Buttons and Beads.

Hi, there,

I've been busy making samples for Cake International at the N.E.C in November using Silicone Plastique to make my own moulds.

For more information about this mould making compound visit:
http://www.thecakedecoratingcompany.co.uk/catalog/index.php  or http://www.makeyourownmolds.com/silicone-plastique

Originally formulated for making moulds for food this versatile product can be incorporated in many other areas of crafting.

Here's a tutorial showing you how you can make your own bead or button moulds with things you probably already have.

 

Take some polymer clay and roll it out, I used a pasta machine on the number 2 setting.

 

Use a texture mat, stencil, textured rolling pin, stamp or anything you like the design of and impress it in to your clay to transfer the pattern.

 

 

Take a cutter the same shape and size you would like your button or bead to be

 

 

turn the cutter so that the cutting edge is uppermost and drape the patterned clay in the recess

 

 

 

then cover this with another piece of clay, again rolled on the number 2 setting on the pasta roller

carefully turn this over, and press firmly to cut out your bead.

Bake the polymer clay bead following the manufacturers instructions. Once the bead had cooled use Silicone Plastique to make a mould. You can see how to use Silicone Plastique in my last tutorial (Textured Knitted Heart)

 

Here are a few moulds that I made using different textures and cutters for my beads. Once you have made your mould you can make your beads quickly and easily for your jewellery designs.

 

 

 

I used different shades of brown polymer clay in my mould to make the wood grain texture effect beads, then used Dinkydoodle Designs Lustre Dusts in copper, bronze and iridescent gold to give them a metallic look.

 

 

The wood grain disks were made from brown and gold polymer clay mixed together until just marbled and then passed through the pasta machine on setting number 1. I used different sizes of round cutters for these. Before baking your beads make a hole in them or insert an eye pin. After baking I sprayed the beads with Dinkydoodle Shell and Shine Spray to protect them. The flat disk beads had three coats of the shell and shine spray which gave them a high shine like varnished wood.

 

My unique beads where then used to make a one of a kind necklace but one that can be reproduced should I want to with the help of my mould.

 

 

Thanks for reading and hope you're inspired.

 

Wendy.

Knitted Texture Heart Jewellery

Hello there.

Long time, no blog.

Some of you might know that from time to time I demonstrate a product called Silicone Plastique for The Cake Decorating Company at some of the numerous cake shows held in the UK and Europe.  Silicone Plastique is a fantastic product for creating your own moulds. It’s a food grade, two part product that when mixed allows you to create a mould.  I have loved this product from the minute I got my hands on it because as a crafter it has allowed me to explore my creativity with all of the capabilities of being able to create my own moulds.

Jewellery making is one of my many passions and using Silicone Plastique has opened so many more avenues for me. I have put together a few tutorials to share with you, using Silicone Plastique and a few techniques I have used for making my own unique moulds, to hopefully inspire you a little bit.

In this first his first tutorial I will show you how to create a knitted texture heart to use in your creations.

 Here’s what I have made....

 

 

 

A necklace

 

 

A pair of earrings

 

 

and a bag charm

 

 

 

 

...and here's how I did it.

 

 

I used a clay extruder with the disk that gives the finest strands and extruded some polymer clay.

 

I took two strands, pinched them at the top and twisted them together.

 

 

 

This was then laid on to a sheet of polymer clay that I passed through a pasta machine on the number 2 setting. 

 

To give the knitted texture, twist another two strands together - this time in the opposite direction and lay it next to the first. Build up your design to the size you require.

I wanted my design to be a little more random so I varied the way I laid down the twisted strands, then used a sharp blade to neaten the shape. This was then baked following the manufacturers guidelines. 

 

 

Now to make the mould.

I took two equal amounts of Silicone Plastique and mixed them together until a uniform blue colour was achieved, covered my baked polymer clay and left it for an hour and a half for the Silicone Plastique to cure. You can find out more about Silicone Plastique at their website http://www.makeyourownmolds.com/

 

 

 

For my jewellery pieces I used polmer clay but you could use metal clay, jewel enamel or resin.

The polymer clay was placed in the mould then popped out, so now I have textured clay. I then used a small cutter to give me the heart shape.

 

I then used my extruder to get some larger strands to wrap around my heart shape and give it a border. You could at this point bake the heart and make another mould from that, but I made all of my hearts individually.

 

 

I then dusted the hearts with Claire Bowmans Gold Decorative Metallic Powder and baked them.

  Once they were baked and cooled I gave them a spray with Dinkydoodle Designs Shell and Shine Spray. This gave the hearts a sheen to look like realistic metal elements.

 

 

 

I then created some pretty, totally unique, one of a kind jewellery.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.

Wendy.