This is what life looks like....in Leighland...

Tuesday 16 December 2014

Silver Fingerprints

I've always loved finger print jewellery and have a gorgeous foot print necklace from when Lola was a baby. I've always wanted to buy more but they're really, really expensive!

Thanks to Tiny Trinkets YouTube video, I was able to figure out how to make them myself!

I've slowly bought the materials over the last few months and while it hasn't been cheap to buy, it still works out cheaper than having them made professionally!! I plan on making 2 key rings,  each with 4 finger prints spread over 2 charms and have spent £70 on buying all of the required tools and materials. If we bare in mind, a 1 charm keyring typically costs £60 and now that I have the tools, I'll only need to buy silver clay when making these in future, I think it's a pretty good price!

So first things first, I need finger prints!!  I mixed equal amounts of Silly Gum Silicone Putty that I bought on ebay to make my moulds then squished a small ball of putty onto the index fingers of my daughter and her 3 cousins. I very quickly marked their initials on the top of each mould so I knew which print was from which kid and 5 mins later they were done!!

I repeated the process again, this time squishing the silly gum in to the finger moulds to make the actual finger print.

Using Badger Balm, I greased up a teflon sheet, opened the pack of silver clay and began rolling it to the required thickness. I took a really small heart shaped cookie cutter and cut my shape out. The clay can dry out quickly so it's important to wrap up the excess and seal it in a zip lock bag as quickly as you can, pushing as much air out as you possibly can.

Sing pushed 3 of the 4 finger prints into the heart, then I rolled out a little more clay, cut a smaller heart and pushed Lola's finger print into it - I now have 2 hearts, my big brothers 3 kids' finger prints on 1 and my kids finger print on the other.

I followed the instructions in the kit (bought from Amazon) to fire the charms and they now need to cool for 20 mins.

I have to say, I'm a little concerned as to what they'll look like when the process is fully finished as at the moment they just look like white clay rather than silver charms!!!

I'll post pictures once they've been polished and set with the keyring findings!

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