How to Create a Designer Toy - Part 2 of 2

1. Introduction: Hello. In this class I will show you the whole process of creating the mold for your designer toy sculpture and how to cast your toys using resin. If you don't know how to create the original designer toy, take part one, how to create a designer toy first. There you will also learn how to paint your resin reproductions. Join me and let's start making molds and casting them. 2. Supplies and Class Project: This is a list of the supplies that you need for this class. I will also be posting this as a PDF in the class information area. You need to follow the safety instructions of the materials you are going to use. You need appropriate safety elements according to the manufacturer instructions of your mold making and casting supplies. Please read all the instructions carefully and follow them because these are chemicals and you need to be safe. Some of these include respirator mask, gloves, protective clothing, protective glasses, and they will also tell you the way of disposing correctly of the materials used. For making the mold, you would need your original toy sculpt. If you don't know how to make this yet, please check out part 1 of this class. You need foam board, a plastic container where your toy fits standing and that has enough space around it according to the molding compound manufacturers instructions, a hot glue gun, a mold making compound. I'm using Smooth-on Mold Star 15. I used one pint for my mold. A big plastic disposable container to mix the mold making liquids in, a disposable plastic or metal tool to mix it with and safety elements. For casting the toys you need your mold, a disposable plastic cup with measurements, a disposable plastic spoon, your casting resin. I'm using Smooth-on Smooth cast 300. One pint will be enough to make several toys of similar size to mine, and the safety elements. If you are going to be using Super Sculpey to fix bubbles, you need in Super Sculpey or any polymer clay, a toaster oven depending on the clay you're using, or if it's air dry clay you don't need this and a baking sheet. For preparing the surface and fixing imperfections, you would need soft sanding paper, and I'm using a Moto tool with different bits. I'm using a Dremel Rotary Tool used to make the sanding process faster. If you left a space for the eyes, you will need clear glass cabochon eyes if you want to paint your own or any type of glass eyes, doll eyes or bead. For the class project, I would love to see your toys and you can also post pictures of the process. If you have any questions please post them in the discussions area of the class. If you post them in your projects, sometimes I don't see them as fast. Make sure you post them there. 3. The Mold: So the first thing that we're going to have to do to get the mold done, is to grab a piece of foam board as a base for our mold. Then you need a round plastic, container or square or whatever fits your toy and it has to be a little bit smaller than your foam board. This is how my toy fits inside. You're supposed to around half an inch on each side, so that the mold is not too thin. So with the hot glue gun, I'm just going to go around it and I'm going to adhere it to the foam board. Just press on it and since we need to make sure that this won't leak at all, we're going to go around it using this silicone to cover every little hole. I like to go around twice just to make sure. So now we need to add some to the bottom of our toy. Don't worry; This will come off later. Place it in the middle and press. Okay. We're going to use smooth-on mold star 15 slow. This is a platinum or silicone rubber and the mix ratio is 1_A by 1_B by volume, which makes it much easier because you don't have to weigh it. You can use whatever brand you want. I think this one is very good. This is a measurement cup, it says it's approximate measure but I found it's very accurate. Be sure to follow the safety instructions because this stuff is toxic; This is a part A of the mold making silicon. If you're using this brand of mold making supplies, make sure that the clay that you use for your toy is sold for free or if not, this is not going to cure. Okay. I have to mix this really well. At this point, you're not rushing. Once you mix these two things, you have a pot life of 50 minutes. I will just empty it into my plastic cup. Now I will open and start part B. Just stir it well, making sure you're scraping the sides and scraping the bottom. Now, we'll just put it in there. I will be doing all of this process without fast-forwarding, so you can actually see how much time I take to do everything. What I love about this one is that since it's two different colors, you can see when they're totally mixed. You're not supposed to see any white anymore. So just mix it, go around, scraping the sides, scraping the bottom until there's no more white swirls. Remember to check the pot life of the brand of silicone you're using because some of them set really quick. Try not to put bubbles in there by lifting your utensil that you're using to mix. I'm really scraping the sides here and the bottom. See those little bubbles, they come up to the surface and that's why the molds are so good at the end because the bubbles just go up and pop, not staying there ruining your mold. So I think that's enough. So let's remove this and I'll start pouring on this side of the toy, not right on it. You should pour slowly and let it level so that the bubbles come up. Smooth-on has a great calculator online, where you can see how much product you're going to need for your toy. I will have the link here in the little notes, so you can check that out. I'm not sponsored in any way by Smooth-On products, I just try them and think they're great. So be patient in pouring your mold, this will ensure it's a great mold at the end. After you're done covering your toy, you should go up half an inch, at least, so it has a sturdy base. So