Moulds of natural items from nature

[roz]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to get a few silicone moulds made from nature-sourced items but I'm wondering how sturdy each item has to be? Does anyone have any experience? I presume I can get a nut or fir comb cast for example, but that flowers will get squashed. What about lavender?

what have you had done?

Thanks!

Roz

[ps_bond]

If they're vulcanised & pressed moulds then the object needs to be able to stand up to both the heat and the pressure, but if you're using RTV (room temperature vulcanising rubber - 2 pack stuff) then you can get away with working with more delicate objects.

Castaldo suggest their RTV is suitable for moulding flowers ( http://www.castaldo.com/english/products_eg/lc/lc.html - other RTV rubbers are available); you may need to thicken the flower by painting wax onto it though. I suppose electroforming might work well for that too. Equally, some casters are happy to run burnout of natural objects (I've seen orchids done this way); in which case, the simplest solution would be to get them to cast the flower then make a mould from the casting. Obviously you'll get more shrinkage (casting, mould shrinkage where applicable, wax shrinkage and finally another round of casting shrinkage).