Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Hidden Treasure and Comparing Mold Making compounds


 Did you ever have one of those Aha! moments where you finally realized what you actually had? I had one of those last night. I believe I shared this cute little box last year when I found it at a yard sale for $2. I loved it instantly because of the pretty litho picture on the front and then I opened it to reveal these wonderful pieces with beautifully detailed crowns...
 The tag on the box said it was an antique game but what I finally reallized last night was that it is actually a 100 year old paint set. (which makes it an extra special treasure in my mind being an artist) Those beautiful crown pieces are actually water soluble PAINT! (how in the world did they survive so long?)  I LOVE the fact that "Thomas Johnson" painted his initials on the lid and made the "color chart" at the top. I mean how cute! (also a fun fact, my initials before I got married were T.J. Thespa Jones)

But the main thing running through my head when I bought it was to mold those wonderful crown pieces (paint brickets) and make casts for jewelry. Last night I finally got around to it...

 I have used two types of molding compound (the first of which I was completely unhappy with and I'll share that one in a bit) the second of which is AMAZING Mold Putty and it REALLY lives up to it's name.
 Amazing mold putty really captures those fine details extremely well and is super flexible. I am so thrilled with this product!

 It easily peals off of the item you are molding...
 Like antique glass cameos with intricate brass frames...
 You can do a full wrap around a porcelain doll head and it just peals away with no problem.
And the best part is...You can make FOOD  MOLDS with it. Oh yeah!
Can you imagine those little crown brickets made into chocolate wafers? How pretty would that be?!!!



 Now onto the FAIL mold maker...
This is Sculpey MoldMaker and I was VERY unhappy with it. I bought it because I wanted to try making molds and it was the cheapest product on the shelf (I guess you get what you pay for)
It did mold well and hold all the detail but then it started to dry out, and cracks began to form.
I was very careful to bake it for the recommended time at the correct temperature.
The longer it sits the more dry it gets and the more cracks form, I even tried oiling it to no avail. 
Needless to say this product fails! Obviously you don't want cracks running through your detailed mold.

The picture below shows a mold that is almost six months old...
 In all of it's cracked wonder! :-(


So in conclusion, pay the extra bit of money for the AMAZING Mold Putty, it's SOOOoooo worth the price!

Hope you are all having a wonderful week!

2 comments:

Outofmymind said...

It will be fun to see how things turn out! The crowns would be fun pendants!

Carla Trujillo said...

Thanks for sharing your findings! It's been on my list of things to try!

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