This is really cool! I wish I had waited just a week longer. I used a generic lion head pendant for my haunted mansion door project. I'd love to see a full size permanent door video. I did mine in foam for a Halloween display. I would be interested to see what material choices you'd make for a permanent one.
Cool! An Imagineer friend turned me on to Reynolds Advanced Materials and the Smooth-On products. I wish I had more projects that need casting -- it's fun!
I love this! Maybe you can do the alignment notches in different shapes? Like always have a triangle on the top and a square on the bottom so that even if they break off you know that is the orientation. (and mark or carve those on the plaster as well - like the side). Your videos are very inspiring!
Love it as always. A helpful tip I learned in my mold making class was to add some color to your second batch of silicone. This way you can tell if you covered the first coat completely. I recently made molds of my ceiling roundelles in my very old house and because I was working upside down, and on a scaffold, I found that trick to be super helpful.
Thank you for the great tutorial on this! About how many castings could one expect to get out of one of those molds before needing to make another? Of course , outside of puncturing, ripping of the silicone, and damaging the plaster shell. Thank You!!
It's kind of hard to say. I have some molds that I've made nearly 100 castings from that show no signs of wear, and some that lasted 25 castings. It all depends on the casting material, how often you're making new castings, how hot your material gets during the curing process, etc.
Fantastic video! I was just searching RU-vid for mold making and you uploaded this. You don’t mention using Ease Release, how do you choose when to use or skip?
According to Smooth-on it’s not necessary but can extend the life of your mold. I tend not to use it during the casting process and instead opt for baby powder as a mold release because it doesn’t react with paint. If you use spray/brush on mold release you’ll need to wash your castings before painting.
Fantastic! I've been looking for something like this for ages. I have some foodsafe silicon that I want to use to make a candy mold; is this plaster method foodsafe? If not, do you know a possible substitute to try?
Great job, thank you for sharing your amazing skills. I know you done this before but could you show how to make the changing portraits? I watched your video but I still don't know how you actually made it. I don't mean the technology side but how you put it together.
Thank you! Regarding the changing portrait, there’s two images, the exterior one you see all the time that is printed on perforated vinyl, and the interior one that you only see through the perforations of the exterior image when the light flashes. They’re both mounted to a piece of tinted acrylic. Hopefully that helps explain it.
@@VanOaksProps I see thank you... Out of curiosity the original plans for the change portraits to have 6 panels to slowly change... With this method do you think it would be possible to do?
Any suggestions on how to estimate the amount of mold silicone is needed? I've shied away from doing molding because of cost but if I knew I could make something with some specific amount I'd feel more comfortable getting what I need with out under/over buying.
In one of my other mold making videos I share an equation for estimating. I tend to just keep some uncooked rice around and will fill the mold box with it to see how much is needed. Then I’ll pour it into a cup to determine its volume and then divide by 2 (assuming I’m using a 1:1 silicone). For brush on molds it’s a bit harder. I used more than I really needed to on the first layer, but I was able to use that as a baseline and could adjust for the 2nd and 3rd layers.
