Thread: Playdough Molds

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Digging around tonight (looking for some vampire fangs I stored away) I rediscovered a pacakge of playdough that I had bought awhile back at Walmart for $1-$2. I remember buying it to experiment with making molds. I opened 1 can of it (blue, but color doesn't matter for this) and a package of funny teeth, also from Walmart. I kneaded the playdough and then rolled it in a cylinder and flattened one side of it. I pressed the funny teeth into the playdough and carefully removed it. I grabbed my trusty hot glue gun and immediately filled the impression. After a few minutes I peeled open the playdough mold and removed the teeth. They are exact duplicates! All they need is some paint and I can glue them into my paper amche skulls. I plan on doing this with my vampire fangs (which are still tucked away somewhere).

As a second experiment, I re-rolled the playdough and pressed the back of my index finger into it. After filling with hot glue and waiting a few minutes, I was able to pull the finer cast free of the playdough and saw another great duplicate. The only problem is that the playdough sticks to the hot glue a little and it can be a pain to remove. It comes off with some rubbing of the thumb lol. Right now I am waiting for the little pieces of playdough to dry and they should fall right off. You'll see what I mean by this if you try it out. This process is really easy and has fantastic results

Hey, that's great--cheap and easy! Thanks for posting your discovery.

I'm wondering if you oiled or soaped the object that you stick into the play dough and then add the hot glue if that might help it from sticking.

MsM

I'd like to see a picture of the finger! Wait... that just sounds wrong.

Pennywise had me cracking up with the line: "I was able to pull the finger (cast)."

Great idea! I'll have to try that one out for teeth!

Eric

LOL! Unfortunately, my camera is dead and I can't afford a new one right now. Hopefully I can get it fixed.

Nice idea, good innovation there. If the hot glue sticks to the mold, you need a releasing agent. Try spraying a little WD-40 into the inner surface of the mold before applying the glue. This will prevent it from bonding.

Very little play-doh sticks to the glue. A lot of it rubs off, but some in the crevices between teeth are a bit of a pain to get off. I did some vampire fangs this morning and glued them into a paper mache skull I made. I am going to paint them later on and see if the play-doh interferes with anything.

I know this is weird, but I love the smell of Play-Dough! Thanks, Pennywise, your tut gives me an excuse to go buy some and try molding some teeth.

LOL Skulkin. Play-doh does have a decent smell. I also used a skull that had teeth and pressed them into the play-doh. Works great! Even painted them and you can't see any play-doh on them. I used white spray paint. They can be detailed with tiny artist brushes, but for my purposes that won't be necessary as no one with be that close to the vampire that will be wearing them. I wish my camera hadn't died, I'd upload pics.