Mar 25, 2013

Mold making update: quick pots and shapes

Good evening folks,

I wanted to do a quick tutorial on the small pots that I made, I promised Daria I would write about it, but my camera battery died this morning.

In any case I will attach a pixelated 20 second video at the end to show the mold shaping, I will have to update it tomorrow with a better version.
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Mold Making: as I posted here about making items and utilizing a mold to reproduce the item we are going the same route, except we are going to look with our mini eye to find shapes and create cloud monsters..er small items ;)

As you can see I have searched in the most reasonable spot, the bathroom.. I have the ends of makeup and nail polish, small caps from eye drops and other medicines and also a wooden pot from your standard woodsie pack.

You can choose any shape you like but a small item that you can place into your mold mix would work the best such as a cap. that way it sets up as a mold without warping. You see here I have created different molds from end of things, dollhouse pots and various baked polymer clay items.
 
This one is my "go to" mold for small pots, bowls anything I want with a rounded bottom, remember twice baking a simple mold can reproduce something quite special..more on that next time.
 
While you can use any color clay your heart desires, I use the same technique for rustic pots pans and dishes.
 
These are mixed clays with a small part of sand or pepper to simulate stone /granite and stonewear.I also like to use metallic effect clays and dull them down a bit.
 
When shaping to your mold you will need a bit of cornstarch and a small brush for the clay to flow in your mold, also so your stylus does not stick.
 
To start lightly dust your mold with cornstarch, press in your clay, then add a slight dust on top to help the stylus glide and press the clay into the form.
 
Remember the hardest part of the forms are the outside shape and smoothness so by shaping from the inside you will be getting a great outer form.
 
Now this next part is gliding the stylus in to the mold, I did it quickly just to show you the motion but you can get the idea here until I update the video.
 
well..I did say it was bad.... but you see how you would shape, pots bowls, cups to your varying molds that you can make from household items, You can sand or cut down your lumps, create rounded edges or add more clay to add details.
 
 
Let me see how yours turn out ;)
 

19 comments:

  1. Hi Jane! Thank you so much for this tutorial. You made it look so easy. It is something I would like to get into eventually. I will keep all your tips in mind.

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    1. Welcome hon, let us see what you make when you do ;)

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  2. Great tutorial Jane! Will have to use this sometime, since I have avoided making pots but I won't be able to forever :)

    Illyria

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    1. Scrap clay is great for these things, bowls rustic items ;)

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  3. Thanks for posting the tut :) I will pin it. And it will come in handy when my friend Pat and I get together in a couple of weeks to make molds!

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  4. Grazie Jane, tutorial molto utile! Ci proverò a metterlo in pratica! Manu

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    1. Buona fortuna parti vostre foto;)

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  5. What a great tip! Thanks for sharing! Hannah

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  6. Thank you so much! :) That's great!

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  7. Thank you for taking the time to show how. It is very well made​​. The video is quite excellent. Yet something I have to try once.
    Can I produce bottles in this way, make a half, and then gluing them together?
    Hugs
    Wyrna

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    1. Hey Wyrna, you definatly can make anything you can imagine this way. And yes you can make half of one type and another and glue after baked.

      Don't forget you can twice bake a item so one mold..then add some clay and bake again.... maybe I should do that one next ;) Twice baking.

      I am going to do one about resin molds also.

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  8. Thank you for this great idea, I sort of make things as I go along so making a lot at one time really does make sense.

    :)

    Hugs
    Marisa :)

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  10. Thanks for this great idea.
    Greetings, Faby

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  11. Great tutorial! Can you paint these after you're done molding them?
    -
    https://twitter.com/tucsonmuseum

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    1. You would bake them before paint, but yes I add paint to a lot of my polymer clay items I do...extra dimension ;)

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  12. Hi Jane! You make it look soooo easy! You have developed a really good method though. It is kinda like throwing a pot on a wheel except the wheel is the ball stylus and the mold are your mini hands forming and shaping as the stylus goes around and around! I would assume that different sizes of the ball stylus would produce different dimensions and or alter the pot in some way, is that right? In any case, you done good!

    elizabeth

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