I got this brilliant but very expensive clear silicone and decided to make a ring mould- it’s great because now I will be able to see exctly where things are as they are casted, so no uneven parts ever again! It’s very bubbly though because of the thickness, but I don’t have a vacuum machine to suck them all out. I might start selling these but they’d have to be around £8 each to be viable- do you think it’s worth it?
I have put a new section on the supplies side of the website listing resin moulds that I have limited quantities of and won’t be restocking, so this is a great chance to grab yourself a bargain and more unusual moulds!
You can find this new section here! It will be updated regularly until my big box of moulds has gone!
I’ve also been doing yet more kitchenry, making Pimms truffles, gingerbread truffles and these little trufflepiglets!
I also discovered a great way of using leftover meat from our pressure cooker (best invention ever) that doesn’t involve feeding the dog. I put the pork (beef would be better) into a pie with dumplings and a smidge of gravy, which then expanded to make a big lump of mega-stodge, but man, it was good!
Fancy making your own moulds, or maybe you have been making them with Siligum- a two part clay-like mixture? Silicone can be quite expensive but not as expensive as Siligum, but sometimes you need it’s properties for making small moulds, which help it to last longer- there’s no pouring it into a large container and having too much waste around the edge! Here’s how to make your own version of Siligum, which can be used for gravity defying mould making (maybe you want to capute a detail on a ceiling rose?!) and repairing silicone moulds too!
NOTES! This has the consistency of cake frosting, so you will need a mixing cup and stick. This only works with addition cure silicones- these are the most common types where you add a 2% catalyst to the silicone liquid. Thixotropic Solution is available at all good silicone suppliers, I bought mine from http://www.tomps.com
1) Pour your silicone into a cup and add 2% volume catalyst (instructions in my book) with the same amount of thixotropic solution (2%). Mix really well until the colour is consistent. I used a fast catalyst (red), but it is also available in slower curing varieties such as blue. I find red works best for this technique.
2) Now you have a thick, gloopy mix! Spread it like a thick layer of peanut butter on the model you want to make a mould of. You can also use it on your skin to make body part moulds though do be aware you will have to stay still for quite a while! This is really economical moulding as you don’t need to put your model into a container. Make sure your mould walls are pretty thick though, about 1cm should give you a long lasting mould.
3) Leave to set for a few hours (half an hour to an hour should be enough for skin moulds) and if it is no longer wet and sticky, then you can peel it away from your model, and there you have it!
You can use these for resin, polymer clay, silver clay, allsorts really! I now plan to test out the flexible additive for polyester resin today and see what happens!
I’ve been playing around with the new two part silicone ring mould from Resin Obsession (http://www.resinobsession.com) these last few days, and whilst I threw away my first attempt (just came out in pieces) these are my second and third attempts…
I am quite pleased with the rough effect and the mix of opaque and translucence, so I think I will make more and create a “Gone Dotty” range! What do you think?
I made this pin tray as a custom order for http://lovealittle.etsy.com . It has magnets to attach it to the arm of her sewing machine and is shallow enough for easy access to pins when sewing.
First off I needed it to be no bigger than 7cm x 8cm. This ended up being 7cm square. I needed to make something the same shape to make the moulds from to pour in the resin, so I took this square purple bangle, drew around it on perspex and then cut it out with a band saw. I peeled off the backing film and superglued the bangle to the plastic. Once dry, I filled the gaps around the outside edge with milliput. Once dry I sanded it down againso that the edges were flat.
I then popped it into a tupperware tub, closed off half of it with plastercine so to preserve the ever-expensive silicone, mixed and poured the silicone over the top of the model. The next day I popped out the model and voila! a mould 🙂
I chucked a load of pins into the mould (after tidying up the raggy edges with a knife) and poured in the resin. Once set I added the magnets and added another thin layer to semi-embed them and hold them in place. Once set, I popped it out of the mould and it looked like the above!
I then sanded the sides down to make them less pointy and sprayed the back and sides with lacquer to bring back the shine.
There are now more stocks of Resin Obsession moulds in the shop (www.pennydog.com), sorry these have been out of stock so long! I’m also expecting some more top up stock within the next week, so things can only get better!
In addition to those you may have already seen, I have introduced another two moulds to my stock list, firstly a coaster mould. This looks like it would make a nice trinket dish if moulding on the positive side of the mould, though I haven’t tried it yet! Moulding on the negative (normal) side, you can create coasters- here is my example of what it makes!
I’ve also got a new multimould in stock which has hearts and stars for pendants, magnets, keyrings, etc, here’s some of the things I’ve made with that:
And here are the moulds themselves, I’m selling these at £4.50 each. (clicking will directly link you to the product page):
When I first started in resin jewellery making, I was amazed that the flexible type moulds couldn’t be bought here in the UK. It’s also one of the main keyword searches that people use when coming to my website- but it was something I didn’t offer. The best- and also best known- mould “brand” is Resin Obsession, run by Cindy Carter in the United States. Her moulds are great and I’ve been using them almost from the very start. Her range of moulds is so thorough and ideal for all resin jewellery (and ornament) makers, but of course airmail isn’t as fast as we’d like- we buy moulds and we want them straightaway!
So the solution. Cindy has very kindly allowed me to be her UK supplier, so I can now confirm that a small range of moulds are available to buy in my shop! Depending on the success I may be stocking a larger range in the near future- and all moulds are delivered by first class post in the UK so you will receive them 1-2 days after ordering- hurrah!
The mould was an absolute nightmare and the base still wasn’t set by the time I decided enough was enough. Once the mould had been turned out of it’s container (or wrestled out in my case) a craft knife was useful for removing excess rubber so the model could be easily removed.
I then put in the name so facing the correct way round as per sketch in part one. It was then part filled with resin to hold acetate down.
Once it had part cured, I could then fill it to the top and leave to cure fully.
It took a while, but finally I am at the mould making stage. I originally tried this with Vinamold but I think it got too hot and it clug to the model and it took me ages to sand it all off. I ordered some RTV silicone and decided to try a cold process instead.
Mixing the silicone and catalyst…
Pouring, then leaving to set…
Looking forward to seeing how it turns out tomorrow!
After doing a small survey around Etsy bag makers, I decided to give resin bag handles a whirl as an addition to my shop. I used nearly a whole kilogram of Vinamould, which took about 40 minutes in total in small 20 second stages in the microwave. The bag handle I chose to use as the model was a bit tacky when pulled out, so I’ve rendered my pair unusable now! I will have to post some guidance notes on successful mould making using the microwave, as it is generally not recommended by the manufacturer.
This morning I filled the mould for the first time with the pink galaxy marbled resin style I have used in some recent jewellery pieces (also on Etsy). I will probably pull it out tomorrow morning and have a look, only then will I know if it has been successful or not! Fingers crossed…
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