How to Make a Mold (CHEAP)
Take the full course - proko.com/sculpture
Can you create a good mold of your sculptures at an affordable price? Yes, yes you can! In this lesson Andrew covers the materials needed to make a quality mold and the step by step process for making it. You’ll see how to apply the silicone to your sculpture and then the process of pulling the sculpt from the mold, and filling it with resin. If you enjoy this lesson and want the more in-depth one check out the premium course (link above).
Your assignment is to create a mold of a torso. If you don’t have one, sculpt one and then make a mold. We’d like to see what you come up with so make sure you post your work here - proko.com/712
RELATED LINKS:
7 Types of Sculpting Tools and How to Make Your Own - • 7 Types of Sculpting T...
5 Ways to Add Texture to your Sculptures - • 5 Ways to Add Texture ...
Basic Sculpting Supplies - • Basic Sculpting Supplies
#moldmaking #sculpting #siliconemold
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This portrait sculpting course will dive deep into the techniques and principles that will help you master the portrait. Portrait sculpting is one of the most difficult challenges that visual artists can take on but if you follow the lessons and do the corresponding assignments you'll be surprised how fast you will improve.
ABOUT PROKO 3D:
Instructional How to Sculpt videos for artists. These sculpting lessons are approachable enough for beginners and detailed enough for advanced artists. My philosophy is to teach timeless concepts in an entertaining way. I believe that when you are having fun, you learn better. I take pride in producing high quality videos that you will enjoy watching and re-watching. If you want to learn more about drawing check out my other KZhead channel: Proko - / prokotv
CREDITS:
Artist | Instructor - Andrew Joseph Keith (andrewjosephkeith.onuniverse.com)
Producer - Andrew Joseph Keith, Charlie Nicholson ( / shloogorgh )
Script & editing - Andrew Joseph Keith
Model images courtesy of www.pixabay.com
Check out the full lesson along with additional premium content in the figure sculpting course - proko.com/sculpture
How many silicone caulks did you use for this mold ? (Greetings from Tunisia)
@@caliguladeux on a torso that size, it would take no more than 2 tubes.
@@skateboardingjesus4006 Thank you.
I will tell you a trick that will make this process much easier for the first layer. Naphtha is the key! Squeeze a bunch of silicone into a mixing bowl and add some naphtha and it will thin it down to be brushable and get into all the details and will dry normally and then do the next layers as shown! Another trick for building layers of silicone is that you can actually add plaster of paris to you’re silicone as much as 50% This makes a little silicone go a long way and you can make almost a clay like putty you can shape to build up layers or create keys. Never add plaster for your first detail layer bit only for build up layers! Keep in mind it will make the silicone a bit less flexible and more likely to tear so it’s not as good for molds that need to flex a lot.
I believe you can use cornstarch or talc instead of plaster, which is cheaper. I haven’t tried using plaster, so I can’t say if it’s the same as using starch or talc.
Cornstarch is a better and safer choice by far. Plaster of Paris is somewhat toxic and should always be used with gloves and especially eye protection !...getting it in your eye is extremely dangerous.
Wow! Thanks for the tips! Makes sense, I saw a awesome tutorial on making bed sheet tarps and it was diluted silicone with naphtha. The plaster is a wonderful idea, I'm going to try that on my next mold. 😀
Would you happen to know if the naphtha/silicone mix will keep in a sealed container and not solidify?
I have used this silicone but with water and dish soap. You put the silicone in the water/ dishsoap mix and ball it up and then apply it and it dries within 10 mins. Works pretty good Ann's you don't have to wait so long. This seemed to work well tho
Oooh ill have to try this then! Seems easier! Did you use any particular kind of silicone?
@@capuchinosofia4771 yes it is definitely a better method in my opinion and you have to use 100% silicone but on the back under the caution label it must say something about releasing acetic acid. There is something very similar but not exactly the same and releases another chemical. If you look up a video about it there are many out there. Good luck
@@TheDarkArtist66 thank you for the info!!
@@capuchinosofia4771 you are absolutely welcome. Good luck and have fun. Oh and just be warned. No matter what method you choose. It has a very potent vinegar smell.
@@TheDarkArtist66Could you help, made the silicone using the soap method but it kept shrinking and wrapping within a few days. Any idea why and how to avoid it?
