You can purchase them at your craft store.  There will be a wide variety of molds for you to use, everything from feet, emblems, leafs, flowers, hands, faces, even body molds.  These molds are made of a flexible rubberized material. However, I have learned there are some tricks to using these molds to your advantage.

First if you have never worked with Polymer Clay the first thing you should learn is to condition it.  That means take a small amount of clay off of the block and knead it with your fingers until it becomes very pliable.

Next pick the mold you would like to use and measure out the conditioned clay to approximate size of the shape you are trying to mold.  In the case of a face, pinch a very small end for the impression of the nose.  Press your clay into the mold.  Remove any excess clay around the impression.   You want the clay to be level with the mold do not want it to overlap on the outer mold surface.

To release the clay from the mold, gently rub clay off the edge of the mold toward the center of the molded piece.   This will give you a nice clean edge on your molded piece.  The mold is flexible so if you are careful you can release your piece by gently pressing opposite sides and your piece should release from the mold.

All of this is what the manufacturer of the molds will tell you.  And it does work in most cases.  If you are challenged with your coordination, like I am, you will find it very frustrating to release your piece only to have it look misshaped.  I cannot tell you how many times I thought I had the perfect face, only to release it from the mold and have it look like something out of a Frankenstein movie.

I found this little hint in a magazine and I really would like the manufacturers of the molds to put it in their instructions.  It would have made my life so much easier!

After you put your clay in the mold, removed any excess, folded back the edges for a clean line, you can then add clay to the back of the piece and shape it.  For instance, if you are doing a head you want the back of the head to be rounded.  After all no one really had a flat head in the back.  So take a small bit of clay and work in onto the back of the piece to form the other half, being careful to not release the head from the mold.  It is also important even in this step not to have any excess hanging over the side.  Now once you have done that put the entire mold with clay attached in the freezer for about a minute.  The clay will become firm and when you go to release it from the mold you will not have a misshapen figure.

Another good hint I found in this article was when I go to smooth out seams, I wet my finger and the clay smooths so much easier.  I then finish my pieces by adding more clay where needed and decorating according to what the piece tells me to do.