Advice on DIY silicone molds

[dixiedragon]

I have a Milky Way Mold whose shape I just love - the Scroll Heart. It's been discontinued, and mine is starting to crack. So I am going to make a silicone mold with this shape. I am wondering what I should use as a positive - should I make a bar of soap in the mold? Or maybe beeswax would be better, since it is harder?

 

[not_ally]

Don't know if it would be easier to cast a mold from your mold, or if the cracks are in the wrong place, but here's a post on doing that process: http://curious-soapmaker.com/how-make-silicone-rubber-soap-mold-from-plastic-mold.html

 

[dixiedragon]

Thanks for that link! This is not a tray mold, but rather those individual molds where they use the space as ineffeciantly as possible and you get 3 cavities instead of the the 4 which would EASILY fit. (major pet peeve!) That casting powder looks like the way to go. My molds are still usable, but I want to make the silicone duplicate before they give out on me.

 

[abc]

I didn't fiddle with casting powder. I filled the Milky Way mold with candle wax and used that as the negative. Soaping 101 did a few videos, she shows how to make a dam and frame to hold the silicone.

 

[dixiedragon]

I have lots of beeswax and soy wax, so if those work to make positives that's cheaper than buying the casting powder.

 

[grumpy_owl]

Brambleberry's FlexyFast is great for making molds. I've only done individual ones so far.

 

[IrishLass]

I made a wonderful silicone embed mold out of my sea-shell collection with Alumilite High Strength-3 silicone last year. It works great with both CP and MP, and the detail is just amazing. It was so easy to do, too. It's the pink one pictured below (along with a few of my soapie sea shells I made with it). The other molds in the pic were purchased from VanYulay):

Close-up:

I don't know if you've ever seen fellow-soapmaker Kevine Devine's YouTube video where he shows you how to prepare your molding subject(s) and how to use the silicone, but it's a great video that helped me to overcome my fear of making my own mold:

[ame]


IrishLass

 

[Nanooo48]

I made a wonderful silicone embed mold out of my sea-shell collection with Alumilite High Strength-3 silicone last year. It works great with both CP and MP, and the detail is just amazing. It was so easy to do, too. It's the pink one pictured below (along with a few of my soapie sea shells I made with it). The other molds in the pic were purchased from VanYulay):

View attachment 37262

Close-up:

View attachment 37264







I don't know if you've ever seen fellow-soapmaker Kevine Devine's YouTube video where he shows you how to prepare your molding subject(s) and how to use the silicone, but it's a great video that helped me to overcome my fear of making my own mold:

[ame]


IrishLass

Wow thank you so much for this!!! What a learning experience!!!! Mind blown of the possibilities!

 

[Clarice]

@dixiedragon could you show a picture of the design? I am curious!?

If the cracks are not in the mold itself you could make "bars" out of resin and then make a "as many as you want" cavity mold (obviously if you made multiple resin bars.