Polymer Clay Button Molds

You can use polymer clay to make unique buttons. There's a tutorial on the sidebar for caned buttons, but these instructions are for making molds. First you find a button you like.

You can also use rubber stamps, jewelry, sea shells, or other items, just something that will make a clear impression. Then you condition your polymer clay by rolling it your hands and playing with it until it's pliable and soft. You then press the button firmly into the wad of clay.

Carefully remove the button and you have a mold.

I apologize if this is a little blurred; it really is hard to get a clear picture sometimes of the mold. You now "fire" the clay (which is really at a low temperature in your oven) according to package directions.

Pretty simple, huh? Wednesday, I'll continue the tutorial with how to use the molds to make buttons and a few tips on decorating them.

There is a little knitting going on. I've finished the second snowman vest except for sewing the buttons on and all the fiddly embroidery, so I'll get to that sometime soon. And I've just finished the heel of the second CTH sock, so I'm on the home stretch there. Finally, I'm picking Forest Path back up this evening and figuring out exactly where I am. I'm going have progress for next week's KAL update!

Stay warm! (We're expecting a bit more snow tonight.)

Polymer Clay Snowman Buttons

Polymer clay is a wonderful thing for crafters and knitters can use it to make customized buttons for their garments. I am going to make buttons for the snowman vest and I'm going to show you how I do it. Almost every polymer clay book out there has the same technique (called "caning") that I'm going to use. It's taken from glasswork and you can use it to make many very detailed, nearly identical buttons.

The first step is to match the blues for the buttons. These are the colors I wanted to match. I used blue and white to match the left and blue and a little black to match the dark blue. Easy. I then made up larger amounts.



This is how to make the snowman face. I started with a hollowed out tube of white and added white and black strips for the smile. I then added more white and strips for the eyes. Then I rolled the cylinder to make the snowman face.




I then added two white body cylinders.







I surrounded the snowman with light blue and then dark blue.






Then, I rolled the cylinder down to about the size of a dime.






It's ready to be cut.







And we have buttons. I cut about 25 off the cane and I poked holes to sew them onto the vest and cooked them according to package directions.