You can make the silicone cure faster (within 2 hours) if you use some dish soap and water. Using Dawn dish soap, add a considerable amount to a gallon bucket of water. With the silicone and caulk gun, squeeze some out into your hand underneath the surface of the water. The silicone will not stick to your hand if it is wet. With a small handful of silicone start massaging and pulling apart the silicone in the water. Pull it like taffy and you will feel it start to stiffen in your hands after 30-45 seconds. Place the lump of silicone over the figure and spread it out evenly. Repeat these steps and blend together the sections of silicone you add together until it is fully covered. This method will cause it to cure within a few hours. Note: the silicone will release an ammonia smell while curing so do it in a well ventilated area. Some methods of increasing the curing time can be dangerous (using solvents and other additives) but the dish soap is perfectly safe even for children. Hope this helps!
You can also thin silicone with naphtha to make it brushable or even sprayable for the first detail layers. You can also add plaster to silicone to thicken it and make it dry faster.
I have seen many mould making videos, but your one is perfect to the point and easy to understand the process with its pro's and cons. Thanks for sharing 🙏🏻👍🏻
I am just learning and this is the first video I watched and it seems complicated.
You can also mix the silicone right into the dishsoap water to make a gum you can handle. You can press more simple items to make one part moulds.
Love making making my own molds out of silicone... I make it with cornstarch. I'm glad I found this channel. 🇨🇦
Hi I'd love info on how you do this please
I've seen people do it with cornstarch! but I got too frustrated with it when I tried haha
Super professional editing and work ! Thanks :)
Well done and much appreciated instructions! Thank you!
I mean, I've been struggling with this stuff for quite some time. Your idea is genius!
This is the best mold making tutorial on KZhead! You probably saved me so much money and stress..
wow thanks! Glad to hear it!
WOW, great tutorial. Many thanks!
Excellent! Very helpful. Thank you!
Very good explanation! Thank you!
try adding corn starch to thicken up the silicone and speed up drying time after the first brush on layer
Super educational….thank you ❤
Thank you very much doctor proko❤❤😊
Tutorial well done. Good details and suggestions for success. As for making my own sculpture, I'm not creative enough to make something nice so I may need to buy an object already made.
Works fairly quicker and smoother if you mix the silicone with acetone or nail polish thinners its pourable as well
I do not recommend it since the solvent, when it evaporates, reduces the final size of the mold by 15%.
Great video mate
Excellent explained, thanks a lot!
Glad to hear it! You're welcome!
For your first layer, I'd recommend a technique from oil painting "fat over thin", so adding a solvent to reduce the viscosity of the silicone. This allows for a thinner initial layer. It will also dry faster due to the solvent content, that will evaporative quickly. And as long as subsequent layers have less solvent added, your risk of the inner layers drying lower will be greatly diminished
Nice work
Thank you,this was very helpful.👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
a water pick is a good tool for demolding stubborn stuck areas
Helpful suggestion!
Professor, muito obrigada por partilhar seus estudos Estava indo fazer minha pesquisa sobre silicone barato, pois impossível comprar o silicone e resina por estarem muito caros. Você tirou todas as minhas dúvidas e vou fazer um molde desses para teste. Muito obrigada mesmo por compartilhar
cool
Your video is excellent, as are all your videos. It's a bit daunting how many steps there are to go through. But I like the idea of using cheap silicone😊.
yeah mold making definitely isn't for the faint of heart. but it's a great skill for any sculptor to have.
Very useful video.. Thank you. 🙏
Extremely useful technique. Thanks for sharing.
Great video 👍
Trying to make custom grips for my Rex Zero this looks like it'll help thanks
This content is amazing!
hey thanks!
Thank you
I remember doing this in college but using slightly different materials. Murphies oil soap being one. This looks far more complex. My 3D Art class was in a barn and the guy who taught it was an old hippie who smoked cigarettes during class! Ahh the 1990’s.
Wow dude. Great video! Popped up in my feed while I'm sitting here waiting for $200 worth of Mold Max to cure on a head bust in a pressure pot. I made a mold with silicone calk in college. I thinned it with ...something? It might have been acetone ( it was 20 years ago ). Something dilutes silicone and makes it more like lumpy syrup, but I also remember that it weakened the silicone. It was just a one-off though... I'm gonna start fishing through your videos - this was great!
Isopropyl alcohol with the highest possible alcohol content, is the best for diluting silicone. The problem is that any thinners will evaporate from the cured silicone, making it shrink and in most cases warp. Molds made like this with very consistent wall thickness can have their evaporation gradually controlled and can be an excellent method for making reduced scale castings. It is very hard to learn to do properly and is not recommended.