from here, I would count half an inch more and keep pouring. That's why you need to make sure your cup is tall enough. Okay. I have a little bit left. It's always a good idea to have a smaller toy ready, just so you don't waste it. This is one point of the product. It was enough for a little toy and this one. So four hours have passed and now I'm just going to take away the paper cup and take away the base. Remember, your toy is stuck under, so this one' s a bit harder but it will come out easily. These things that are here covering the bottom of your toy are called flaps, so you should use a knife and carefully cut them. You don't have to be super precise. Just cut out the excess and make sure you don't cut into your mold or your toy. If you want to see the flaps, just open it and see whatever is covering the bottom of the toy. Here you can see the tail, so we're going to cut it out. Okay. I think that's enough. So I'm just going to start stretching it to start. 4. Casting Resin: Now we're going to use the resin to cast our toys. I'm going to be using smooth cast 300. Again, it's by volume part A with part B, which is good and you don't have to weigh it. Make sure to follow the safety instructions on these two. Shake well before using. I have the measurement cup here. If you don't have a measurement cup you could use two cups and just place them side-by-side and say, the first one you fill up the till here, then the second one you'll have to fill up to the same place and be very precise and then mix them into one. But I prefer doing it with this measurements, it has worked better for me. You have to be very precise. These one has a pot life of three minutes, you have to be fast, but it gives you enough time to pour. These was part A, and I'm going to close it. As long as you haven't mixed it with part B it's okay. You have time. Time hasn't started to count yet. My toy extreme ounces, I fill that up to 1.5 ounces with the part A. Now I'm filling up to three with the part B. I'm going to mix it with a spoon. We're going to make sure I scrape the sides and scrape the bottom. Make sure it's correctly mixed. I'm going to start pouring. You should pour from the top and slowly so that the bubbles can't come up. If you start to feel that it's getting very hot in your hand then you have to move i and pour really fast because it's going to start setting. If it's the first time, and you don't know how much it's going to take. You can use this modern calculator to calculate an approximate amount. It's good if you have smaller molds so that you don't waste it. After you fill the first time, write down how much you used. I usually write it down on the side of the mold so I know always, I want to pop it up a bit. This is real time. It's going to be a bit boring, but I'm going to let it set so you can see how it starts changing color. It's actually super cool. hope some of you will See it. Here I'm just softly stirring it up to take away all those bubbles. You don't have to do this. You could just send it at the end. I'm just going to squeeze it a little bit so that some bubbles can come up. See now it's starting to set. The bigger the surface the faster it sets. See how the little one hasn't even started getting wide yet. This is getting really hot right now. I let it set for 10 to 15 minutes, now it's ready. First I'm going to show you what happens if your toy doesn't come out and you actually need to cut the mold, make sure it's the back of your toy and measure like half of the space between the toy and the edge of the mold. Use a knife in cutting the zig zag, don't push the knife through the toy its just halfway between the edge and the toy. Now, start opening it up and put your knife fingered till you heat the toy softly and cutting a straight line inside there. It's actually not easy. I usually cut the zig zag and then I cut straight. What happens is there's a straight line and the zig zag. Now you can open it up. Here I need help again, I'm going to get some help and pull it out. Make sure you wiggle it around. It gets unstuck. Well, here he is. So perfect, it's so great. This is like an amazing part. You can check it for bubbles. These resin is really good, it doesn't leave a lot of bubbles. But depending on your mold it'll, I'm going to test the eyes. They going easily and they should come out easily. 5. Finishing Touches: Finally, we have to retouch our toy. If there's any imperfections, I'm using a soft sanding paper, I'm just going around fixing any little bubbles, so imperfections. You should be wearing a respirator mask for these because it's not good to inhale these powders. See here we, have some little bubbles, you can fix them with the same clay you use. I'm using superscope. I'm just rubbing it in there hard so that it gets into the bubbles, and then scraping it off with my fingers so that it's only inside the bubbles. I'm going to do that everywhere where I find bubbles, and if its a place that has texture, I will put some sculpey there and recreate the texture with the same tool I created it in the original. Here I had some little dots, so I'm going to do that again. I'm just pulling in and softening it, and then I'm going to create the far. I would also sand that the bottom part, so it's flat. If you want that to go faster, you can use a modal tool. Or if you don't have it, you can use higher great sanding paper. I would take these again for like 10 minutes or 15 minutes in 275 Fahrenheit. This same instructions for the polymer clay that you're using. Do not put this in the kitchen oven that you are using for food. Here's how the casting looks like without paying that, I have just put in some eyes. Here he is beside the original. If you want to see how I painted, you can go to the first part of this class, I'm painted exactly the same way, that difference is you can actually use spray paint now. I hope you had a lot of fun and I can't wait to see whether you create. Bye.