How to Take Care of Your Silicone Molds

hello welcome to steve mcdonald's arts and crafts and today i'm going to be looking at how to clean and store your silicone molds that you use for resin if you don't look after them they're not going to last as long as you want them to and they're not cheap so you want to get as long a life out of them as possible hit that subscribe button and also hit that like button don't miss out on future videos and all the tricks and tips that i give so i've got a selection of moulds here and some of them i've used acrylic paint and others just need cleaning one of the biggest issues with your silicone molds is if you use a torch on them then the likelihood is you are going to get this sticking to it now i am a bit of a for using a torch on mold i know i shouldn't and i do end up ruining a lot of my moulds there we go that one's ruined so what i've gone over to using now is a long-necked lighter and i find that that doesn't do as much damage to the mould now i have been told so many times by so many people why don't you spray a mist of alcohol over them well that does get rid of bubbles alcohol mist is not only really really dangerous for your lungs so you must be wearing a mask while you're doing it but it also fills your room with a really flammable gas and you know what i don't want to take that risk it's just not worth it for me i do use alcohol and i do use alcohol inks but i'm not going to be missing it it's really not good for you but the best thing is to try and mix without getting any bubbles in the first place and if you want to know how i do that then check out the video at the end of this video i'll link it what happens when you demold them inevitably if you're messy like me you will get bits that are stuck to it like here here here and in other places so you need to get that off because you don't want that in your next lot of resin the other thing that can happen is if you don't look after your resin molds properly i don't know if you can see that mold started to degrade now and things really do stick to it's difficult to demold now this mold has been used an awful lot and i have to be honest i am guilty of using it quickly giving it a wipe over using it again quickly giving it white powder using it again then it's not being taken care of but this mold is coming very much to the end of its life and the same with this mold here gone very dull and flat now in the middle there it's because again i've been using it over and over and over again this heart mold without taking care of it and now i'm going to show you what you can do to take care of it to stop that happening when i demold my resin from the mould i then want to clean that mould don't use alcohol to clean your molds because it's going to damage your mould really quickly you're going to get a lot less life out of it and also it really does take the shine of it so one of the first things that i will do is i will always make sure i've got a pack of baby wipes baby wipes are really important around the studio because you can use them for so many different things which includes getting resin off your skin wiping up mess and wiping out sticky residue first thing i do is i get a bit of tape so let's take one of the molds with quite a bit look there's quite a lot around this mold here i'm not sure if you can see that and what i'll do is first i'll try the normal sticky tape and see if that'll get it off i'll just push it down and pull it up and it has got some off as you can see there is some on there now normal sticky tape isn't as sticky as a packing tape never use duct tape because duct tape will leave a residue sticky on your mould that is really difficult to get off there we go so that's got off those stubborn little bits and any other little bits that i can't get off i will just go round and push it into the mold like so and this gets them off so that's got all that residue off the outside of that mold there might be some little bits on it that i haven't seen so i'll just go over it quickly like so and there we go that's nice and clean but it's not finished i'll show you the next step in a second the other thing is i often use acrylic paints and things in my moulds when i use acrylic paints i use lots of different techniques to use them and that can also leave some residue of acrylic paint and resin mixed in now i do tend to again as you can see use the tape for this i'll just push it in the mold it will come out and clean them up nicely so that's how i get dirt and things off of a mold that has got bits left on them now regarding these molds that are damaged there is nothing you can do about those if you're having trouble getting something out of a mold it's really stuck in there quite hard then my advice is rather than yanking it out which is what i did there because i'm impatient if you soak the whole thing into some quite hot water not boiling but hot water then it will soften up the resin enough to allow you to get that out additionally i have used the freezer technique where i've popped in the freezer for 10-15 minutes and then it has helped me demold it and it is less likely to catch so what i'm gonna do is i'm just gonna finish off cleaning off this mold once i've done that i will take a baby wipe and i will go over my mold getting any other bits off that i can get off now baby wipes are really soft they're not going to damage your mold avoid using things like kitchen paper and rubbing your molds hard with it because it will take the shine off and damage those molds so as you can see this mold is damaged anyway and it is still shiny even though it's own opaque mold so if i take a bit of kitchen roll and i rub in the middle there i think oh i'm going to dry this and use it for my mold what you will find is i'm not sure if that's picked it up or not that then dulls the surface of that mold and it's really hard to get a good shiny finish and if you do that in just one bit of your mold then what you'll find is when you de-mold it you'll have a bit that isn't as shiny as the other so once i've gone over it with the baby wipes like so so then what i'll do is i'll take a bowl of warm soapy water and not boiling hot not hot just warm enough to put hands in it nice and comfortably and i do in a bowl because i don't want anything going down the sink and i also don't want anything that's in the sink to contaminate it could have been bleach or cleaning products in the sink prior to using it so i always use a bowl that i keep in my studio just for using with my resin products so what i'll do is i'll pop these into the soapy water and i'll leave them to soak for about 10 minutes in there while that's soaking in there i'm going to quickly show you how i do my silicone jugs because it's really important to clean your silicone jugs out well because they last a long long time and also you don't want bits in your resin when you're mixing your resin what i'll do is i'll pull the bit out because it's silicon so they don't stick and then i will just turn them inside out and i'll give them a bit of a rub with my hands and get any bits off now i'm not worried if this stays shiny or not this is quite an old jug because i'm not going to cast in this but what i do want is i want it to be as clean as possible and as you can see there's quite a lot already come off that so