By Sandra Strait (aka molossus)
 Before we start, I have to warn you that there is a danger to using Amazing Mold Putty. It’s called Molding Addiction, and the symptoms include grabbing every object in sight and shoving it into Amazing Mold Putty. Household items, toys, jewelry, body parts…nothing is safe once you start making these molds, lol! I received a Shizen Bookmaking Kit for Christmas. The pages are already bound, and all you have to do is glue the supplied chipboard covers to a decorative paper of your choice. I had some lovely Lokta paper that I intended to use for that. Recently, I drew a Steampunk themed piece of artwork using Viva Las Vegas stamps and Letraset Promarkers. The colors I chose just happened to match the Lokta Paper I had—they could have been made for each other! |
 Supplies: 1 oz. Delight™ 10 ¼ x18 ¼ sheet Lokta Paper (Nutmeg color) Steampunk artwork Lots of ‘found objects White Glue Acrylic paints in metallic and rust colors Paint Brushes A toothpick or two Scissors |
The Objects I’ve learned that not everyone knows what Steampunk is. Like Goth, it’s many things--a genre, a fashion, a fantasy—predominate colors are Brown and Gold, common objects are gears and clocks, and the fashion is largely Victorian. That hardly explains Steampunk, but it’s enough to get you through this tutorial! In this step, I indulged my Amazing Mold Putty addiction. I wandered through the house and garage looking for items that screamed Steampunk to me. I gathered up gears and sprockets and roller chain. I tore apart a couple of old analog watches and took out the guts. I picked up a bead bracelet that I made years ago. An old coin that a friend gave me was thrown on the pile. I had about 30 objects by the time I was through!  |
The Amazing Mold Putty I made so many molds for this project, lol! I’ll only go over the process once, because the only difference is in how much putty you mix and what you shove into it before it sets. Amazing Mold Putty comes in two parts, Part A--white putty and Part B--yellow putty. Nothing happens until you start mixing the two. Once you start smooshing them together though, there is only 3 or 4 minutes before the putty sets. I usually scoop out some Part A and flatten it out next to the object I intend to mold. When it looks like I have about ½ of what I’ll need I roll it into a ball. Then I scoop out enough Part B to create a similar sized ball. I want equal amounts but it doesn’t have to be measured.  The last step is pushing the object into the soft putty and leaving it there for 10-15 minutes. When the putty has set it remains flexible, so you can flex it and pop the object out. That’s it! After a while, I wondered why I was making a single mold for each and every object, especially the smaller items. I mixed a larger ball of putty and pushed several objects in at once, making sure there was a little room between each of them.  |
The Delight™ Again, even though I had 30 objects, the process was the same for using the molds. I tore off a chunk of Delight™ to the size needed to fill the mold. If it turned out I didn’t have enough, it was easy to pull the clay out, and start over with a little more. I like to roll the clay into a ball until it’s smooth, then flatten it to about the right size before pushing it into the mold.  Then I use a toothpick along the top to even it out, and use the edge of the toothpick to cut away any excess. The Delight™ can be removed almost immediately. However, I found the sometimes, if the object is large, it will curve as it dries. Oh, I had so many embellishments when I was done, lol! I ended only using about half of them—but I know the unused ones will find a project soon!  Once I was sure everything was dried, I painted the embellishments with metallic gold and copper and silver acrylic paint.  |
The Book While my embellishments were drying, I put together my Shizen book following the instructions that came with the kit. I trimmed my Lokta paper to the correct size and glued it to the chipboard pieces, folding the paper over to create a border on the inside of the covers. Then I glued the bound book covers to the inside of the chipboard pieces and set it aside to dry, with a heavy book on top to weight the Lokta paper down.  |
Finishing I decided where I wanted the artwork to sit and glued it down.  Then I started placing embellishments and moving them around until I had them where I wanted them. The last step was to glue them down.  I titled my original artwork ‘Steampunk Warehouse’. I think my book cover follows that theme very well! And now I have a cool journal to draw in! |
