Friday, July 29, 2011

Another new mold and then another!

TYPEWRITER KEYS AND AWARENESS RIBBON MOLDS!

Sometimes a mold or even two just seem to materialize. Never mind that for a year or more I'd be thinking about it, drawing ideas, creating something that will be used to make the new design. They often come about in tandem.


1. The typewriter key mold was conceived over three years ago. I created the 'keys', a tif file, on the computer and there it sat. A few months later, photo polymer resin stamps caught my eye so I purchased the materials and got busy making negatives for the stamps. and the 'keys' got a negative.

However, the layout of the negative did not fit the standard mold setup or the set up for the medium photopolymer packet. It waited again.

Again it sat for a while when a friend recommended Boxcar photopolymer sheets. It was a large sheet from which any shape could be cut. I made the stamp. Only problem, the letters were right reading outies. Not good.

Again, a wait. One day I found the stamp, made a mold, but the resulting mold did not fit the standard size/shape. We can't make dozens of sizes as packaging becomes a nightmare.
It waited some more.

Recently passing the counter with the boxcar stamp on it, I stopped and looked at it again and that little light bulb that goes off over your head when you have an idea lit up! Picking up a tiny ball of clay I and pressed it onto one of the keys in the boxcar stamp. It worked! The clay ball that tipped out of the stamp was a perfect little typewriter style key.

Make more, lots more. Figure out how to make each ball exactly the same size, make many more. After baking them and choosing the best of the bunch, a grid was drafted in the standard mold form and the tiny keys glued in place. Adding five punctuations and one blank key, the job was finally in the oven!



These pretty colored keys a re samples showing the details of the keys.(no the K is not wrong, it is upside down). Within two days we had a mold for old style typewriter keys, a project with step by step pics, photos and ready for the web! Ya gotta love it when everything comes together so ... easily?

Oh well, it's a great mold and fun to play with.

If you'd like to play with this mold, check us out at bestflexiblemolds.com the mold is online and waiting for a new home.

Signed,








2. The second mold? it happened right alongside of the key mold but it came with only a few months of thinking, sketching and planning.

Some of our customers began to write and ask about a mold for Awareness ribbons early this year. While the typewriter keys baked, sculpting started on the ribbons.

Cancer has cut a wide swath through our families through the years. I've never been much for wearing a ribbon, but thought it might be time to create something more permanent.

I wanted to make memory and or prayer charms in the cancer colors. Each charm will have the birthstone of the victim/survivor/fighter incorporated into the design.


The instructions to make this charm comes with each mold. The red ribbon is for Lymphoma, a blood borne cancer. The glass bead is a faux Peridot, the birthstone for August. The wire through the charm strengthens the clay.

It is best to use strong clay like Pardo, Fimo Classic, Kato or Premo to make the ribbons.

Four Ribbon Cabochons that will fit standard sized bezels,

  • 1 1/8 x 1 ½ inches (30x40mm),
  • 7/8” x 1 3/16” (22x30mm);
  • 13/16” x 15/16” (18x25mm);
  • 1/2” x 7/16” x 7/16” (13x18mm).
Five Awareness Ribbons in a variety of sizes – largest to smallest; 1 1/4” - 1” - 7/8” - 5/8” & 1/2”

The four cameos with ribbons can be molded in two colors and can be used alone or glued into a standard setting (bezel).


Left are samples after molding.

Right are samples glued into standard settings from Fire Mountain Gems.

This mold will be available on our website in a week or so. If you would like one now, contact me directly. The info is on our website. BestFlexibleMolds

PJ