Browsing Tag

mold making

Button, Button, What to do with buttons?

June 18, 2013

I love a good button. I think most bead hoarders have a button tin somewhere as well. The materials used for buttons range from the simple and inexpensive to exotic and pricey. Obviously buttons have a practical use in sewing and clothing design, but they can be great additions to DIY jewelry as well.

 

button box spill

button box spill

Buttons as beads:

Boston Bracelet and New Leaf Earrings

Boston Bracelet and New Leaf Earrings

By their nature, buttons tend to have either a shank, with an opening for thread, or 2-4 holes for sewing. These holes and openings mean your buttons can substitute for beads and work as connectors in jewelry design. See round TierraCast buttons with a leaf pattern in New Leaf Earrings and bone buttons sewn on the Boston Bracelet.

Buttons as clasps:

Dark and Dangerous Bracelet

Dark and Dangerous Bracelet

Whether for popular wrapped lashed leather bracelets, or for necklace designs, adding a button to one end of your design and creating a simple loop or series of loops at the other end will complete your creation. The Dark and Dangerous Bracelet uses a cast pewter Spiral Button for the closure.

Buttons as Cabochons or Cameos:

Cute as a Button Bracelet

Cute as a Button Bracelet

Disk & Loop Bracelets make up into quick finished jewelry by gluing buttons to the disks. If the button has a shank, you may need to trim it and file the surface, then add your favorite adhesive, and you have quickly created a new accessory. Cute as a Button Bracelet uses an assortment of plastic “accoutrements” by Tim Holtz for decoration.

Copies of Buttons:

Buttons, Molds, and Cast Reproductions

Buttons, Molds, and Cast Reproductions

Have a one-of-a-kind or vintage button that you love, but don’t want to part with? 2-part silicone molding material works great to make a mold of your treasure that you can re-create in polymer or resin and use time after time. Silicone molds were quickly made of the buttons in this picture. Reproductions of the buttons (without the pesky shanks) were easily made with Amazing Resin and SuperClear Resin. For more information on making molds, see our previous blog: Making Your Own Molds is a Hoot.

Buttons you can buy from Rings & Things:

Rings & Things carries buttons in materials such as bone,

Assortment of Bone Buttons in various colors.

Assortment of Bone Buttons in various colors.

plastic,

Plastic Button Assortments

Plastic Button Assortments

cast pewter

A sampling of pewter buttons.

A sampling of pewter buttons.

one lone sterling offering

Sterling Flower Button

Sterling Flower Button

and SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS crystal

Crystal Buttons

Crystal Buttons

 

Making a Button:

Resin Flower Buttons

Resin Flower Buttons

Do you have an item without holes that you want to use as a button? Easily glue a plastic button shank to your piece to create a button. These work great for turning resin, polymer clay, hand-made glass, and ceramics into useable buttons. Since these shanks are plastic, they don’t have the sharp edges that you sometimes find on metal shank findings. The set shown above are made from resin flowers, colorized with gilders paste, and attached with E-6000.

Changeable buttons:

Cast Resin Button Covers

Cast Resin Button Covers

With a button cover and some glue, you can create a decorative cover that can be transferred from garment to garment, covering the plain or boring buttons used in manufacturing. This set is made with super clear resin, colored with dye and glitter, and attached with E-6000.

Our pinterest board “Buttons” has further inspirations for using buttons and great handmade buttons.

 

~ Rita

Making your own molds is a HOOT!

February 17, 2012

 

Chocolates and Resin molded from this little Owl Pendant

Do you have a button that you just love? Maybe it’s an heirloom and you have never been able to find another one like it, or maybe you would like to make a pair of earrings, but only have the one item. Well I have a solution for you! Make a mold of this item and you can re-create the button as many times as you like. Suddenly that one heirloom button is a whole new line of earrings! Or imagine you have an adorable charm that you love so much you could just eat it up! Well, now you can….literally! The product that is used to make these molds, Amazing Mold Putty is FDA approved for use with food, so you can make a mold of the charm and then use that mold to create chocolates as pretty as your jewelry! The possibilities are really endless… make ice cubes, soaps and candles or melt your own crayons into fun shapes! I’m thinking toy car crayons would be a great party favors for a little boys’ birthday party….

