I get asked every single day about my molds. Hopefully this will help answer some of your questions!
Do I make all my molds or do I buy them? The answer is, I don’t make all of my molds. I buy lots of molds, in various places. Sometimes I find them at local shops and some I buy online. I don’t share my sources, but if you don’t mind spending the time to research quality molds for yourself you can definitely find lots of them online.
I do make a lot of my own molds though.
Here’s one I created using real snickerdoodle cookies.
What silicone do I use? I use a liquid silicone with a catalyst. I use several different ones, and while I don’t share the exact brands I use, you can find many different silicones on Amazon to get started. What I use may not work for you, it will depend on what type of material you are trying to create a mold of.
Why are they different colors? The reason they are different colors is because of the catalyst I use. The ones I use may be clear, or they may be yellow or pink. Some come in other colors as well. Some catalysts let the silicone cure in just a few hours, some will take 24+ hours to cure. So the color of the catalyst changes the color of my mold. I’ve noticed where I live (NY) that some catalysts work better in the summer and some work better in the winter. So again, what works for me may not work for you, especially if you are in a really humid climate. This can completely change how your mold turns out. I’ve noticed when it’s really humid here, my molds takes forever to cure, despite the catalyst I used.
Is silicone expensive? Well, you usually get what you pay for when it comes to silicone. Cheaper is not always better. Cheap silicones may not set up correctly (if at all in some climates) and the molds will fall apart quickly after you’ve used them a number of times. And silicone is not cheap! The brand I use the most is $250/gallon. I need my molds to last a long time and I need them to have great detail so it makes sense for me to use a quality silicone. But if you’re just starting out, using a cheaper silicone will keep you from costly mistakes you may make while learning to create molds.
How do you keep the products from sticking? Since the majority of my molds are made by using real food to mold them, my food almost always sticks to the silicone when I go to unmold. I always get lots of comments and suggestions on how to keep the food from sticking, such as freezing the foods before molding, covering them with plastic wrap before molding, or spraying the foods with an oil or spray to keep them from sticking.
Trust me, none of this works.
Freezing the food doesn’t help because they eventually thaw out while the silicone is curing, which defeats the purpose of freezing them in the first place. I’ve sprayed food products with every type of oil and even a silicone spray before molding and they still stick. Wrapping the foods with plastic wrap also would not work because it would cause you to lose all the details in the product, again, defeating the purpose of a mold.
Placing them in my mold just as they are is what works for me, and cleanup really isn’t that bad. Just soak the mold in hot, soapy water for a few minutes and they clean right up.
How do you clean molds after you use them? They are so easy to clean. If I use them for soap, I just drop them in a sink of hot soapy water and wash them and they come out looking like new. If I used them for wax, I use a heat gun and paper towels to clean out each cavity. Never try to clean wax products in your sink! Wax clogs your drains and would be very costly to fix.