Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking it?

[Egon Spengler]

Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking it?

I'm sculpting something out of sculpey onto a surface I cannot place into an oven. I'd like to sculpt out the form and then, without baking the sculpey, make a mold of that form.

Anyone ever done this?

What can I use?

 

[madrobot]

Re: Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking

Yes.

You can do it. The only issue you will have, is that the sculpey will not hold it's shape when you demold it. You'll ruin whatever you sculpt when you peel it off.

Regular tin based silicones will cure just fine against it.

 

[Egon Spengler]

Re: Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking

Yes.

You can do it. The only issue you will have, is that the sculpey will not hold it's shape when you demold it. You'll ruin whatever you sculpt when you peel it off.

Regular tin based silicones will cure just fine against it.

Thanks! I'm not worried about ruining the sculpt. The main base of it is made from cardboard and im sculpting the clay on top of it. I really only need one good mold from it.

Where can I get tin based silicones? Only online or are there stores?

 

[fettster]

Re: Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking

you can use a heat gun to bake the surface of the sculpy without risking setting fire to the cardboard

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Re: Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking

you can use a heat gun to bake the surface of the sculpy without risking setting fire to the cardboard

When doing that... don't worry about it staying soft after you've blown over it for a while. Leave it to cool and the surface will get harder - it's not baked... but harder and will sustain pressure and retain its shape much better than completely fresh - soft - sculpey.

Afterwards you can easily re-use the sculpey for your next figure - though I'd probably not use it for surface detailing, but rather like use it for bulking up the sculpt.

 

[Hecubus114]

Re: Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking

just dont leave the mold in your hot garage where the sculpey will bake inside your mold and then be impossible to demold, thus ruining your entire project.... *ahem*...

 

[madrobot]

Re: Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking

If it's on cardboard, you should be able to bake it. Paper products don't catch fire until they reach a temperature over 451 degrees.

Super Sculpey bakes at a comfortable 275 for 15 minutes.

 

[Draven]

Re: Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking

I echo what Fettster said...

Alternatively, you can go the extreme other direction and chill sculpey.

Put it in the refrigerator for an hour and it will harden - take out and mold (use the maximum recommended amount of catalyst in the rubber).

The cold may extend the setting time of the rubber, but it has never failed on me yet (I also add 5% quick setting curative anyway as I'm an impatient moldmaker!!!)

Use a test piece of sculpey first to see what I mean.

Draven

 

[Egon Spengler]

Re: Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking

I have it on cardboard but the cardboard form is held together by a lot of vinyl like duct tape and packing tape. I don't think it would be good to put that into the oven. I wonder if it would be okay if I just covered every inch of the thing in sculpey though? Would the tape beneath it ruin the form or burn? Hm.

Another question is where can I get silicon to make the mold? Do I have to use silicon?

If I bake the sculpey with a heat gun will that allow me to use something other than tin based silicons?

Also when I go about casting it, I want it to be durable and feel like plastic. I don't want it flexing much at all. Do I have to use fiberglass for making the final product or is there something else I can use?

Thanks!

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Re: Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking

Well, with what you have in the sculpt besides sculpey I'd say a big no to putting it in the oven. Heat gun or the cooling procedure.

Most craft and hobby stores has silicone, but I'm sure those more into molding can steer you towards the best silicone for the project. Depending on the project, complexity and surface detail you can also make a latex mold. But again... listen to the more experienced... they can guide you.

Again, depending on the project... I'd go with resin - possibly polyurethane resin.

 

[Egon Spengler]

Re: Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking

Well, with what you have in the sculpt besides sculpey I'd say a big no to putting it in the oven. Heat gun or the cooling procedure.

Most craft and hobby stores has silicone, but I'm sure those more into molding can steer you towards the best silicone for the project. Depending on the project, complexity and surface detail you can also make a latex mold. But again... listen to the more experienced... they can guide you.

Again, depending on the project... I'd go with resin - possibly polyurethane resin.

Thanks. Do you know what types of places sell that resin?

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Re: Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking

Thanks. Do you know what types of places sell that resin?

Sadly no. I can only name a few Danish places, but not sure that'll do you much good though...

 

[ArtisanProps]

Re: Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking

You can definately make a mold without baking the sculpey
I've done it many times and have never had a problem, and
you should also be able to use any silicone, Platnium, or tin based
from any dealer, whether it be Smoothon.com or whatever

I have baked a Sculpt on a piece of Cardboard before without
it catching fire, I just lowered the Temp to under 200 F , and
baked it longer, ( 40 min ).. If your not worried about the sculpt
then I would say mold it without baking it, if your worried about Fires

Good Luck to ya!

P.S. Smooth-on.com Makes great silicones and Plastic resins if your not sure
what to get you can give them a call, and they'll tell you what will work best..

 

[Egon Spengler]

Re: Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking

Heres a crazy question. Could I just make a plaster mold of this? Is that possible? If I bake it enough could I possibly just place the sculpt into a large container and fill it with plaster, get the mold that way, then fill the plaster mold with liquid polyurethane plastic?

 

[madrobot]

Re: Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking

In a word, NO.

Unless you really want to make a mess and probably not be able to get your casting out of the mold in the first place.

 

[Egon Spengler]

Re: Anyone ever use sculpey for sculpting a item and then make a mold, without baking

In a word, NO.

Unless you really want to make a mess and probably not be able to get your casting out of the mold in the first place.

LOL Well that settles it then. Now I just need to bake this thing as much as possible with the heat gun, get some silicone, then cast this thing.

One thing though. I know the final sculpt won't be perfect. So I want to cast it and then fill it here and there... make it more right on with what I'm aiming for.