@@skateboardingjesus4006 No kiddin. I wonder if there's commercial mold materials that offer such a consistent shrinkage, that they're sold as "scaling down" molds. I bet what you described is really hard - definitely over my head. I made a silicone calk mold so long ago - lol - it might have been the 2d thing I ever cast. It was a figure relief, and I think I first tried to cast it in polyester resin ( like, for fiberglass ). It wreaked the place up sooo bad. I was trying everything in college. I even tried to make castings in synthetic asphalt. Basically patch material for driveways...
thank you so so so much ♥♥♥
Ill get working on the bust right away
Super and thank you bro
Graciassssss!!!!!
thanks you!
the mold in my shower was free.
Great pun. Keep up the good work, the world needs more people like you ✊️
Great video! I have a few questions: (1) How many tubes of silicone should we expect to use for a piece of this size? It is tough to tell from video just how much or how little we should use. (2) Would this work well with something like hydrocal? (3) how many castings do you think someone could get from a mold like this before there is noticeable degradation of the mold?
1. I think I used about two tubes. 2. I use hydro stone (very similar to hydro cal) and it worked great. 3. The mold will wear out in areas but you can also use silicone to repair it. I'd say I usually get 10 or more casts before it starts to have noticeable wear or leak along the seam. But if you're using a material like cement to cast it wears faster.
@@AndrewJosephKeith Thanks so much for the quick and informative reply!
I like the way you say air bubbles boy
U can mix the Plaster and resin as well
Super👌🏻
Nice
Do you have to use a special releasing agent on oil based modeling clay before applying the silicone? If not, am I able to reuse the clay after for another sculpture?
Awesooooooooome🙏🏻💗😊👍🏻
thanks
Great method! And I swear- if I had a dollar for every time you said silicon 😂
I would recommend scooping out a channel into your clay all around the edge with a sculpting tool. As you lay down your first silicone layers, it will fill in the channel and - when you remove the back later of clay - you will already have a half tube key. 🍻
Yeah I have tried that before but I ended up preferring beading out the silicone because it took less time than sculpting the keys. either way works great though.
Thanks for this tutorial. Question: could the silicone-cloth-silicone technique shown at 6:40 also be used to strengthen plaster molds or plaster casts as well?
Yes
thanks! @@ianazcua
One more question: I want to try this with some small sculptures, but would like to buy a single bag of material for the casting and the mother mold. Would you recommend hydrocal or hydrostone for a first timer? Would hydrocal be strong enough for a mother mold?
Regular plaster is strong enough so hydrocal or hydrostone will also work fine.
@@AndrewJosephKeith Thanks!
nice
What clay/material would you recommend for initial wall which you put the silicone against?
Just a soft non-drying modeling clay that is a different color than the sculpture is what I recommend.
What's the clay wall made out of? It's best to use a clay that's relatively softer so you don't damage the surface of the sculpture as you're forming the wall around it. If you use water-based clay, you can use water and soft brush to easily clean off clay residue.
This is chavant nsp clay that is oil and wax based. It's a firmer clay which helps to not mess up the sculpture when mold making.
So you are just using regular silicone caulk? If there is a specific kind please correct me. It looks like a lot of work, but I would like to do a mask like this. The extra work far out weighs the cost of smooth on stuff. This is really brilliant man. Thanks for sharing this. Again, please let me know specifically what caulk you recommend for a mask. I am subbing now. Just amazing! This may mean that I am no longer bound to latex. Not that I hate that, but it does have it's limits, and I think I have outgrown it for the most part. thanks again!
it's Silicone 1 All purpose Clear 100% silicone.
@@AndrewJosephKeith Hey, thanks a lot!
It is possibile to use this method for making molds for expanding foam?
Yes I believe so.
1:06 was that flame for a gravity hit?
can we cast brass ring if we make silicon mould like this??
For casting metals usually the mold is made with plaster mixed with fine silica (sand) to withstand the heat. silicone wouldn't hold up.
Okay, are there other casting options that may not stick as much as resin? Polystone? See, I think this would be perfect for me. I want to begin molding individual pieces of 3D printed statue designs. After all pieces are molded I want to try and install magnets and assemble them as something of higher quality.
use mold release, thennyou can cast resin without it sticking
Which is the material you sculpted the torso in?
best
the funny thing about these youtube videos with calk based as cheap mold, is now at wall-mart silicon calk cost $13!!! with other calk costing $5. I watch videos from Russia where they are using resin and steel like it's as cheap as water. in the US simple 1 foot steel sheet from Lowes can cost $30, 1 gallon kit of resin online cost $55,
Can you cast cement into this mold?