Amazing Mold Putty makes mold making so easy

Making a mold is much easier than you would think. If you have ever had molds of your teeth taken, then you have seen similar products. The molds are made by mixing a two-part silicone compound that when mixed create a quick curing putty. This is a type of molding putty is known as RTV, which stands for Room Temperature Vulcanization. Follow these easy steps and you can mold almost anything.

Before you start:

  • You will use this mold to pour into, so one side of the mold will be flat. Pick an object that will look okay with a flat back.
  • Only mold items that are not trademarked or patented.
  • If you want to make something that is three dimensional on all sides, you will need to make two molds of the item; one for each side. Then you can fill both molds and adhere to two objects together after they have been removed from the molds.
  • Openings and loops on charms will not be useable in your mold, but you can drill a hole into your re-creation later if want to re-create an opening.
  • If you are planning on using your mold to make an object multiple times, for something like ice cubes, chocolates or crayons, consider making several molds of the same object, so that when you go to make your item you can do several at once, since some mediums take a long time to cure (like ice).
  • Objects with small protruding parts will make molds that will work with resin, but may break easily when attempted with softer or more fragile materials (again like chocolate or ice).
  • If you want to make an item in both resin and edibles, make two molds because adding resin and coloring agents to the mold will make it no longer food safe.

I am going to mold this Pewter Owl Charm

Step 1. Using the item that you are molding as a guideline, determine how much molding compound you will need. I like to make two equal size balls of each color, each one being about the same size as the item you are molding. It is better to error on the side of being too big.

Smoosh the two colors together!

Knead quickly because the putty will begin to set in 5 minutes or less depending on the room temperature.

Step 2. Knead the two compounds together. You want to knead them until there is no marbeling and you have achieved one solid color.

Carefully press your object into the molding putty. Apply even pressure so that the object goes in straight.

Press the object down, but be careful to not push through the compound. If you want the mold to be deeper build the edges up around the object.

Step 3. Insert your object that you are making a mold of. Press the item into the putty and form the putty around the item a little. Make sure that you don’t press any part of the object all the way through. Also make sure that the putty is getting into all the crevices in the item.

By pressing the mold between two sheets of plastic, you can create a mold that is compact, stack-able, and level.

Step 4. Make your mold flat. Do this by pressing the putty with the object still in it between two pieces of non-porous plastic (I’m using plastic file folders). The reason you do this is so that your mold is flat on both the bottom and top. This will ensure that you can easily fill it and keep it level. It is also nice for storing molds for later use, so you can easily stack them.

Watch Nate wait! 20 minutes and your mold will be set completely!

Step 5. Wait for the putty to cure. I recommend waiting a good twenty minutes before pulling your object out.

Remove your object revealing a perfect mold!

Step 6. Remove object from the cured putty. Now you have a mold! The mold itself is flexible and can be peeled off the original item.

Mix Amazing Casting Resin to create a quick resin owl from your mold!

You can see the quick setting resin beginning to set when it turns opaque. Allow a full 15 minutes before removing your piece.

Step 7. Fill your mold and re-create your object. I used quick setting Amazing Resin and metallic powders to make gunmetal and copper versions of this owl charm. When using the metallic powders use a dry brush to remove any excess powder. The amount remaining will adhere to the resin.

Original Charm in the center, copper resin version on the left, gunmetal resin version on the right!

Resin version of this owl would be perfect for a glue-able ring or bobby pin!

I made a second mold of the owl to make little owl chocolates! Perfect for a themed party or baby shower!

Well I hope you have learned how to make some fun molds! I love making these molds, because literally the possibilities are endless! I can’t wait to make some custom molded crayons! Feel free to ask me any questions on what I did or how to do something. ~~Tiffany