Use Polymer Clay To Make Cameo

Cameo is the technique of carving an item of jewelry. Historically, cameos are made of three main carving materials such as : glass, shells, or agate. They have dyed powerful colored layers, but the most typical colors for two layers are white on black, white on blue, and white on red-brown.

recently, many workmen consider the polymer clay and porcelain as good alternatives to use in making cameos. You want sharper tools and more suitable base materials if you want to have a nice clean finished product. Polymer clay jewelry is inexpensive and material costs are kept down.

Prepare at least two colors of polymer clay, usually used are ivory for the cameo part and darker color contrast for the background. You can mix some ivory canes or balls in some darker color clay to have marbleized or shaded background. Just ensure that the clay you need to is well conditioned. Mostly, molds don’t need a release agent, but if in case sticking occurs, try and spray the stuck clay to the mold with water or dust it with corn starch.

Take a bit of ivory clay and place it by pressing it into the cameo portion of the mold. You can use the paint brush handle or a chisel headed clay sharper in tamping down the clay. Just work thoroughly and slowly to get all the cameo’s detail. Preferably, leave some convexity to the ivory clay.

You can leave a thin section of the ivory to create a beautiful see-through filmy look.

Smoothing the fringe of the design is the most vital step in the level of cameo making. Smooth edge is crucial because when the dark clay base is added to the mold, this may give you the nice pointy edge you wanted between the cameo and the background.

Make a proper thickness for your mold by rolling out a little piece of the background clay. Press the mildew gently on top of it to make a shape mark for cutting. Then, cut the background and lay it into the mold. Tamp around the edge and gently work until you reached the center, just apply less pressure when you are at the cameo part, in this way you can avoid ooze to the ivory clay.

If you detect that the clay is not well leveled, just softly put additional background color to top it off. In leveling the back portion, you can use the paintbrush handle or the clay sharper. And finally, bake it. Learning how to use jewelry making tools, their proper usage will not only help you learn a way to improve artistry but will make your work quicker and more effectively. All great craftsmen learned slowly and took many years to become great artists. Knowing your tools will help you become better faster.

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Tags: Hobby, make cameo, polymer clay, using polymer clay, working with polymer clay