Yes I've done that.
Wow ... this guy is doing it the hard way! Mix silicone one with cornstarch or acrylic paint to have added water and have it cure fast. Simple durable molds. If you want to take it to the next level and capture detail. Brush on a couple of coats of platinum silicone with a few drops of thicker added. Then do a couple of coats of tin silicone one and cornstarch. Great molds but not quite as flexible as a pure platinum silicone mold.
can i make a mold of a mold? i just finished making my mold but i need to make another copy of it cause the og one is ruined
My molds usually cost less than 5$
This is probably a good practice material. I would have wasted a lot of money if i started learning epoxy molding with a decent quality (expensive) resin. Its not fun to throw away $30 of material because you're not good at mixing add-ins yet.
Yeah exactly. Learn the basics with this cheap stuff then move on to higher quality materials once you know what you're doing.
Those cheap brushes are not ideal for what you’re doing, is it? I would think a small stainless sculpting spatula would be so much more efficient. The cheap brush looks terribly awkward to use, but especially it is very tough to smear the silicone smoothly. You even do better with a continuously wetted finger/thumb. Obviously use what you have, but just a thought. Thanks for this video. Very nice.
They put on for their what?
Класс
I came here for the $20 penicillin! 😂
That brush is really working as a brus, not at all like a stick.
I feel like there was an adverse effect from the Vaseline that I put on my sculpture and the first layer of silicone. Everything but the first layer dried and the entire mold ended up failing.
The silicone might have been too thick on the first layer. Make sure to let the first layer dry completely before adding the next layers.
👍♥️
I have some figures made with miniature plaster, with various details, with this method could I be able to make replicas of the original?
Yes you would just need to seal the plaster with vaseline brushed on. Or you could dip it in melted beeswax or melt the beeswax onto the surface with a heat gun. Just something to keep the silicone from sticking.
@@AndrewJosephKeith thanks a lot.. regards
I don't think silicone caulking cheaper than silicone anymore
could be! it's almost doubled in price. Crazy.
That brush is way to small
Agree... That's the only noticeable thing in this video, apparently. 😅
Buff
exactly what we do in africa
Really? Do you have any additional points to this tutorial?
@@mathewjohnson-qh2bb yes, I can help you with that
@@gideonagyeman8683 I’m guessing you also use the acetic cure silicone. 1. What do you use as a release agent? 2. Any technique on how to have a smooth first layer to capture all the details? 3. Any method to avoid the shrinkage?
@@mathewjohnson-qh2bb yes I have been using this same silicone in the video for over 9 years on even large sculptures. So with the first layer we mix washing powder in a container of water which, then we cut the silicone open and push it into this soapy water, then you dip your hand in the water and start applying the silicone onto the surface of the clay piece. With the realising agent you can use vaseline
@@gideonagyeman8683 Thank you brother for the advice. Do you have Whatsapp? I want to show you my current project and would like to hear your feedback and recommendations on how to approach it.
If you add corn flour to your silicone it I’ll dry in 2 hours
Ribet . Beli Saja Cetakan Karet Silikon yg harga murah Gampang
You have a Ukrainian name.
A few drops of food coloring will make your silicone cure faster
Great video. However, I'm sure you lose most folk when you say the word CAULK. It is "Kawk" as in cork. It is not "culk". I hope this helps.
Man! This video is so gay. I like it. ;)
"20$" Then proceeds to list 70$ in supplies
They were cheaper back then.
How to make your live harder then it should tutorial.
This is crazy. Just buy the proper stuff. The fumes of hardware silicone is very bad.
haaaha gross!!!! you touched the sculptures butt!!!!! (im 7)
Using construction grade silicone caulking is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of, don't do it, you will regret it.
MOULD making.. not MOLD. Yuk. 🤢
loosy technique !
20$ for a mold and calling cheap lol
what lol
Please show youre making molting...not youre face..
mispronunciation of the word "caulk". the "l" is silent. 1:27,1:37 mispronunciation of the word "I'll". this word requires the ability to pronounce dual-vowel words, something lost upon the younger generations due to poor diet for mind, soul, and body.
Hi do you have Instagram account