Layering Polymer Clay Colours in a Flexible Mould

with Sue Heaser  (see our page on using Sculpey Flexible Moulds also)

The flexible Sculpey Push moulds are available in a number of themes and once the moulded item has been baked it can be used for decorating handmade cards, boxes, furniture or jewellery.   Browse our selection of flexible moulds >

Many of these moulds are intended to have different colours of clay pressed into different parts of the mould cavity so that the resulting piece is multicoloured. This is great fun with moulds such as Zoo Life which have many different colours on each piece. The technique is easy to do - you just fill the lower layers of the mould with one colour, then add different colours in the other areas. This example shows a three-coloured hat being moulded from the Party Time mould.

The moulded and baked pieces can be used to decorate any number of items and here they are used to decorate a name plaque.  Simply roll out a piece of clay and cut it out with a fancy blade.  The moulded pieces should stick to the surface of the plaque if you push them together with a little pressure and you can strengthen the bond by using Studio Bake and Bond.  Alternatively, bake the plaque and moulded pieces separately and then stick them together with Super glue.

Step 1

Condition a piece of lilac clay for the hat ribbon and press into the mould.
 

Step 2

Add more clay as necessary and ensure that the clay colour does not overlap into other areas of the mould. You can push it back with a blunt tool.

Step 3

Shave off any excess clay with a plastic tool or blunt knife so it is flush with the mould surface. Take care with sharp tools as these could damage the mould.

Any excess can be stuck back onto the original block of clay to use another time.

Step 4

Apply the turquoise clay to the stripes on the hat. To do this, roll a thin log of turquoise, about half the thickness of the area to be filled and press it into a stripe cavity of the mould. It will spread to fill the stripe. The colour should also come up the sides of the main cavity as this will make it look as though the stripes run all round the finished hat.

Step 5

Apply another stripe in the same way. Smooth both stripes with a clay tool and remove any clay that has moved into the other areas. The top of the turquoise clay should be level with the bottom of the next layer to be filled.

Step 6

Now apply a layer of yellow clay, pushing it down well on top of the turquoise and butting it up to the lilac ribbon.

 

Step 7

Shave off the excess clay as before and place in the freezer to cool. Ease the clay away from the sides of the cavity and pop out the moulded piece by flexing the mould and pushing from below.

Step 8

The finished hat with other pieces from the Party Time mould. The present and the bottle have also been moulded in different colours.