SKILLS
Basic metal clay fabricationTIME IT TOOK
About 2 hours plus fi ring time
(and do-overs!)
Paper template: 1 hour
Polymer clay mold and
“pusher”: ½ hour plus
fi ring time
Ring: ½ hourMATERIALS- EZ960 Sterling Silver
Clay, 12 grams - Polymer clay
TOOLS
Metal clay: Basic tools and
programmable metal clay kiln
Forming: Paper tube,
dowels, steel tool handles
or other heat-resistant
cylindrical forms
Polymer clay: Basic tools,
dedicated toaster oven
SOURCES
EZ960 Sterling & Coolslip
available from CoolTools.
Most of the other tools and
materials for this project are
available from well-stocked
jewelry supply vendors, many
of whom can be found in our
Advertisers’ Index, page 102.What
You Need
Jewelry Project
unlike the negative mold you would
generally use for a texture with
metal clay.2
This is the more literal design.
Roll a layer of polymer clay over
your original. Make it around 3mm
thick and leave 3-4mm extra along
each edge.3
Lay it face down on a cylindrical
form. In this case, I chose a
paper tube from a clothes hanger.
Bear in mind that the mold will
probably not totally conform to
the form, so it may need to have a
slightly smaller diameter than you
actually want. It also needs to be
able to tolerate the heat necessary
to bake the polymer clay.About Molds
I like to use polymer clay to make
molds for metal clay. I make molds from
just about anything, but especially from
my own pierced-metal pieces. I’m also
fond of creating layered-paper originals
to reproduce in metal clay. You can
make a mold — an impression — from
anything with a fairly shallow texture or
pattern to it.
For making this domed ring with metal
clay, we need a polymer clay mold
because we’ll need to curve the clay
and bake it that way. At first I tried a
paper original, then shaping it on a
curved surface, then making a polymer
mold from it, but found an easier way.
Leave the paper flat, make the polymer
impression, then lay that onto a curved
surface face-down before baking it.
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