Polymer Fimo clays are very useful when it comes to developing the perfect design on the jewellery your manufacturing.

There are many techniques that are available that range from the handheld application of your design onto the piece to the imprinting of previous designs on to your jewellery.

One technique that you could use when trying to achieve this perfect style is through using moulds and imprinting the design straight onto the clay.

Moulds are extremely good for quickly applying a design of your choice straight on to your new piece, and it couldn’t be simpler.

So how do you go about imprinting your designs and working with the various moulds available to you?

Finding the right designs
Firstly, you will want to decide on what design you will want on your piece.

There are thousands of designs that you can use in order to do this, with many different images and finishes coming from this too.
There are many standard moulds that captures various styles and designs that are available from craft retailers that you can purchase your designs from.

If you would prefer, you can create your own designs using polymer clay itself.

To do this all you need to do is press down on the design that you would like to capture hard and then smoothing out the back before firing. This will allow you to then to have your very own design ready to implement any time you wish to use it.

From this technique you could then go on to make numerous designs that you could use as your base for all of your various pieces and designs in your future pieces.

Using Fimo moulds to imprint your designs
Now that you have your designs, you are ready to mould your precious metal clays.

To do this, take a decent sized ball of the precious metal clay (that’s in good condition!) and press the ball firmly into the mould, applying pressure on the back of the mould also.

Once the design has been properly pressed into the clay, remove the mould carefully ensuring that you don’t smudge or ruin your design. You may have to do some slight maintenance in the form of trimming the design with a knife or needle in order to clear up any untidy sections of the final piece.

Problems removing from the Fimo mould? If you are worried about the mould sticking to the Fimo clay and having trouble removing it without causing damage to the piece. There are effective ways of mould releases though that can salvage your design and not damage your hard work.

You can apply water for example which is a tried and tested method of counteracting the sticking to the mould.

Other methods include talcum powder, metallic powders and even saliva (just make sure you don’t touch to the clay with your mouth!). Apply these just before you place the ball of clay into the mould and you should have no problems with removing your clay without damaging the design.

Once this has all been complete it is time to fire off your finished precious metal clay design unless you have any further design to add. Using moulds are very effective and making your style consistent and to a high standard, so have some practice working with them and you will find you pieces looking as professional as ever.

Author Bio: Adam Hunter – E-commerce Marketing Manager of cooksongold.com. Cookson Precious Metals offer a choice of supplies from over 10,000 products including fimo polymer clay, jewellery findings, tools, precious metal clay and art clay silver – gold, silver, platinum and palladium plus technical information for jewellers, jobbers, designer, craftsmen, artisans and students.

Category: Arts and Crafts
Keywords: fimo, fimo clay, polymer clay, fimo polymer clay