Greetings Amazing – welcome to the first day of PUMPKIN WEEK! Susan here with another amazing adventure in mold-making with Amazing Mold Rubber and some itty bitty pretty resin cast pumpkins.
For the past week or so I have been having an obsession with mini pumpkins. We had a Trader Joes open up in my area and they had a huge bin of itty bitty pumpkins... for under $1 each. I selected several for moldmaking projects... unfortunately one didn't make it before I could preserve it in a mold or resin. Off to cast my remaining three. This was an adventure and also a learning experience – I am the first to admit that I get a bit carried away in the excitement of creating which sometimes goes a bit awry in the process.
LESSON number 1: don't pour Amazing Mold Rubber into a glass container which has a neck for a screw on lid -or- a metal storage tin. Both seem like they would be great for a mold box... BUT they aren't when pouring a large/deep mold. You won't be able to get them out. I was able to pry the mold out of the tin with a screwdriver, but I had to destroy the tin in doing so. To remove my mold from my glass container, I had to cut the mold out in sections – which took forever and made more work for me to make it functional.
This is half of the mold from the bottom of my glass container. You can see all the cuts from stabbing around my pumpkin to attempt to cut a ring away from the edges. For all the cutting and wrangling, it was really surprising that my pumpkin didn't get cut in the process.
The top section of my first attempt had lots of air bubbles and one large air pocket trapped at the stem base. I will use this as a learning experience and try again. The bottom section of the pumpkin came out perfect, so I can salvage that with some repair work.
I selected an open tapered glass bowl and mixed up a batch of Amazing Mold Putty. I pressed the mold putty into the bottom of the bowl, then pressed the good section of pumpkin mold into the mold putty – pressing the edges flush all the way around. I let this cure for about 20 minutes.
I need to make this a two-part mold, so I applied rubber to rubber mold release with a paintbrush. I let it dry, then repeated with two more applications. I also applied this to the stem of the pumpkin. I made another small batch of Amazing Mold Putty and pressed it around the tip of the stem. When cured I removed it and trimmed it straight across so it didn't rest on the pumpkin. When I pour the next layer of Amazing Mold Rubber, this stem mold will set into the liquid silicone and fuse together... plus if my pumpkin decides it wants to float {as my other subject did} I will easily be able to hold it down without getting all messy.
I prepared a full kit of Amazing Mold Rubber and poured around pumpkin, filling container to top. Please CLICK HERE to view mixing/preparation. I cut up sections of the bad mold {even the bad molds can be reused as displacement filler} and placed into the liquid silicone around the outer edges. I poured the remaining mixture into two other molds needing filling. I finally have a mold completed that I had started months ago by pouring my leftover mold rubber into.
When cured I have a pretty little two-toned rubber container - LOL! I carved a triangle into the side to use as a registration when I pour resin and put the sections back together.
I applied Alumilite Bronze and Copper Metallic Powders to the mold with a paintbrush creating an ombré effect. A little bit goes a long way. **A TIP** Dump away any loose or excess powder as it will cause air bubbles on surface when resin cures.
I prepared two separate small batches of Amazing Casting Resin, pouring one in each section of the mold. I let each cure. The bottom of the mold was nearly full and the top section with stem was approximately 2/3 full. I mixed a third small batch to fill each section and topped off each section. I waited for the resin to flash {where it changes from clear to opaque white}. This happened pretty quick as the previous resin pours were pretty warm from the curing process.
When the resin started turning white, I aligned the sections of the mold and flipped the top section over the bottom, then pressed together. This is a messy way of doing a two-part mold but it's effective. I made three different pumpkin molds so stay tuned and I'll share some other filling techniques.
I let this set to cool for about a 1/2 hour, then removed
from the mold. OMG... I made a royal pumpkin!!!
Please leave a comment below to share! If you would like to see more of my creations, please visit my blog sbartist : painting in the dark by clicking here. ~ Susan
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This is an amazing pumpkin, Susan!! :)
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