Mod Molds

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jfugina
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Mod Molds

Post by jfugina »

Has anyone ever seen or tried these?

https://plaidonline.com/mod-podge-mod-m ... roduct.htm

I totally stumbled across these in the fine art area of Michaels last month, and was immediately curious. Armed with a coupon and nothing to use it on, I got a package of melts and a couple of molds. Because I'd been so busy with the glass etching and the other hand made gifts I decided to take on, the bag went unopened until this weekend.

It took me a few tries to get the hang of it, but it was actually pretty fun. Basically, you put mod podge sticks in your hot glue gun and squeeze them out into the molds. The stuff isn't stringy like hot glue, and melts a bit thinner, making it easy-ish to fill in the nooks and crannies of the mold. It dries in a few minutes, and then you can do whatever you want with them. The two molds I got were flowers, and one that had metal bits, like keys and keyholes. I tried painting the metal looking things with Liquitex acrylic "brass" color, but it was too see-through. I painted my flowers with solid acrylic colors though, and I'm actually pretty happy with those. I think I'll pick up some metallic sticks to use with the metals mold - then they won't need painting.

Ultimately, I thought that I might be able to make a few cute chunky embellishments. I don't often use anything that thick on my layouts, but every so often when the mood strikes, these little molded things would be perfect. They'd also be great for non-scrapbook types of things. Like, if you wanted cluster some flowers on a photo frame or something. I'm sure there are lots of other possibilities, but I bought the stuff because it looked interesting. There are a couple other molds I'm going to pick up the next time I'm putting in an Amazon order. One of the things I'd like to do as I get back in the craft room is up my embellishment game. These looked like a fun little way to exactly that.
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pbp908
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Re: Mod Molds

Post by pbp908 »

That looks interesting. Do they pop out easily?
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Re: Mod Molds

Post by pamcook »

I've been watching this craft. It sure looks like fun.
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jfugina
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Re: Mod Molds

Post by jfugina »

Yes, they do pop out very easily. The instructions say to wait 10 minutes for them to cool, but it didn't take nearly that long.

Another thing I forgot to mention - I have two hot glue guns, and both had different kinds of glue sticks in them, so I had to basically waste a bunch of hot glue shoving the mod podge stick through. And then it was mixing with glue for the first several squeezes. It might be worth getting a new glue gun (the cheapest you can possibly find) if you want to try this. Going back and forth between different kinds of sticks could be pretty wasteful. I think they have a branded heating tool, but a normal hot glue gun worked just fine.
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Re: Mod Molds

Post by jfugina »

I'm revisiting this post, because I spent some more time playing with these molds tonight. I have two molds - one that has gears, keys, and locks, and one that has flowers. The last time I had played with this stuff, I painted the resulting objects with basic acrylic paint. In the case of the flowers, I was happy enough, but the liquitex copper paint I have, did not even come close to making me happy on those gears and metallic-like objects.

So I set out to try other media tonight. I got out my general mixed media drawer, where I keep all of my spritzes and sprays, and the only thing that seemed remotely feasible for covering these resin pieces was the smooch ink. And the ink did cover reasonably well, but the applicator is utterly useless. The molded objects are very dimensional, and there's no way to get the product down into those nooks and crannies.

So the next thing that came to mind was alcohol inks. And I don't mean with an applicator. I took those bottles and doused the objects with alcohol ink. The positive thing was that it got me full coverage. I like what it did for the flowers particularly well. But for the "metal" pieces, I was still unimpressed. And it made an unholy mess. Dabbing it on with an applicator didn't work though, because again, the nooks and crannies were all left milk glass white.

I don't have a happy solution to report. But I do think that my best bet is to still stick to basic acrylic paint for the flowers. And for the "metal" object mold, they do sell copper, gold and silver metallic mod mold sticks, and honestly, I think that's going to be my best bet for getting little pieces that actually remind me of metal. I can maybe antique them a bit further with some ink, but the base color will be there.

For reference, I took some photos. The first photo shows the flowers that I did with AI. The second photo has the flowers and clock thing that were painted with acrylics. I do have intentions of playing with this a lot more. I really adore the little molded flowers that I can make, and intend to make lots of them. But I think I might require a larger assortment of acrylic paint. :D
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Keitha
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Re: Mod Molds

Post by Keitha »

These look like fun embellishments. You could try a base paint colour that's similar with the metallic ink overtop for better coverage. As for the alcohol inks, I find using a baggie is a good way to contain the mess when I want to completely coat something, especially if it's got lots of crevices.
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jfugina
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Re: Mod Molds

Post by jfugina »

Keitha - great tip about the baggie! I was thinking that I might rule out AI as an option because of the mess, but clearly I didn't have my logical brain on full power last night. I read about the baggie and thought, "well, duh". I also need to continue playing with acrylic options. I don't have any brown, and I thought that would be the best base coat for copper, so I need to pick some of that up.

There's another mold that has little picture frame looking things, and look a lot like some expensive things I've gotten from kits before. So I'm looking forward to making some of those as well.
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Re: Mod Molds

Post by mpizzazz »

The simplest, cheapest and most available would probably be metallic acrylic paint and then pour on a brown or black glaze (sold in the acrylic paint areas) and let that settle in crevices to add some depth and shadows. Rub it off on the raised areas if you don't want it there.
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Re: Mod Molds

Post by pamcook »

Are they all about the same thickness? How thick? I think they'd be so pretty on cards especially.
Are they durable/pliable? I wonder if they'd make it though the mail system (padded envelope)?
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Re: Mod Molds

Post by jfugina »

Marianne - I have heavy body acrylic paints, but maybe watering something down to get in the crevices would work. I'll need to give that a try.

Pam - thickness varies, for sure. The rose is pretty thick - I'd say 1/2" at the middle where it's tallest. But most of the ones I have, on average, are probably 1/4" thick. And as far as final texture, they're not stiff, like dried resin. They're a bit flexible -kind of like an eraser, if that makes sense. I think they'd definitely survive a trip through the mail if they were in a padded envelope. But, like an eraser, they could break in half if you bent them enough.
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Re: Mod Molds

Post by jfugina »

Back on this again. I just wanted to post another update for anyone who was considering trying to make some of these little molded things.

First - I had an epiphany yesterday. I wondered if UTEE would work any better at filling the fine nooks and crannies than the mod sticks, so I went home and pulled out my melting pot that had never ever ever been used, and found my UTEE and got to work. Results were mixed.

For my flower mold, I'm 100% sold. UTEE is the way to go without question. The caveat is that because the objects are clear-ish, they need a coat of gesso before I can paint them with acrylic paint. I did try a bit of AI, but the objects were still transparent, which wasn't at all what I wanted.

Now, my other mold (gears and keys) was another story. To my surprise, I discovered that along with clear UTEE, I also had a jar of "brass" and a jar of "platinum" UTEE. I was super excited to try the brass in the metal mold. But it was a disaster. I think those UTEEs are thicker, and the molds have thinner grooves with a higher level of detail. I tried thinning the brass with clear UTEE, and that seemed to help a lot, but I got tired of trying before I ever got a really good brass gear. The good news about that though, is that by using UTEE and a melting pot, I'd pop the failed gear out of the mold, and just throw it right back in the melting pot to try again. :-)

So, I'll continue playing with these, but for anyone who has been thinking of trying this, if you already own UTEE and a melting pot, then don't bother getting any of those sticks for your glue gun. The UTEE works lots better, assuming the intent is to paint them anyway.
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