Amazing Casting Products: Take a #Cre8time BITE... by Susan M. Brown {sbartist}

"Dip the apple in the brew,

let the Sleeping Death seep through..."

Hello everyone! Susan here to share my latest handmade creations... some very Witch-worthy jewels! This queen of mold putty would normally break out the magic yellow stuff but I wanted to make multiples so I decided on using Amazing Remelt and it certainly did the trick!

Amazing Remelt is a Non Toxic, one-part reusable mold making material for room temperature or low exotherm materials. Amazing Remelt softens at 120˚F and becomes liquid at 135˚-140˚F. It can be remelted and reused to make new molds time and time again. This is ideal for making molds for smaller items such as jewelry, embellishments, and chocolate molds. YES, this stuff is FOOD-SAFE and it works great with chocolate and fondant!!

I have loads of items in a "TO MOLD" box – a collection of found objects, junque and things that I have collected or purchased at thrift stores. One of these items is an old apple pin that is a nice size that would make a nice pendant for a necklace made in resin... and with Halloween just around the corner, how about a POISON apple??!

I need to do a little prep work to this piece before making a series of molds. The first thing being adding some tape to the backside so the molding material won't flow through the hole where the stem touches the apple.

I cris-crossed some recycled coffee stir sticks through the pin back so that I can suspend this over a small silicone bowl that I will be using as a mold box.

Now to prepare the Amazing Remelt molding material. This is easy-to-use but you need to be patient and heat to melt in the microwave LOW and SLOW {CLICK HERE to view preparation}. I have melted it in the container it comes in, but for molding small items, I prefer using this cup fashioned with Amazing Mold Putty {molded around the outside of a shot glass}. I like this cup because it can be baked up to 375º F and it helps keep the melted material from cooling too fast.

These photos are showing the mold-making process from the altered "poison" apple. The process is exactly the same for all the molds. I placed the mounted apple over the top of a small silicone bowl then poured the melted Amazing Remelt over the top, completely covering surface of item. I let this set for a minute to cool and begin to harden, then repeated with a second layer. This forms a skin layer and helps prevent air bubbles from getting trapped.

I fill the bowl and flipped the mounted pin over and placed face down into the liquid Amazing Remelt. After leveling it on the bowl, I poured in more remelt to fill up to edge of suspended apple pin. At this point it looks like a mess... but it works! I set this in the refrigerator for about a 1/2 hour to cool and harden.

Now I can pop this AMAZING little apple mold out of the bowl and demold.

Look at the mold... it's fantastic! Amazing Remelt gives you the detail quality of Amazing Mold Rubber – but it's reuseable!!

I can use these molds, then melt them down to mold something else. I don't have the molds cluttering up my shelves and I saved my Mold Rubber for another day. I am going to have to make a few more molds for FOOD ONLY and make some poison apple Halloween treats with chocolate melts.

With all of my molds made I am ready to fill with Amazing Clear Cast Resin. I am coloring the resin with Alumilite Fluorescent Green Dye and Alumilite Phosphorescent Powder {an additive that glows in the dark}. CLICK HERE to view mixing and preparation.

I mix up the resin and set aside to rest so it the resin can cool and the air bubbles can escape. The phosphorescent powder will make magic in the dark.

I spent the most time of making this project on mold preparation. I made 16 molds which took me a a couple hours one morning plus a whole entire day. The time consuming part is melting the Amazing Remelt slowly and then waiting for it to reharden to demold the original. I sort of felt like Willy Wonka with my assembly line of candy apples in progress LOL!

Before I pour resin, I gently cut a slice in each mold where I suspend a headpin with two glass beads which will be embedded in the resin. I will use this to form a loop at the top to affix beads and a jump ring for hanging on a chain. With a tiny brush, I added a bit of color to the leaf and stem using Alumidust.

I gently poured the resin with a stir stick, and filled each mold just so. Then I covered the tray and set aside to cure overnight. **A TIP** get two metal cookie sheets from the dollar store – use one to place the items on, use the other to turn over and place on top upside down to protect resin while curing. I clipped the edges with a few binder clips.

In the morning... my Halloween goodies have hatched and are ready to embellish!

I envisioned having them painted with purple drips to look like the poison apples. My first attempt was painting on my favorite purple nail polish in a real drippy fashion. This looked great while it was wet. I set it aside to dry and when I came back hours later was disappointed at how the nail polish flattened out, even though I had painted on several layers. It looked pretty, but screamed dollar store.

After much trial and error of a handful of different products, Ranger Perfect Pearls was the one that helped me get in the direction I desired. I painted this dimensional glaze and traced right over my failed nail polish drips. PROGRESS!!! When this completely dried I smoothed and evened out the surface by pressing on a layer polymer clay and baking to cure and harden the clay. I watched this very closely when baking because I was concerned about the dimensional glaze burning.

When cooled completely I prepped this new "poison" apple as I did with the original and made a new mold with Amazing Remelt {see mold-making photo above}.

Voila! My new mold colored with Alumidust and ready with a beaded headpin awaiting resin. I'm so excited to see the end result this time!

After a bit of fussing about with wirewrapping some beaded danglies and forming a hanger from the embedded headpin, I add my gorgeous poison jeweled apple to a ready made chain.

For the good little ghouls... a pretty glowing green goddess apple!

And for those a little bad and BATTY... the glorious poisoned variety!

I love how these turned out and I have made loads for a charm swap! I'm off making more "POISON" apples in different color combinations... and I'm having such evil Cre8time fun!!

What would you mold and transform
into handmade jeweled treasures?

Thanks for visiting! 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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