A while back, some friends and local business owners asked if I could make some fridge magnets with their store logo on it. We talked about a few ideas, then I went to work. My next few posts will detail the steps that I took to make these custom creations.

The first step in the process was to make a plaster press mold for each magnet design. This required making one of each design for casting.

I had to figure out the size for the fridge magnets. I resized the logo graphic on the computer until it looked good, then printed it out. I rolled out a thin slab of clay and let it sit out and firm up for a while. Then, I placed the logo onto the clay and used a ball-point needle tool to impress the outlines of the logo onto the clay. The next step was to gently start carving, leaving the logo raised. I concentrated on the main letters and flower on the logo in the beginning.

Once the rough carving was finished, I went back over the piece to smooth out the high spots. Then I cleaned up and softened the edges with a sponge.

Next, the finer parts of the design were needed. Vines, leaves and lettering were added with a syringe fitted with a fine tip. The additions were sharpened with a carving tool, and the cast was finished.

I also made a couple of simpler designs with daisies and the business name in freehand. The daisies came from the sprig molds that I made a while back, in this post.

In the next post, I’ll demonstrate pouring the plaster and casting the molds for the magnets.