Making Polymer Clay Face Cabochons

	Supplies you will need: Some of the stuff pictured is not absolutly needed, but is handy. Such as the rolling pin, and the 1/4 wood rods. However, putting your clay between the rods give you a consistant product. The large brush pictured is a make-up blush brush I use to tap the metal leaf into the cab; very soft. 1. Face-shaped objects for molds. These can be buttons, beads, jewelry, doll heads, etc. Here I'm using small brass masks, and a mask-like face from a cheap crafts catalog. 2. A fist-sized lump of polymer clay for making the molds, and small (say, pecan-sized) balls of clay in the colors you want for your face cabs. 3. A sharp flexible blade and/or an exacto knife for trimming the cabs, a needle tool for poking holes in them, a mold release (I use baby powder), some soft small brushes the big one in the picture is a blush brush for the meatal leaf, a baking surface (a ceramic tile is great, or you can put baking parchment on a cookie sheet). 4. For decoration, depending on what you want to do: artificial metal leaf, patinating solutions, various colors of pearl-ex powders, embossing powder, acrylic paint. 5. Finishing and protecting: coarse grit (180, 220 or 320) wet/dry sandpaper, and a polymer-clay-compatible protective coating. I like minwax. Future Floor Wax works well too.
Knead and condition your big lump of clay until it is smooth and easy to manipulate. Break it into pieces a little bigger than the originals you are using and roll each piece into a flattened ball, making sure there are no seams or irregularities on the surface. Dust the original with mold release and press it into the ball, slowly and gently so that the sides of the mold don't crack.
	Gently remove the original, turn the molds upside down on the baking surface and bake according to manufacturer's instructions. (This will be something like 275 degrees F for half an hour, but different brands of clay have slightly different requirements.) Take the molds out, admire the inverse impressions and let them cool completely before proceeding to the next step.
Dust the insides of the molds very lightly with talcum powder, or if you want your cab covered with metallic leaf, lay a piece of the metal leaf over the mold at this point; it will act as a mold release so you don't need the powder in this case. Roll your clay into a small oval ball, again making sure there are no seams on the surface, and press it into the mold, letting it overflow around the edges. Gently remove the molded clay. (If your clay is very soft and sticky, you may want to put it in the fridge for half an hour before trying to remove it from the mold.) As you see here, the metallic leaf acted as such a good mold release that the clay popped right out of the mold before I could even photograph it.
	This shows what your cabs will look like after removing them from the mold. What you do next depends on how you want to use the cab. If you're going to sew a cab on to a backing or a doll and bead around it, the easiest way is to leave a sort of ledge around the face and poke holes in it. If you plan to glue it down, then you want to trim the clay very closely around the face. For a bead you also want to trim right around the face, then poke a hole through the thickness of the cab after it's finished you can use a large pinch bail like the cameo in the picture. This will be easier to do if you put the clay in the fridge again for half an hour or so, so that it'll stiffen up and hold its shape when you put the needle tool through it.
Three of the cabs after trimming.
	If you want to add pearl powders or embossing powders, now is the time. To highlight just the raised portions of the cab, get a little pearl-ex powder on your fingertip and gently brush across the surface. The top gold face (left, top row) has been gold plated then a wash( very thin) of black paint to give it a bit of antiquibg. If you want to cover the entire face with pearl-ex powder, use a soft fine brush that will get into the crevices. You can use just one color, or blend colors randomly, or use different colors to highlight the structure of the cab. The large mask face (far right, top row) has been brushed with Peacock on the face and Copper on the headdress part of the cab. The small mask face (bottom, middle row) has been gold leafed after removing it from the mold, I used minwax as the glue . The gold-leafed face is left as is.
Lay your decorated cabs on the baking surface and, again, bake according to manufacturer's instructions and let cool. Smooth any sharp or irregular edges on the sides and backs of the cabs with wet-dry sandpaper, working under water so that you don't breath the clay dust. Now you can add some interest to metal-leafed faces, if you like, by brushing them with a patinating solution and letting them dry. You can see the effect of a light patina on the gold face (far left, bottom row). Light-colored cabs can be enhanced and antiqued by rubbing dark umber acrylic paint into the crevices and quickly wiping it off the high spots. Embossing powder should have melted into a smooth surface partially or entirely covering the baked clay.

Pieces decorated with Pearl-Ex will look much the same after baking. The Pearl-Ex powders will stay on now and will survive a little handling (such as is necessary to sand the edges of the cab smooth) but still ought to be protected by some kind of finishing coat as they will wear off with too much handling. The same is true of the metallic leaf. I finish nearly all my cabs with a coat of minwax, a clear finish which comes in glossy, matte and satin. Let it dry for 3-4 hours, then stick the cabs back into the oven at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes, and you will have a virtually impervious finish. (N.B.: Do NOT use just any acrylic finish you happen to have lying around the house. Many of them react badly with the clay and your piece will remain sticky forever. Use Flecto Varathane, minwax floor wax. or it's varnish counter part, or some product formulated specifically for polymer clay.)