Create Your OWN MOLDS and Your Own POLYMER CLAY EARRINGS

Since I was a little girl I have liked jewelry and since last year I started a jewelry business with polymer clay, I like to create earrings for special occasions and in this instructable, I will show you how I do to create all kinds of figures and make them always come out the same size and shape (creating my own silicone molds)

In these links, you can see some things that I have done for selling:

www.facebook.com/Lina-María-Arte-y-Jolería-128479...

www.instagram.com/linamaria.arteyjoyeria/

Supplies

Polymer clay
Cardboard
Tape
Silicone Rubber and its Catalyst
Disposable plastic cups
Stick to mix the silicone
Jewelry fittings
Nail glue

Step 1: Shapes

1. The first thing I do is to create with polymer clay the figures I want to reproduce later with a silicone mold. (The colors do not matter in this point, just the shapes)

2. Bake the figures according to the instructions from the polymer clay you buy. (Mine were baked for 15 minutes at 135 °C)

Step 2: Box for the Mold

1. To create the mold, a cardboard box is made. It must be taken into account that the pieces made in the previous step will be placed inside, and each one must be separated from the others by at least 1 cm.

2. In this case I cut a 4 x 4 cm square for the bottom and 4 4 x 2 cm rectangles for the sides of the box

3. Join them with tape

4. Have the little box

Step 3: Getting Ready to Create the Mold

1. Put nail glue to each of the figures created in the first step.

2. Glue the figures to the bottom of the box.

Step 4: Creating the Silicone Mold

To make the silicone mold, follow the instructions given by the supplier of the materials. In this case, the packaging said that the silicone should be mixed with 5% catalyst.

1. Pour silicone into a disposable cup (approximately what will fit in the box made in the previous step) and weigh it.

2. Calculate 5% of the weight of the silicone and pour the catalyst into a disposable cup.

3. Mix both (silicone and catalyst)

4. Pour the mixture into the cardboard box and give it small strokes to release the air that remains inside. (this is noticeable by the bubbles coming out on the surface of the silicone)

5. Let dry (I waited 24 hours)

Step 5: Silicone Mold

1. After allowing it to dry, open the cardboard box.

2. And carefully lift the mold.

Step 6: Using the Silicone Mold

There are figures that have many details and only the first shapes are achieved with the mold but later it is necessary to continue working on them like these Rudolphs that I made for Christmas.

1. Prepare the material (polymer clay) to be used (I used two different shades of brown)

2. Fill the part of the mold with the light brown with pressure.

3. Fill with pressure on the polymer clay the area that goes with dark brown (the antlers of the reindeer)

4 - 5. Carefully remove the figure from the mold.

6. Repeat these steps until you have the desired number of shapes.