Easy Carving : Durable Results

I will make a more in depth video soon but for now I wanted to show the process of creating a hard casting out of a soft carving. Initial carving was made from non-sulphered clay as that is required to allow the silicon mold to set. Clay was placed onto my layout and tooled with carving tools to create a truly carved look. Clay shown here was not the finished product. It was allot of work to get it perfect as the material is soft. Once the carving was satisfactory I built a border around it to hold the silicone. The mold material is two part silicone and very easy to use. Mix it together and pour it on top and come back tomorrow. It is very thick and adheres to the surface well so there is really no issue with bubbles. Once mold is set you peel it off the original and you are ready to cast. Second casting is with hard plastic. It is even more simple than preparing the silicone. Mix two parts and pour it in, and in about 5 minutes you have a hard casting. It is pretty exciting to pull the first one out of the mold. It comes out amazingly clean with every hairline mark reproduced. It can be cut with saws and fit into final assembly, then primed and painted. This process produces very durable details.