(Mods, please move this if this is the wrong location!)
So, my girlfriend loves this sort of thing, and really wants to get a new toy (she had one a while ago but had to get rid of it due to unfortunate circumstances I won't expand upon). Being the idiot I am, I thought "Hang on, I could make one for her! I have modelling skills, how hard can it be?".
As it turns out, very hard.
I followed a video tutorial series, and went about the business of first making a master-copy.
This was made from polymer clay, and baked. I then made a single piece pour-mold from silicone (which took a bit of faffing about), let that cure fully, gave it a good spray with silicone release agent. Then I mixed up the silicone for the toy itself, added some pigment, inserted a cumtube and poured. Let it cure...
...And the bloody thing seemed to partially fuse with the mold! In the end I had to hack the mold to pieces to get the thing out, which was badly damaged in the process and honestly not useable.
I'm not quite sure what went wrong; the only step I didn't follow was using a vacuum chamber or pressure pot, as I can't afford those at the moment and the silicone I used was specifically described as not needing it. I can only assume I didn't use nearly enough release spray, or that it didn't coat the mold properly.
I'm going to try again later (possibly with help from my girlfriend), but I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to avoid a repeat of this disaster? I'm considering doing a two-part mold next time, as whilst it will be a bit trickier to make it will be much easier to remove the master mold and the actual toy from, and will also be easier to get the release spray onto all the nooks and crannies. There might be a minor seamline but that's not a massive problem and is easy enough to fix.
So, my girlfriend loves this sort of thing, and really wants to get a new toy (she had one a while ago but had to get rid of it due to unfortunate circumstances I won't expand upon). Being the idiot I am, I thought "Hang on, I could make one for her! I have modelling skills, how hard can it be?".
As it turns out, very hard.
I followed a video tutorial series, and went about the business of first making a master-copy.
This was made from polymer clay, and baked. I then made a single piece pour-mold from silicone (which took a bit of faffing about), let that cure fully, gave it a good spray with silicone release agent. Then I mixed up the silicone for the toy itself, added some pigment, inserted a cumtube and poured. Let it cure...
...And the bloody thing seemed to partially fuse with the mold! In the end I had to hack the mold to pieces to get the thing out, which was badly damaged in the process and honestly not useable.
I'm not quite sure what went wrong; the only step I didn't follow was using a vacuum chamber or pressure pot, as I can't afford those at the moment and the silicone I used was specifically described as not needing it. I can only assume I didn't use nearly enough release spray, or that it didn't coat the mold properly.
I'm going to try again later (possibly with help from my girlfriend), but I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to avoid a repeat of this disaster? I'm considering doing a two-part mold next time, as whilst it will be a bit trickier to make it will be much easier to remove the master mold and the actual toy from, and will also be easier to get the release spray onto all the nooks and crannies. There might be a minor seamline but that's not a massive problem and is easy enough to fix.