[nancylee]

Hi all,
I am looking to make some smaller things for the holidays and buttons. How do you get raised images on your buttons? I am thinking of face buttons, or animals, etc, raised on the surface.

I know how to carve into the clay, but buttons and earrings are so small, are molds used? And if so, where might one buy molds for pottery, or where would I learn to make molds. I am NOT a good draftsman, have trouble drawing realistically.
Thanks,
Nancy

[Marcia Selsor]

Nancy,
You could use bisque molds. Carve a negative and bisque it OR make a positive, bisque it then, press clay around it and bisque that. You would probably get around 5% shrinkage each time. Clay press molds have been used for 1000s of years. If you want a nice clean mold you could make the positives out of an oil based clay,
cast that in plaster. Then you could press mold with that.

[nancylee]

Marcia Selsor, on 21 August 2012 - 06:43 AM, said:

Nancy,
You could use bisque molds. Carve a negative and bisque it OR make a positive, bisque it then, press clay around it and bisque that. You would probably get around 5% shrinkage each time. Clay press molds have been used for 1000s of years. If you want a nice clean mold you could make the positives out of an oil based clay,
cast that in plaster. Then you could press mold with that.

Hi Marcia,
Thank you! I have never even heard of a oil based clay!! I found some molds, silicon ones, can they be used with the clay we use? Most say polymer clay.
Thanks again,
Nancy

[Chris Campbell]

If all you want to do is press a bit of clay into a mold to get a design, you can use just about any kind of mold ... I would recommend searching your local crafts store ... Like a Michael's ... see what they have in the clay, cake, candy, scrap booking, woodworking areas. Just press the clay in and use another piece of clay to pull it out.

[dave the potter]

Having a spray can of PAM around is a good idea. Items that do not release easily, whether positives you are using to make molds or molds for other materials i.e. polymer clay, will work just fine after a light spray.

[TJR]

You can use plastecine, which is an oil based clay. Make your small buttons and then make a plaster mold of a group of them.
TJR.

[Seasoned Warrior]

nancylee, on 21 August 2012 - 04:09 AM, said:

Hi all,
I am looking to make some smaller things for the holidays and buttons. How do you get raised images on your buttons? I am thinking of face buttons, or animals, etc, raised on the surface.

I know how to carve into the clay, but buttons and earrings are so small, are molds used? And if so, where might one buy molds for pottery, or where would I learn to make molds. I am NOT a good draftsman, have trouble drawing realistically.
Thanks,
Nancy

Marcia's recommendations are spot on as usual. Oil clay is modelling clay which many potters refer to using a trademarked name such as Plasticine. Bisque molds if you are not familiar with making plaster molds are quite easy just press what yo want into a piece of clay, bisque it and voila! (a tip of the hat to Marcia's upcoming residence) you have a negative cavity that will produce many copies by pressing balls of clay into the cavities. One of the ways to get good impressions and constant density is to make a wooden press kind of like a tortilla press. Make little balls of clay and press them into either your bisque or plaster molds. Just make a little channel around the cavity for excess clay to extrude into. You can make an incredible variety and quantity of tiny items with this very simple setup.

Regards,
Charles