Working with Decor Silicone Moulds

Redesign with Prima has many amazing silicone moulds available and they are one of my favourite things to use to add depth and interest to not only furniture pieces and knobs, but many home decor items also, from picture frames to Christmas decorations.

I have used most products on the market and I wanted to share with you my two favourite mediums to date.

Darwi Clay is my hands down winner. Unlike other clays, it dries without curling up, changing shape, shrinking or cracking. It is easy to manipulate and use and shows up all the beautiful fine details of the moulds to perfection.

You can remove it from the moulds whilst damp and mould to the shape of your project and simply glue in place with a good quality PVA wood glue. Bend the mould to release the end of your piece and gently peel it out the mould while continuing to manipulate the mould. Depending on the humidity etc, I sometimes dust a little cornflour into the mould first for easier release.

If you prefer you can leave in the moulds to dry and then simply invert them like you would with a cake, and they pretty much just drop out. I tend to do this with the finer more fragile pieces.

My second choice is hot glue. Now if you are going to do this, its worth investing around $30 to get yourself a you beaut professional hot glue gun from one of the hardware stores. The little craft ones just won’t cut it for a couple of reasons. They are just too small and don’t heat up rapidly enough. You won’t be able to get a nice steady flow coming through and your moulds will end up uneven and lumpy.

I have a Bosch which I love as it has a nice long thin nozzle which makes it easy to direct into the smaller areas of the moulds without going over the edges. You want to keep them as tidy as possible when making them so you don’t have to fix them up when they are dry. Don’t panic if you do go over the edges though, as you can always trim them up after with a sharp pair of scissors.

The great thing about the glue gun is that they stay flexible so you can make them up in advance and glue them on as needed. I sometimes use a little removable tape to hold them in place while they dry.

They are also great for the fine, fragile detailed moulds that can be harder to get out in one piece using the clays. The trade-off is that I don’t think the beautiful detail is quite so defined, but it is hardly noticeable in the whole overall effect when painted. You also have to be careful not to get air bubbles trapped in the glue when filling the moulds.

I’ve done a video for you showing how to use both these products and the differences and methods I’ve described above, and how awesome the look when painted and highlighted using our specialty waxes. I hope you love using the  moulds and these materials as much as I do.

 

VIDEO LINK: https://youtu.be/W-gBQTuqIRo