The Board Members of the National Polymer Clay Guild wanted to make
some promotional pins and other items.
During my term as VP Membership I used a black and white copy of the
Guild Logo (designed by member Beth Brampton) printed in three sizes--one
inch, one and a quarter, and one and a half inch version-- to order a set
of tools from Ready
Stamps.
I used a good computer graphics program to play with the sizes. I also
made some of them positive (black designs on white background) and some
negative (white designs on black background).
This is so some have raised
letters and some have raised areas AROUND the letters.
These were all images that were the right way around on the artwork
and recognizable as our logo.
Then I reversed some, so that they LOOKED backwards on the artwork---that
was so the matrix plate would be a good mold for making pins that had raised
and indented portions and could be treated with powders or in other ways.
I cut out the cleanest print-outs, and used a glue stick to paste them
into a 7 inch x 9 inch rectangle on a sheet of white paper, and sent it
in along with payment.
Less than two weeks later, I got my package in the mail--it included
my sheet of logo art, a transparency of the art, a red rubber sheet of
27 stamps, a yellow acrylic sheet of the designs, and a brown matrix plate
of molds. All this for less than $40.00!!
When ordering stamps, plate and matrix from Ready
Stamps, do remember that stamps will reproduce your image
as it is seen on the paper, but the matrix is the reverse of it, so if
you have words or letters in your design, the image pulled from matrix
will be backwards.
You can get around this by
reversing the original artwork via a computer, or by having a transparency
made at your printer/copy shop and flipping it over on the copy machine
to make an inverted copy. Of course, then you will have a usable matrix
and a backwards stamp!
I used the matrix and stamps to try out several different techniques
and color variations.
Our NPCG Board Members picked out a favorite for this particular project,
and our local Colorado Guild members went to work to make 250 pins for
promotional use at the Ravensdale Conference.
We had a mini-class in Production Line Techniques, with some members
conditioning pounds of clay, some rolling it flat, some as runners to take
the flat pieces to the pressing and cutting table where more members formed
the pins, then passing them on to the powdering team.
Then into the oven they went!
After baking, we had members
who glazed, members who glued, and a team to put the finished pins on special
cards made by Jean Comport, who is a past president of the NPCG.
Nan Roche, a past president herself, donated the pin backs, and members
of the NPCG also donated the clay and other supplies.
Many thanks to the the hardworking members of the Mile
High Polymer Clay Guild and the Rocky Mountain Polymer Clay Guild, and
to Eileen Loring for the photo-documentation of the day.
Shown here are the results.
This is a great way to make promotional items for any group or business.
If we had chosen to have metal pins made by one of many companies that
makes promotional items, the cost would have been higher, and the results
would have been nice, but finite…we would have X number of pins, and
that is all. This way we have had the experience of working together, and
we have tools with which to do any number of pins, any time we need them,
and to do any number of future projects.
This is truly an ongoing and creative solution to our need, which can
be adapted to any group's use.
Click the logo to visit NPCG.org
