August 25, 2014

Your Success! – August Issue of My Molds! 2014

News that Inspires Imagination! The Preferred Place for Clay Push Molds. July. 2014 Issue of My Molds Newsletter.
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The Preferred Place for Clay Push Molds
News that Inspires Imagination by Mad About Molds!
 

 
 Come on over! 
 
The sky is the limit with what you can do with our molds. It's like magic when you first see the results. It takes very little work to make a piece that looks like it took hours to make. Don't you just loving making products that are one-of-a-kind items that you can't find anywhere else? With our molds, you are allowed to use your creations in anyway you wish. So feel free to have fun and make something you can be proud of. Think of all the Possibilities! Using our molds is easy and fun! You don't need to be ultra-talented to make items that look like they took hours to make. Learn how step-by-step here.

 
 

 Did you know... 

WE HAVE OVER 1,000 MOLDS TO CHOOSE FROM?

That's more molds then anyone could ever need! Plus we offer many molds in both a hard molds and flexible molds. Both have their advantages which we will help you understand once and for all today.
 
We make these molds individually one-by-one, each handmade mold is inspected and needs to meet our high standard before shipping to you. Our unique process insures a clean, smooth and uniform mold. The items that we choose to mold are based on minimal undercuts when being molded, insuring you a quality casted piece.

 
 

 
 All kinds of Cameos! 


  

Tips for making Cameos

  1. You will need at least two colors of polymer clay: usually ivory for the cameo part and a darker color for the background. If you would like a marbleized or shaded background, mix some ivory canes or balls into the darker color clay. 
  2. Be sure the clay is well conditioned. Most molds don’t require a release agent, but if you find the clay sticking to the mold, try spraying with water or dusting with corn starch. 
  3. Take a small ball of ivory clay (better too little than not enough) and press it into the cameo portion of the mold. 
  4. Use the handle of a paint brush or a chisel headed clay shaper to tamp the clay down. 
  5. Work slowly and meticulously so as to capture all the detail of the cameo. It is OK, even preferable to leave some convexity to the ivory clay. 
  6. Leaving sections of the ivory very thin (for example, the folds of a woman’s dress) will create a beautiful translucent filmy look. 
  7. The most important step on the cameo level is to smooth the edge of the design so that when the darker clay base is added to the mold, you achieve the nice sharp edge you are seeking between the cameo and the dark background. 
  8. Roll out a small piece of the background clay to the proper thickness for your mold. 
  9. Gently press the mold on top of it to mark the shape for cutting. 
  10. Cut the background and lay it into the mold. 
  11. Tamp around the edge and work gently toward the center, applying less pressure when you are over the cameo portion to avoid causing the ivory clay to ooze out of the depressed area of the mold. 
  12. If the clay is not level, gently add more background color to top it off. 
  13. Use the paintbrush handle or clay shaper to level and smooth the back. 
  14. Bake as usual. 


To achieve an antique look, apply a whitewash to your cameo after baking. Brush on white acrylic paint thinned with water. Then wipe off the excess. Using white on a light color clay gives very subtle shadings and depth. 

Various cameo techniques to experiment with.

  • It would be fun to marbleize colored clay for an elegant background look. 
  • As far as the silhouette goes, it could be painted first with a white primer, and then topped with a pearl or translucent paint for special effects. 
  • Another idea would be to fill the mold in the silhouette areas with white clay and then the background with colored clay. Then when it's baked you could use white transparent pearl paint to finish off the details of the hair, leaves etc.... 
  • Another idea that would be fun, would be to just make the whole cameo with white clay, and then use a fine tip paint pen for better details to color in the background and then use an antiquing effect over the top of entire casting. That would be beautiful.


If you would like to send a picture of your finished work, we would be happy to feature it on our site. 

You can view pictures of handmade cameos that were made by some of our very talented customers on our gallery page HERE. It’s worth a look!

 

Cameos do take practice but they are worth it in the end.


And if cameos aren't your thing, remember we have a selection of 1,000 molds on our website. If you don’t see what you are looking for, it’s likely that you will find it and much more at www.MadAboutMolds.com.
 

 Fall 2014 Color Report 
 
Pantone published its Fashion Color Report Fall 2014 just as New York Fashion Week got underway.

To produce this semi-annual report, Pantone begins well before Fashion Week, interviewing today’s top fashion designers to find out what colors are on their minds, on their drawing tables and on their radar for next season. The Fashion Color Report hits the streets just as the fall collections hit the runaways, to give fashion fans in-depth insights into the color selections they are seeing in the shows.

Below is a roundup of some of the blog posts and features stories that covered the report’s colors palettes, designs and designers. 

Women’s Wear Daily, Rosemary Feitelberg

“Both sexes are breaking free from traditional autumnal hues in favor of more unexpected ones. The exotic red Sangria, the more sophisticated Aurora Red and the more adaptable Radiant Orchid ranked first, second and third, respectively, for both sexes. The only point of dispute was fourth place, with women banking on Mauve Mist (thanks perhaps to the ladies of “Downton Abbey”) and men opting for the slightly grayer Sea Fog.”
 

Huffington Post, Jamie Feldman

“Pantone announced its top 10 fall 2014 colors and they are equally as bold for men as they are for women. It looks like designers are breaking away from gender specific colors more than ever and having a bit more fun with their collections. The reason behind this playful shift could be the fact that designers want their clothing to be perceived more like pieces of art.”
 

