General Help for the Push Molds PUSH MOLDS | GUMPASTE MOLDS and CUTTERS | TOOLS | DOLL MOLDS |  HOME This article is great for small or large push molds (such as our People Molds) LIST OF ALL GUMPASTE/FONDANT CUTTERS - TOOLS

NOTE: This article was not designed for gumpaste or fondant. But most instructions apply in the very same manner. You may want to use Petal Dusts instead of face powder. But neither is toxic and won't hurt to be eaten.

Care and Use of the Molds: The molds should last a good long time. They are made of silicone or plastic. Wash with soap and water; drain dry.

How to get skin color: Use flesh-colored food coloring to color clay before pressing into mold. You can paint features after the doll is dried.
NOTE: You can dust with Translucent Powder if this is not to be eaten. It is the powder that women use on our faces. It is sold in drug stores or supermarkets, certainly at makeup counters. It comes in those little round compacts or small boxes. I prefer the translucent color because it has no color and therefore doesn't leave residue on the clay once you use the mold. However, if you cannot get the translucent, get beige or natural, something that will match whatever polymer clay you decide to use

Before adding the clay, use a soft paintbrush and dust the inside of both sides of the mold with 'puff' made of a nylon footie filled with cornstarch, then turn each side upside down and shake out the residue powder, that should be enough to have the clay release easily.

Sometimes if you "squish" the clay into the mold cavities too tightly, it might give resistence in releasing, so just fill the mold without pushing the clay into the mold that hard.

Tips on Filling the Molds with Clay: I'll describe how I fill the molds and see if this helps. Using the Girl Fairy mold as an example:

I roll up a small ball of clay, roll it into a cone, put the cone point into the nose cavity of the mold, push straight in and while holding the center part of the clay still, I spread the clay level into the head cavity. I then roll up a long coil of clay, approximately the diameter of the arms. I flatten the hand section of the coil, begin at one hand, gently push and spread the clay into the hand area, push and spread the coil up the one arm, across the upper torso area, down into the other arm section, pinch off enough to fill the hand cavity and gently push the clay to make sure that area is filled and level.

Then I roll up another coil of clay, approximately the diameter of the legs. I do the same procedure as with the arms; I flatten or bend the clay to fill the foot area, push and spread the coil to fill the leg, I loop the coil around the lower torso area, down the other leg and pinch off and gently push to level the clay. I roll up a log of clay and fill in the torso area and smooth each section into each other. Try to picture only spreading a top layer of peanut butter. Do the same procedure on the other side.

I sometimes add a small broken toothpick into the head/neck area from the halfway mark in the head to just below the neck. This gives the doll some additional stability, especially if she will be intricately posed.

Once the molds sides are filled, GENTLY push both sides of the mold together. Only push one side at a time. Do not push opposite sides at the same time, as this might cause the mold to "snap" or break. Remember, plaster is very stable and strong, but remains somewhat fragile at all times. It requires proper care.

When you open the mold, the doll or doll parts should release from one side and stick to the same sections on the other side. Sometimes it might stick in an area or two. Just gently help it out. It if comes willingly, great. If it breaks off, all you do is take the part that stuck out of the mold and put it on the other side of the doll fitting it like a puzzle piece. (To be honest with you, I don't even use the powder. I just fill the mold, and whatever piece pulls away, I just take it out separately and place it on the other side and it gets smoothed in and you can't tell it was broken off)

Tip for Beginners: I leave the doll in the one side of the mold and smooth the torso lines and any other visible lines while the clay is in the mold. This will reduce the chance of your "ruining" the features on the face while you are smoothing the one side. Then I tug at the head and lift the hands and feet with my sculpting tool, just giving them a little help in releasing. Then I tug at the head and it usually releases with no problem.

At this point I smooth the edges of the doll as well as any creases in the torso area on the opposite side. Hopefully these instructions will help you release the doll easily. Keep in mind that even under perfect conditions, you might always have a stubborn section, but it shouldn't prevent you from turning out the finished product.