what i'll do with that is i will take my packing tape and i will wrap that round my silicon jug quite tightly and then i will squeeze over that and rub it between my hands i don't want to damage it but i'll take a pair of scissors and then i will pull that off and as you will see it will get the vast majority off now if this wasn't such an old jug this would have come out really really clean but this is getting to the end of its life but i don't like chucking things away so i do get as much use out of them as i possibly can so in the water it goes the other thing is i always work on a silicon mat and i think silicone mats are really important they're easy to clean it's easy to see spills on and again i clean these using a baby wipe now i tend to give these a bit of a wash as well at the end and then i hang them on the washing line for a few minutes and allow them to drip dry so it's quite easy if you've got bits on there like there you can just ping them off with your nails and i will just give this a bit of a once over because it's normally the background to my video so i want it to be as clean as possible but once those molds have been soaking for about 10 minutes what i'll do is i will give them a bit of a wash now i will use this green sponge but i won't use this side of it i'll only actually use the sponge side of it i'll just go in the water i'll make sure it's wet and i will just go over this to ensure that it's got as clean as i can possibly get it and all the bits are off it and then once i've washed them up i then lay them on a tray that i've put a tea towel on to allow them to dry in the air naturally like this i'm going to show you how to store them and protect them as well because there is a technique to this that will make your molds last a lot longer because too much exposure to air will dry out your mould and cause it problems as well now don't store your baking molds like this because if you're using a mold to bake with the last thing you want to do is store it slightly uh damp or seal it because you could get some mold in there but i don't find that happens with the resin molds and you'll see why in a second they're starting to dry on that cloth i'll just cover them up because i don't want any more dust and things to get in them i'll push it down and then i'll give that a while to dry and then once it's dry then i'll show you how i store them if like me you're a little bit impatient and you find that some of the soapy water doesn't get out of the molds in the corners and what you can do is you can take a cotton bud like so and just go around the edges of your mold and get out any bits and pieces it also helps you get out any of those stubborn little bits of glitter or mica powder that stick into the corners so when storing your silicone molds it's important to ensure that they're completely dry before you go to store them the things that i use before i put them into my storage are i use a silicon release spray and i use ziploc bags and i will put a link to everything that i use in this video in the description below so you can just click on those links and find the stuff really really easily so once you've got your moulds clean and everything's ready and they're nice and dry this is what i do to protect them and store them now the jug all i will do is i will turn that back in the right way and i'll store it upside down like that on my shelf so now these are nice and clean i want to get the most out of these and what i do is i take some silicone mold release i give it a bit of a shake i give it a quick spray over the mold and then put it to one side for a few seconds and i'll do that with all my molds that i'm storing and this i found really does help keep them preserved the other thing is i do recommend every time you're going to do any casting give a quick spray let it sit for for about 30 seconds before you pour and then pour what you'll find is your silicone molds will release so much easier and also it will extend dramatically the life of your silicone molds what i'll do now is i will store these in ziploc bags i will pop the mold into the ziploc bag like so then i will squeeze as much air out of it as i can get like that and then i will just do up the zip lock and i will leave it like that and always put only one mold in a bag you don't want molds sitting on top of molds and you want to keep your molds as flat as pos possible because if you roll them up or bend them up what you'll find is in storage they will then take on that shape and it's virtually impossible to get the shape back that you want it's okay to do it for a little while if you're traveling or things like that but not permanent storage or for storage over a few weeks and what you'll find is they're not going to dry out because silicone can dry out they're not going to get as fragile and you will get a lot more use out of them it will make your molds last a lot longer you will get better castings out of them and it will save you money in the long run as well and please enjoy the bloopers the reason i'm doing this type of video today it's far too hot for me to get on with any resin work and i've asked her the reason i'm doing this so the reason i'm [Music] hit that subscribe button and the like button now so you didn't miss that don't forget check out this video next at the end of this video to show you i can't remember what i was gonna do what was i gonna say no what was i gonna find what was i gonna say okay i don't remember that oh my god you've got the memory of a fish a goldfish do you know if anyone was in it i'm not if anyone was sitting here while i was doing all this they think they'd have me committed i'm sure they would oh what was i doing oh yeah oh i need to drive more i'm sure people must my videos aren't slick anyway but i'm sure people must really think i'm not right they probably don't realize that everyone makes and now for our english speaking viewers this is what i'm trying to say hopefully this video won't get any nasty comments i don't know why people have to give nasty comments why do people get asked comments are you trying to help it's free after all oh don't forget to turn the camera back on all right turn the camera oh i haven't turned the camera off i do recommend is that you use the silicon spray oh it's just going wrong a day if you'd like to see additional videos and additional tips and tricks check out my patreon account thank you to all my patrons whose names will be coming up soon i really do appreciate your support and these things really helped me keep this channel going it's really appreciated check out the video coming up on the screen next it will show you how to mix without getting bubbles [Music] i

Channel: Steve McDonald Arts and Crafts

Views: 37,850

Rating: 4.938199 out of 5

Keywords: silicone molds, silicone mold, resin tutorial, how to clean, resin casting, resin tricks, silicone mold care, cleaning resin molds, resin for beginners, cleaning silicone, resin mold, how to clean up resin, resin art for beginners, epoxy resin for beginners, resin crafts for beginners, steve mcdonald arts and crafts, resin techniques, epoxy resin art for beginners, resin crafts, resin tips and tricks, How to Take Care of Your Silicone Molds

Id: DEJi-7GGPkQ

Length: 16min 23sec (983 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 16 2020