Refinery 29, Gina Marinelli

“… As pointed out by Pantone, ladies and fellas have found common ground in their shared appreciation of colors. To be more specific, it’s sangria. Again, we’re talking about the shade. The deep purple-red hue is the most popular one used in the fall ’14 collections by men and women designers. And, as WWD points out, this means something greater than men and women dressing in a matchy-matchy fashion.” 
 

Today, Eun Kyung Kim

“The shift away from gender-specific colors will have people seeing shades of crimson this autumn, including the bold Aurora Red, which Pantone said “adds a sophisticated spark to any winter wardrobe” to the more purple-infused Sangria, “an exotic red that evokes a sense of glamorous adventures.”
 

Fed Scoop, Patra Wroten

“Make room in your closet for hints of Sea Fog, Sangria and Mauve Mist. Or, if you don’t speak Pantone, the color purple is going to be really popular this fall. Just in time for New York Fashion Week, the world leaders of chromo released its 2014 list of hot hues. Shades fall under the stem of Radiant Orchid —  the 2014 Color of the Year — varying in tones of violet and red, with a dash of warm yellow for good measure.”

 

 13 Things Crucial For Your Success 

Success is each to his or her own, but let’s call it like we see it: when you survey the landscape of your creative world, your industry, your career or hobby–whatever field you’re in– there are several fundamentals to achieving success, regardless of the measure. There are commonalities that are undeniable. So here’s a list of thirteen such things that you should be doing right now – let’s call it your hit list:
 
1. Get it done. 
Over-thinking, pontificating, and wondering are tools for the slacker. People don’t care what almost happened, or what your problems are or why something wasn’t. They care about what is, and what will be. That requires actually making stuff happen. Pros do, make, ship, send, publish, post and deliver; amateurs sit around and wonder, or worse, scratch their arse.
 
2. Educate yourself. 
Think someone else is responsible for your education? Think again. And don’t fool yourself that being in school, in class, or in the seminar actually equals education. Education is incredibly active and it should be self directed in some capacity. Seek information. Knock down walls to get it.
 
3. Make your own rules. 
There are a million paths to get to any single destination. And while it helps to know the rules that others have played by in the past–those you admire who have come there before you–don’t let those rules alone define your rules or your actions. Be respectful as you make your own rules, don’t be rude. But be prepared to chop your own path through the weeds and fend off the naysayers, because if you’re doing something worthwhile there will likely be resistance to your way.
 
4. Want to be a legend? Affect change.
 
5. Want to affect change? Get to work. See #1
 
6. Iterate. 
Nothing–and I’ll say it again, but louder–NOTHING will spring from your creative self fully formed. Genius, clarity, vision–whatever you want to call it–will come in fragments at inopportune moments over days, weeks, months, years. Be ready to catch each one of the iterations and push it out of you. The summary of those iterations will aggregate into something special.
 
7. Look inside.
Understand that the best way to make something new and fresh is to look inside you. The answers are in here, not out there.
 
8. Don’t underestimate the fundamentals. Know your craft.
Vision and big-picture-thinking are important, but not at the expense of the fundamentals. You’ve got know the nuts and bolts of what you're doing. Skip this item at your own risk.
 
9. Take a deep breath. 
Life, work, art can be hard. Anxiety – not to be confused with the positive stress of deadlines and forced production schedules – is counter productive. So when things are getting hairy, take a breath. Everything is going to be okay. When you re-center, see #1.
 
10. Take delight.
Your work should be fun. Not always fun like a birthday party fun, but fun like you’re doing the right thing sort of fun. Stimulating. Positive. Energizing. Take delight in what you do, and for that matter, what others do too. Celebrate successes when you break through tough challenges. Stay up all night when the ideas are flowing, because you can. Enjoy the process, because from moment to moment, the process is reason for the season – it’s all you’ve got. If you don’t take delight, your career will be short, either by choice or by fate.
 
11. Seek out good people. 
Think you’re on a solo journey? On the contrary. Making your work, your career, your life, will involve others taking to you and what you do. Therefore, make effort to know, connect, collaborate with, mentor under, the best people you can find. Screw that, the best people you can FATHOM. And once you identify them, seek them. Make an effort to cultivate those relationships and take those good people with you – figuratively and literally – on your journey. Good people tend to attract other good people. And so for similar reasons, it should go without saying, avoid jerks and haters. It’s hard to soar like an eagle when you run around with turkeys. Negative energy is like a black hole for creativity and inspiration. And remember, you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.
 
12. Find some quiet.
Noise, stimulation, and adventure are good for creating the raw building blocks of creativity, but they suck for the most important part of creativity — the synthesis. Synthesis–the gluing together of your ideas–requires some sort of quiet, be it just a moment or bunch of moments. So carve out this time.
 
13. Help others.
When chasing success too many people play the ‘me’ game. It’s all about ‘me’. Well, contrary to what it might seem, success ain’t just about me. Most people who achieve success are concerned with helping others. Helping others cultivates understanding, humility, compassion, and your network – not to mention, a better world. So don’t just reach up and pull yourself there. Be sure to reach sideways and down too, as often as you can muster.
 

 
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