Tip for Beginners: You might want to remove the arms from the Girl Fairy Mold (or any other of the one piece dolls) so you can work on the hands and body separately. It will give you added control over the doll. You can apply the arms when you are finished smoothing them and adding back the finger separation lines, if you need to.

How to Make the Hands Life Like: The hands are a bit stubby when removed from the mold. It has to be this way for two reasons. (1) in order for there to even be a cavity to add clay to and (2) it allows for the smoothing/stretching room that occurs while smoothing the fingers. How I do the hands is, using my xacto knife, I cut the thumbs a little to make them separate. Then I smooth the edges of the fingers, getting rid of any residue clay. Then I remark the finger separation lines on the inside of the hand (palm side) I make indentation lines on the top of the fingers and match the separation lines on the outside of the hand. Then I cut the fingers on these lines. I separate the fingers very slightly. Then with my fingers, I roll and touch the fingers and make then straight, round and longer. I do the index and pinky and then the ring and middle. Then I gently put them together. The fingers should be the exact length of the palm section.

You can add the knuckle lines if you want that much definition. I don't add the knuckle lines because it looks too masculine. The feet you can follow the same procedure for, although I don't cut the toes. I just use the back of the x-acto knife and put the indentations in deeper and maybe move the big toe up from the other ones to give a slight "tip toe" look to the foot. If you look at pictures of ballet dancers, you can get some pretty, feminine poses for the feet.

Tip for Beginners: As a beginner, by doing the hand/arms separately, if you mess up, you can just put that section of clay back into the mold and reshape it and start again.

Attaching the Arms to the Doll Torso: Then when I am done with the arms/hands, I just stick them on the torso, and smooth them on and they stay. If you have any trouble attaching them, you can try a little tape-covered floral wire armature inserted into the top of the arm and into the shoulder area. Remember that attaching the arms, legs, or ears, whatever, is like plastic surgery. You need to attach the "inner" clay as well as the "outer" clay. You can score the top of the arms and the top of the shoulders so when the arms attach, they will mesh or meld with the clay from each other. The more layers of clay you get to mesh, the stronger the bond will be.

Posing the Dolls: To pose the dolls, it is helpful to decide how what the final pose will be before you begin. If you start posing and hope to find a nice position, sometimes the doll will get too wobbly and will lose its shape before you find a good pose. Use pictures of people who are posed in order to get ideas.

If you have removed the arms before smoothing, you might want to pose the doll's head/torso/legs into position before you attach the arms. Then after the arms are attached, you can pose the arms last.

Tips on Baking the Dolls: Another tip about baking: If the arms are extended in any way, it will help if you make a "holding contrapsion". You can make a big cone of left-over clay with a little fiberfil or parchment paper on top so if the hands "dip" during the heating process, they won't droop. This procedure you will learn in time through trial and error. It helps to know ahead of time that you will need to prop up the intricately posed dolls.

How to paint the eyes: Paint the entire eye area white. Paint little irises in blue or brown. When painting blue eyes, you can add a little brown into the color to get a more believable blue eye color. When that is dry, using your own eyes as a model, paint the black pupil. In the baby fairy and cherub, you will need to use the smallest liner brush you can find. When that is dry, you can put a tiny, tiny white dot (I use the tip of a straight pin) at 2:00 on the edge of the pupil as a catch light. This seems like a lot of painting on little eyes, but they look very lifelike when you follow this procedure.

Other Tips: I've used my own make-up tools for the faces on my dolls. Sharpen the eybrow pencil really sharp for eye brow painting. Your own nail polish works great on their nails.

You may need to place the larger figures in a mound of clay to keep them standing nicely.
Jewels can be embedded for crowns or tiaras. Edible jewels can be made using cooed hard candy with no coloring in it. Drop tiny dots on foil to harden. There are molds for larger jewels too.

Gold or silver can be painted on using highlighter dust.

Books that help.