How to: Create a Mould

Equipment:
-Sticks
-Gloves
-Glue gun
-Clay sculpture on some plastic
-Measuring cups
-Scissors
-Fixing spray
-Petrolease
-Silicone A
-Silicone B
-Scales
-Cling film
-Baby wipes
-Tissues
-Isopropyl alcohol
-Baldiez
-Hair dryer
-Brush
-Deadener
-Silicone pigments
-Metal plate
-Naphtha
-Baby buds

Preparation:
-Label sticks A and B.
-Apply cling film over working surface and scales.
-Apply gloves
-Put the glue gun on so that it can be heating up ready for use later on. Make sure it is leaning on an appropriate surface.
-Clay should already be in a bite shape ready for moulding.

Step by step:
1. Cut the top of the cup off, about 1/3 of the way down.
2. Shake the fixing spray well, go over to an open window, and spray the clay evenly from about 20cm away.
3. Once the fixing spray has dried, spray the clay evenly with some Petrolease, from about 20cm away, again.
4. Place the cup around the wound and use the glue gun to secure the cup to the plastic so that no silicone with leak out. Press down on the cup whilst the glue is drying so that it lies flat. Leave the glue to dry and harden.

5. Put a new cup on the scales and put the scales to 0.
6. Put on some new gloves and take a stick labelled A and scoop out some of the silicone A and put it in the cup until it reaches 30 grams.
7. After the 30 grams has been added to the cup, clean the outside of the pot with silicone A in it with baby wipes and put the lid tightly on.
8. Put some new gloves on and use a stick labelled B with the silicone B and scoop 30 grams of product into the cut with A in it.
9. Clean the outside of the pot of B with some baby wipes and secure the lid.
10. With the same B stick mix the products together well and try to get as little bubbles as possible. If bubbles occur, then tap the cup on the table and they should rise to the surface and disappear.
11. Pour the silicone mixture over your wound so that the silicone completely covers the wound. Do this in back and forth motions to give an even coverage.
12. Let the silicone set for about an hour or until it hardens.

13. Once the mould has set, cut around the glue and pull out the hardened silicone.
14. Wipe the silicone with some tissue and isopropyl alcohol; use baby pubs if necessary.
15. Spray the moulded silicon with Petrolease evenly, from a 20cm distance and let it dry.
16. Create a mixture of 1 part baldiez and 2 part isopropyl alcohol and mix together well.
17. Pour some of this mixture into the dents in your silicone and smooth it away with a brush to blend the edges and coat the wound.
18. Apply a second coat all over the wound and let it dry, You can use a cool hair dryer to speed up this process.
19. Apply some gloves and add 8 grams of silicone A into a clean cup with a stick labelled A.
20. Wipe the pot down with a baby wipe before securely tightening the lid.
21. Apply some new gloves and add 8 grams of silicone B with a stick labelled B.
22. Wipe the pot down with a baby wipe before securely tightening the lid.
23. Using a new stick and some new gloves, add 12 grams of deadener to the mixture to make the silicone softer and more skin-like.
24. Add some drops of pigment to your mixture to make it closer to your model's skin colour.
25. Pour the mixture into the mould to fill the teeth markings.
26. Sweep something flat, I used the metal plate from my kit, across your wound to get rid of any excess mixture and make the product flat with the mould.
27. Put some Naphtha on a baby bud, wipe off the excess, and blend out the edges so that they won't look so harsh on the skin.

I really enjoyed making these wound moulds because it is very mathematical, with all the numbers and measuring, which reminds me of being back in school with my maths and science lessons, which I loved. I had never used many of the products before this lesson so I found it fun introducing myself and experimenting with many new products and mixtures. I found it difficult to take the silicone out of the plastic cup and unfortunately I ripped my first silicone mould, as you can see above. This made me take a lot more care in removing my silicone moulds next time and it also taught me to always check that the silicone is definitely solid enough to some out of the cup. I also noticed that the silicone had quite a few bubbles in it so I made sure that I spent extra time trying to remove the bubbles when I did it again.
When I redid the moulds I decided to do them both at once to be time efficient. Below are my two final outcomes. I am slightly concerned that the detailing in the bottom of the teeth marks aren't going to show up because they don't seem to be covered in the silicone mixture. I will be really disappointed if this is the case and I will have to work really hard when colouring it, to make it look as realistic as possible.
My assessment for these wounds is next week and we are only being taught how to get this pieces out of the mould on the same day so I am concerned that I am not going to have a chance to practice the painting of the wound and I am worried that they won't come out as I wanted and I won't have any time to redo them.