Correct. You must wet the inside of the mold with water right before you put the latex in, though. It will cause the latex to suck against the edge of the mold to pick up the detail as the latex dries, which is what you want.
Actually ..powder your mold before you pour latex. Use standard baby powder ..sprinkle it in ..then push it around with a chip brush. Never heard the water method before Andy...generally you would want you mold dry as not to contaminate the latex
Ha.. Well latex sticks.. This prevents it from sticking to the stone and potentially ripping. I also powder the inside of the latex once it's cured... Preventing newly cured latex from sticking to itself. Also at times latex can leech into your stone mold.. The powder creates a buffer to prevent it
That's exactly what both Pete and Chuck have taught me at both their respective houses on different occasions, as they both do that with all their hydrocal/ultracal molds. Wet the inside of the mold by dumping water into it until it's saturated and pour it out before adding latex (or just heavily mist with a water spray bottle) so the walls of the mold are damp, not dripping wet. Theory being something like hydrocal being "hydro/water", if the mold is wetted, once it dries itself out, the latex will pull into the sides of the mold better. Like you said, when the latex has dried, pour baby powder in and rub it around with your hand so the latex doesn't stick to itself when removing the piece from the mold.
That's their technique they've both been using for years to pull their latex parts.