Creating moulds

When it comes to creating moulds there’re several ways one can go about it.

In our case Byron and I decided to work with off the shelf silicone, which is very cheap, you can find it in any hardware store and it allows for many different techniques. So, we decided to use two different methods to showcase how anyone can do it.

Byron worked on how one can handle silicone in the same way as bread dough and in his website he runs you through the process. I opted for using chemicals (because mad science suits me) to work with silicone in liquid form, the same way I would work with epoxy resin.

So, in my case as you can see in the video below I used the following:

1. 100% Silicone, which I bought from a hardware store around the corner
2. Aceton, which is basically a nail polish remover and I used it as a solvent agent
3. Container for mixing them
4. A carton container for the mould
5. A candle holder as an item to use for the mould shape
6. A small wooden stick for mixing

The process was very fast and the mould came out nicely as you can see in the following pictures but there were some key learnings here for me, as I have used silicone and aceton for construction works but never to make a mould before.

Key takeaways:

• Use a respirator… it stinks and it’s bad for you (had a massive headache afterwards)
• When stirring the silicone with the aceton do it slowly to avoid creating bubbles in your mould… it would take to much time to remove imperfections from the final product
• Opt for paper containers… they dry out the aceton and are much easier to remove, regardless of the moulding process you follow
• Use a respirator… chemicals are bad for you!

So there you have it. Cheap and useful, off the shelf silicone can be very pliable and used in many ways. Give it a go and let us know how it went.

Catch you on the next assignment gang!