techniques and materials. Here is one of the many finished examples she made using paper clay. Really interesting effect with the bird charm.
I didn't get that far even with such an easy project. Too much talking and not paying enough attention to the instructor! Mine was the poster child for what NOT to do! I had pressed too hard so that the pattern in the mold was distorted. It is also important to pat the paper clay evenly into the mold so there are no fissures (red circled)! Duh.
But someone who did a wonderful job was my friend
Natali who worked with a shell. She knew not to press too hard! Molds of objects like shells take longer to dry but she did seem to have enough time. She decided to fill her mold with uv cured resin. What was neat was one of Cindy's tips - adding a metallic wax (Gilder's Paste or burnishing paste like Rub n' Buff) at the back of the piece.
Well, I will be buying some silicone putty and having another go for sure. If you'd like to take a mold making class with Cindy - be sure to listen to
all her tips and tricks - she will be at BeadFx in Toronto on Saturday July 6 1-4 pm. Check the details on the BeadFx site.
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