A friend of mine made their own Ouija board last year, which
turned out amazingly well, but had yet to complete the board with a planchette.
So I was recently commissioned to construct one with the guidelines of it being made of resin with embedded mirror shards. Right away I knew that this
meant I would need a mold.
So far for molds I have just used a variety of metal bezels
and premade silicone shape trays. I had yet to really delve into the many ways
to make a custom mold, which can be used for so many different types of media
and purpose. I decided to try three different methods of making a mold of a
Ouija planchette and see which would give the best results.
Quick side note:
What
the heck have they done to Ouija boards and planchettes these days?? I didn’t
realize it had been that long since I had seen a newer version and it was much
different than what I was expecting to make a mold of. Since when do
planchettes light up and require batteries?? The board is a lot cooler looking
though…
Method 1:
Internet
sourced silicone mold recipe.
This seemed like a quirky method of making a mold but I was
curious, so I gave it a shot. It consisted of using dish soapy water as a glycerin
catalyst for 100% silicone (clear and not quick dry), which is then kneaded
until stiff and used to encase the object being molded. Cure time was estimated
at an hour or until no longer tacky. The best part of this was squeezing all
the silicone in and then kneading it in the water, which was quite fun.
Unfortunately,
somewhere along the way I must have added too much of something because my mold
never got beyond tacky, even overnight, and the original planchette was
completely unrecoverable and unusable again.
Bleh. May try again in the future
but not with any object I want to keep.
Method 2:
Layered
liquid latex rubber.
This method would actually still be ongoing if I hadn’t
decided that almost 24 hours was enough time spent attempting to get this mold
finished. If you have something larger than a silver dollar to mold and you
love watching paint dry, then this method is perfect for you. I have about 18
hours and about 7 layers of this stuff invested in the pics below. Each layer
has to dry before the next application and this can take a while, depending on
the object. Making the liquid latex layers reminded me of Mod Podge and also of
peeling off one of those face masks.
I know that this planchette mold would
require at least another 5-7 layers to be sturdy enough (in my opinion) to fill
with a whole lot of heavy resin. There is no way I would pour it in now, as is,
but I do appreciate the detail and certain aesthetics to this method. Will
likely find a use or two for this goop, elsewhere.
Method 3:
Silicone
putty.
You guessed it. Here there be gold.
So fast. So easy. Great results. What else is there to say?
Mix your two parts and be ready to rock for your 3-minute window before it
begins to set and becomes unmoldable. Mold is ready to be removed in about 25
minutes and it comes off very easily. At that point, you can either leave it
sitting around for a day before it’s ready for resin, or you can heat-cure it
at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and put the resin in when it’s completely cooled.
Oven cure it is!
I set some mirror mosaic tiles in the resin and let it sit overnight and revisited
it around noon today, roughly twelve hours later. In the past, with that amount
of curing time, I expected it to still be somewhat tacky but was surprised to
see that it was totally hardened and ready to pop out. Very happy with the results!
Did some quick finishing work with fine grit wet/dry sandpaper, glued on some
felt bottomed wooden beads, and voila!
Silicone putty is your friend.
