Hand and Footprint or even paw prints??? help please

Hi guys

I have been using silver clay for a while now mainly making fingerprint jewellery and am now wanting to try my hand at hand and foot prints, paw prints and maybey little pictures in the clay.

I am hoping someone can tell me what equipment I will need in addition to what I already have ie, general silver clay tools.

I was looking at a Photopolymer plate kit on cookson ref 700612. Can someone tell me what i need in addition to this kit to get me up and running? (i did call cookson but it didn't help much!)

Any advice would be good, Thank you.

Hi there,

It depends how you are going to make the prints really. I roll mine because I make them into... ummmmm rolls! (I need a better way to describe what I do!), so for me it's just a roller (I use an old glass cosmetic bottle) and some spacers and a mandrel to roll them around. If you are making pendants, then maybe put your cut plates in the bottom of the mould and press down?

I know a lot of people use silicone moulding compound to take the impression and then press the clay into that.

Nic (amongst others) has used photopolymer for PMC - http://www.cooksongold.com/forum/sho...dia-piece.html ; there's at least one external link in there about using it. Did you get a contents list for the kit by any chance?

Hi
Will check out the link thank you. When I rang cookson they told me they couldn't tell me what was in the kit or what else i would need, but did confirm that I would need a UV light.
Fingers crossed the link will shed some light thanks!

a good sunny day will work for fingerprints. The trick is to keep the angle of the light constant and make sure your negative is making really good contact with the plate.

Does anyone know how to make the hand and footprints small enough for a pendant please?

Hi Joanne,

I'm the opposite to you, I've done lots of hand/foot/drawing pieces and need a little help with fingerprint ones.

First to your predicament.

All I have is a small stamp making kit (find it at spoiltrottenbeads amongst other sites)(I had to get a small bendable desk lamp to suit the processing instructions)(this kit seems expensive £30approx, but once you have one you can make excellent jewellery that people love and are willing to pay for)

What you then do is get your foot/hand print done either simply with white paint on black A4 paper or with inkless wipe kits (you can find them on ebay)

There a little extra fussing with childrens drawings/writing, after you scan the drawing you may need to erase excess bits that you dont want etc then make the negative/shrink etc.

Then what I do is to scan it into my computer as a jpeg then open it in something like microsoft paint package and make it a negative (only if you have done it with black paint on white A4 paper, if you've done the white paint on black A4 paper theres no need to make a negative)
(the print has to be white and the background jet black), then just shrink the size of the image until its the size you want on your jewellery.

Then print it off and follow the stamp making instructions. I hope you get this note and start making lovely pieces of jewellery.

I have a dilemma too, maybe you could help me?

I have done a double sided fingerprint for a friend of her now late husband. Trouble is I did the impression straight into the PMC clay at the time. Now the lady wants more jewellery. Obviously the only way to get extra pieces is to try to get a copy of the print straight from the now pure silver pendant. Ive tried using Oyumaru material but that doesnt seem to pick up any detail really, despite what people have advised.

Any further suggestions on how to pick up the fine details of the fingerprint straight from the silver jewellery piece.

Thanks for any thoughts you have and good luck with yours.

Jacki.