Silicone Mold Making, Paper Mâché, an Abstract Painting

    I made this mold last night of a flower from one of my hair barrettes. I wanted only the flower in the center, and so far it looks pretty good, but the mold itself is still curing. I'm not sure how long it will take to cure. I used GE 100% Silicone ii*, cornstarch, a little baby oil, and a few drops of red acrylic paint. As I was researching online last night to refresh my memory and find useful tips prior to creating my mold, I kept reading "don't use silicone ii, it won't work, etc" I'm not sure if I used silicone i or ii on previous molds, but no matter, I decided to forge ahead with the silicone ii. I did skim across something that made me hopeful: using silicone ii will still work, but it will take longer to cure, and the mold will be more flexible (which is good). 

    Here is the original, and the mold I made from it:

After mixing my ingredients to create a putty that was no longer sticky, I rolled it into a ball and pressed the flower face down into my mold putty. A few hours later I removed the item, and you can see the detail of the rose in the silicone mold. It looks nice, but it's still not ready. I should be able to bend it without breaking it once it is ready. I'm gently handling it every now and then to see how it's coming along, but I made the mold at around 11 last night so it hasn't even been 24 hours yet. Hopefully it will cure like it should and I can start casting my resin. I will be making more molds throughout the day with the remainder of the tube because it's either going to work with the silicone ii, or it's not. 

    I'm also working on some paper mâché wall decor projects today...

The blue bird is almost done, the bow is barely just begun, and everything else needs a few more layers of paper mâché. 

    Here's my most recent painting. It's an abstract. I started a new one last night, but I'm not sharing it until I'm done or ready to share my progress. Here's the one you can see: