Wonder if any of you crafty lot can help.
My daughter has recently been making animal sculptures using polymer clay. She would like to be able to make a mould so that she can duplicate them easily but not sure how to go about it. Whats a good, simple material to use to make the mould and once made is it easy to cast a new model in polymer clay or would she be better going down the resin route?
Apologies if this is a ridiculous question - I have no idea what I am talking about but she has asked for something she could do this with for Christmas and I am completely clueless!
Heres an example of one of her models
3 Likes
Can’t help unfortunately but let your daughter know that model is fantastic - talented lady! 
2 Likes
I believe you can get silicone mould making kits, look for online tutorials. I think you would then need to cast in resin - as it would need to be something liquid that set.
Great sculpture!
1 Like
Yes silicone push moulds are great for polymer clay as they keep all the detail.
1 Like
Part of the problem would be the undercuts that that model would make in a mould. It would not only be difficult to remove the model ( and therefore the casts) from a one piece mould without damaging both casts and mould but also the liquid would not necessarily be able to travel into all the nose without trapping air.
A two piece mould would be best but I don’t know if that is possible with silicone? My experience comes from casting ceramics I’m afraid!
1 Like
Not sure if it would keep all the detail but Oyumaru is a reuseable mold making compound that I’ve used with metal clays. You warm it up in boiling water, press your original into it and then leave to cool, pop out the original and then you can fill the mold - then if the copy isn’t releasing you can warm it back up again and peel it off (this does destroy your mold though). Like Jess says i think you might have problems with the nose.
I got my Oyumaru from www.metalclay.co.uk and they have a range of other mold making componds and videos on how to use them, I’m sure if you phone them up and explain what you are after they would point you in the right direction.
1 Like
