Although there are lots of products out there we can purchase to use with our polymer clay,
it's nice to be able to make our own and have our designs be completely original.
In today's video I'm going to show you how to use items you already have in your craft
studio and household to make custom border molds.
Hey there, creative people, Sandy here.
Welcome to another Friday Findings video at Keepsake Crafts.net.
For this project we're using two part molding putty to create our molds.
If you want to know more about this product there'll be a link in the upper right that
leads to my video about it.
Before you start mixing your molding putty you want to be sure that you have all of your
materials ready that you want to make molds of.
Now it's time to take a look around your house and your studio for things like chains, cords
and things on strands that might make an interesting border mold.
This project got started because I had the idea to use ball chain to make border molds
and here are my two molds I made with two different sizes of ball chain.
If you don't have ball chain you could use strands of pearls.
Remember that your objects don't have to be able to go in the oven.
I used this larger one to trim the edge of this lentil bead.
You have a little bit of time with this brand of molding putty, there are some that give
you even less time, like the yellow one.
I heard it sets up in just a few minutes, like maybe three minutes, so you might want
to do a mold using that putty in a smaller batch, like one or two at a time.
If you're interested in the supplies I'm using there will be links to everything I can get
links for at my blog post.
You'll find a link to that post in the description box and in the "i" tag in the upper right
of the video.
If you’re going to use a large amount of putty, say a 1 inch ball or more, you might
want to weigh out both portions to make sure that they are equal, just for accuracy sake.
In addition to your chains, cords and whatever you want to put in your putty to cure, I suggest
using a tile that will keep it all flat and even.
Also have whatever you’re going to use to roll it out ready, either an acrylic roller
or pasta machine.
As usual you mix equal portions of the molding putty until no streaks remain.
While I'm mixing I want to take a minute to give a shout out to all my wonderful patrons!
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Many thanks to those of you who are already supporting me on Patreon.
I really appreciate it.
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And don't forget that patrons have the opportunity to get up to two bonus videos every month.
Once the putty is completely mixed, roll it out into a flat sheet somewhere between 2
1/2 and 3 mm thick.
On my pasta machine that’s the thickest setting.
One of the problems we can sometimes have with purchased border molds is that they aren’t
long enough.
It can be a real pain to piece them together, so the nice thing about making your own is
that you can make it exactly as long as you need it to be.
I made mine about 10 inches long, this should be long enough for most of the projects I
want to use a border mold for.
Once your putty is mixed and rolled out flat go ahead and start pressing in your objects.
Pull them taut so that they’ll be as straight as possible in the mold, then press them in
as flat and as evenly as you can.
You may be able to press a flat object such as a ruler or another tile over the top of
them afterwards to even things out.
This is some wheat chain, and I also have a strand of 4mm Czech fire polish beads.
Some of the things I tried molding: rhinestone cup chain, box chain, a strand of daisy spacers,
snake chain, twisted cording and a strand of 3 mm Czech fire polish beads.
I’ve cut these two border molds apart so that they are separate, but I think it's just
as easy to use a mold that's on a sheet with others.
If when you're done you decide you want them separated you can cut molding putty after
curing with a pair of scissors.
Allow the putty to sit until when you press a fingernail in it doesn’t leave a dent,
this will tell you that it is fully cured.
To use your mold roll your clay into a thin, even snake.
Make sure it's smooth without any creases.
It will likely need to be smaller than you think, unless you want a very thick edge under
your decoration.
It may take some trial and error to figure out how much clay you need to get a border
the thickness you want.
The trickiest thing I found about using this kind of mold is you need to press very firmly
on the clay to get a good impression, and then sometimes the clay wants to stick to
your fingers and lift out of the mold after you press it in.
To keep this from happening spritz a small puddle of Armor All on your work surface and
dab your fingers in it after every two or three presses onto the clay.
Depending on how sticky your clay is, this may not happen.
You should also be careful to never lift both fingers up at the same time, but always keep
one in place, holding the clay in the mold.
Once you've pressed the entire length of the mold, use a ceramic tile, an acrylic block
or a flat ruler to press down on the clay so that it's an even thickness.
Press firmly, but don't rock as that can cause a double impression.
I'm standing up here so I can give more pressure evenly.
Remove the clay border from the mold and place right side up on your tile.
Give the border a gentle tug to straighten it.
Then use your clay blade to straighten it some more so you can trim evenly along the
edges.
Just place your blade next along one edge of the design and gently tap it into the blade,
this will straighten it, then you can press it down to trim your border neatly.
As you're cutting pay attention to where both ends of your blade are.
It's easy to lose track of one and cut into your decoration, not just trim the edge.
Like I did there.
Now that it's trimmed you can see the thickness of the clay under the trim.
The more clay you start with, the thicker this will be.
Here are how these borders look when molded in clay.
Keep in mind you don't have to just use polymer clay, you can also use air dry or metal clay.
I love how this one with the cording picked up all that soft texture.
I've added some mica powder to one side of each one so you can see all the details.
Here we have the rhinestone cup chain, the box chain, the daisy spacers, snake chain,
the cording and the fire polish beads
Now you won't be able to look at your household objects the same way!
Take a look around your home & studio to see what fun things you can use to create custom
border molds.