My Polymer Clay Journey: Leaves Are In The Air! - Making Multiple Charms From Original Molds

UPDATE: Yay! Click here to see the new video on YouTube that supplements tis tutorial.

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 I have been having some fun with the new nail art powders and ended up creating some really beautiful  autumn leaves for bracelet or necklaces, or what ever you wish.

How did I create these?

The molds I made of my own leaf designs

I like to create my own images and texture sheets as you know.  so for this project I wanted to make multiple images of the same thing. In light of the fact that it is autumn, it makes sense that I dug up some original molds.

A couple of years ago I made a couple of these original leaf shapes. Since I was experimenting making my own molding compound, using silicone caulking (very stuff we use to seal up our bathroom sinks and such) some corn starch and a bit of acrylic paint for colour, I made molds of these two leaves. You can find DIY’s for this silicone mold making technique online. It works, but takes practice- getting the correct consistency. Needless to say, for me personally, I ended up buying a box of ready-made mold maker. In the photos you'll see the yellow molds, those are the store bought mold maker. And the turquoise blue one, is my home made compound. I did try using it last week, but it wasn't as smooth as a store-bought mold maker.

I carefully removed each one from their mold, making sure everything is smooth with no cracks or dents.

The clay that I used for these pieces, was Premo brand translucent. I added colour by using alcohol inks and marbleized it. The clay needs to be soft and conditioned in order to push it into the molds. 

The leaves just pulled from the molds. Not cleaned up yet.

Laying them all out, I cleaned each piece up- using a craft blade, making sure nothing was messy or scraggly. 

Bake me!

I used a green mica powder to highlight the veins, then later, I switched to  a blue powder.

Then I highlighted each piece with a few coloured nail powders (really they are mica powders)

I wanted to make the backs neat so I pressed them on to a texture stamp

Laying them all out, I cleaned each piece up- making sure nothing was messy or scraggly. Then I highlighted each piece (front and back) with a few coloured mica powders. You  can leave the clay colour alone if you want to, or use powdered chalk pastels. As well, you can use surface enhancing techniques after fired, using gilders paste, Inka Gold paste, acrylic paint...up to you. 

Bake them on a card stock sheet or a non-shiny ceramic tile (shiny results in a too shiny back). I bake everything for at least one hour (covered with tin foil). 

Love experimenting with my new chrome  pigment nail art powders (Mica with two tones-depending on the lighting)

I cut little pieces of  twenty gauge wire, forming them into a loop shape. Then using pliers, I carefully inserted the the irregular end into the part of the leaf, that I wanted it to hang from. you can use jump rings  if you don't want to make your own wire loops. They loops will not fall out if you have  a bended part tucked into the clay.

Try placing the hanging loops in a variety of places to create interest.

After, I coated them after with satin Polyurethane. They almost have a faux Raku finish.

You can see the blue veins

Here are some more photos. Hope you are inspired a little.

HeArtfully Creating,

Anita