Great job! Thanks for putting it together, was quite a job, and nicely done. BB

Amanda a great tutorial. I have made a number of molds, but your mother mold info was a real benefit for me. I guess I will be off to michaels to get some pop so I can make a few more molds this year. I lucked out and got some latex at a garage sale, I have mostly used latex rather than the ge silicone for my molds.The pics and explanation you provided should easily walk most people through the process,
Cindy

Excellent tutorial! Thank you for all the work you did putting it together.

Thanks for the plug!Good tutorial,good pics.I may have a use for my POP after all!
Cheers from here

WOW Amanda!

I am sooooo impressed with your tutorial... FAR better than any I have ever done! Hope you do more tuts because you excell at them!

I think your mothermold instructions are the absolute best I have ever seen and are so logical and easy to follow. Love the idea of the hardware being attached to the mm!

Marly

Can you tell me what POP is???

Thanks so much for the info,I can't wiat to try it on a frog that I have.POP is plaster of paris

awesome, awesome, awesome. been having trouble making POP molds, maybe this will help, thanks so much

Thanks to all of you for the kind words, especially buddyfly's applause! What an unexpected and wonderful response.

I had fun creating it and am so pleased that you all can benefit from the tutorial!!

I hope everyone posts pictures of their creations...that's the best part!

Thanks again -

Amanda

P.S. I have attempted to post this "thank you" many times this weekend but found that I was welcomed with a message that "server not found." I get that a LOT at the forum. Does this happen during peak (no pun) traffic hours on the forum? Anyone experience this besides me? Still love the forum and thanks again for all the encouragement!

Hi Amanda
That is one terrific tutorial. I have saved it for future reference because I will certainly be trying it this winter. I too have a frog to cast.:)
I have never had a single problem connecting to GardenWeb that was not the fault of my ISP.
I would suspect it's your ISP that is creating the problems as well.

Compliments well placed - this is SO well done - thank you!!!!!!

Vicki

Buckyforce,

I read all the replies in this thread before going back to your original message and hitting the link. Just reading the responses of our forum friends told me "this is MUST READ material". I have to add my praise with the others; it is an excellent tutorial.

Thanks for all the time and work you put into doing this for us.

David

Amanda, you've cleared up many of my unanswered questions regarding making molds...

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!

My BF attempted to make a POP rhubarb leaf cast (to be followed by a silicone mold of the POP, to later be used to cast in tufa or cement.) He tried to do it from memory (a bad idea, at our age - LOL!) after I'd sent him the link to an earlier post on this forum.

It was a dismal failure, right from the start. Now I can relay your info, and we BOTH can give this a try! (I was playing in the mud as he was experimenting with the mold making, so missed out on what he did/didn't do.)

One thing that I noted after he was done with the first few coats of POP is that it just turned to 'dust' again after it should have been set up and hard. He said that the plaster heated up/thickened really fast, and became very hard to work with, even though he started with a very soupy consistancy. (Like your sour cream consistancy description.)

Does POP go bad? Or was it just operator error? Hmmm. Comments are surely welcome and needed!

- Lisa

Hello everybody, I'm new here :o)

I was interested in reading how these moulds were made. I use a slightly different technique for both the silicone skin, and the mother mould. Here's what I do, just in case anyone wants to experiment.

Names of products may be slightly different, as I'm not in the US.

I use ordinary clear silicone - the type you buy for sealing anything outdoors.

1. Fill a basin with warm water, add a very good squirt of dishwashing liquid and mix well.
2. Put silicone dispenser in caulk gun, cut off top, and squeeze straight into the soapy water.
3. Using your hands (you can use rubber gloves, but I never bother) gather up the silicone mass, lift it onto your master (the object you want to make a mould from) and press down well all over. Make sure it gets pressed into all depressions.
4. Dip your hands back into the soapy water if the silicone starts to stick to them. Smooth over the outside of the mould with wet soapy hands.
5. Leave overnight to cure.

Case-mould

I use Fine Casting Plaster, which is much the same as Plaster of Paris. Large bags of it can be bought in large hardware and builders' suppliers. It will perish if the bag is left open, so buy only enough for your needs.

I use hessian scrim or plasterer's scrim. Small rolls of plasterer's scrim will do the job OK, and are easy to source.

Hope these tips are useful...

Running Dog - is that clear silicone, of which you speak, the kind that stinks to high heaven because of acetic acid - vinegar type smell? Your method sounds fascinating - and I WILL try it!

grins

Vicki

Yup, that's the stinky stuff! :o)

Oops, here's another small tip, for mixing plaster. Buy a rubber beach ball, cut in half, and mix the plaster in that. When you've finished with the plaster let the remains harden inside the ball, once hard you just scrunch up the ball and the waste falls out.

Never wash partly-set plaster out of a bowl, and down a drain. It will block the drain in no time. Always best to have several plastic mixing bowls or half-balls on the go, so you can allow the waste to harden.