Pirate Coin

Avast, ye mateys!
Who can resist a pirate treasure? These pirate coins made out of polymer clay are sure to pique the interest of the pirate in all of us.

Their ancient appearance makes them the perfect booty or decoration at any pirate party.

• Polymer Clay
  • Premo - White
  • Premo - Black
  • Sculpey Bake & Bend (preferably, but other polymer clay brands will do in a pinch)
• Metallic Wax
  • Gold, or any other color you prefer
• Pasta Machine
• V-shaped Linuleum Cutters
• Clay Piercing Tool
• 400 grit sandpaper
• Denim Cloth
• Finish, such as varathane or future floor polish.

The first step is to create mold that you then use to create the push-molds that you will create your coins with. Start out by running the clay through your pasta machine at the thickest setting. Create a round shape, and bake it for about 20 minutes. The size of the circle depends on the size of coin you want to make. The coins in this tutorial is about 1 5/8” diameter.

For the design of the coin, you can use the one provided with this tutorial (Download Here), or make any pattern you want on your computer. Print the design on your home printer and cut out a big square with the design in the middle. Put the design centered over the clay circle, then tape it down securely at each corner.

To transfer the pattern to the clay, use a piercing tool to puncture holes along the outlines. Alternatively, use a carbon paper. (However, it can be hard to get a very strong carbon paper transfer on the clay.)

Once all the outlines are created, use the linoleum cutter to cut away all the black parts from the pattern. A bit of irregularity just lends to the look of an old, worn coin, so there is no need to be too precise.

This is the finished mold, with all the black areas cut away.

Press the Bake & Bend clay on top of the mold to form a push mold that will be used to create the coins. (To make two-sided coins, you will need to create two molds.)

Bake according to the manufacturer's instructions.  (If you can't find Bake & Bend clay, regular polymer clay will also work.  Bake & Bend is just a little easier to use as a mold because of its increased flexibility.)

After the molds are baked, sand the top edges on both of them till they will fit close enough together to make a coin of the thickness you want.

If you want the two sides of the coins to match (with the skull vertical on both sides), carefully place one on top of the other with the correct alignment, then make a small mark on the outside of each half of the mold--  a line across both pieces.  

To prevent the clay from sticking to the molds, use some sort of release agent. For this project, we prefer to mist the molds with a little bit of water from a spray bottle, but you can also use cornstarch, baby powder, or whatever release agent you like.

Put a piece of black clay between the two molds and press them together. The amount of clay depends on the size of the coin; for this coin, we used a ball about 3/4” big.  Line up the marks you made in the previous step to match the pattern on both sides of the coin.

Press the molds together till the black clay fills the entire void.

Gently pull the molds apart, remove the coin from the mold, and bake the coin according to the clay manufacturer's guidelines (which you can find on the clay package).

Now for the finishing touch!  Use your finger to rub the metal wax onto all the raised areas of the coin. This will give it the look of an ancient golden coin. Of course other metallic colors, such as silver or copper, can also be used.

Once the wax has completely dried, you can buff it lightly with a soft denim cloth to give it some extra shine. If you plan to use the coin where it will be handled a lot, finish with a coat of varnish, such as Varathane or Future. This will prevent the metal wax from rubbing off.

You can set up a production line to make a whole pile of pirate coins.  Or, if you want to turn a single coin into a pendant (for a pirate costume, perhaps), insert an eye pin into the coin before you bake it.  (To make sure the eye pin doesn't come loose later, you can carefully pull it out of the baked coin, dab the pin with superglue, and reinsert it.)