For my project I did not realize that I needed to make the actual repetition part this week. So I have just the mold. Anyway I chose to do the silicone, corn starch, and food coloring method. This is what my best mold turned out in the end. I made a few more but none of them turned out good. It was very difficult to work with the silicone and corn starch, and even on this best mold I used a little too much corn starch so it ended up drying and cracking when I was pressing the shell in to make the impression. Although it was not the best I still think that the silicone picked up the detail of the shell really well, I just wish that the mold was not so cracked.

For the process I had two plastic cups and I put food coloring in one and the corn starch in the other and put the silicone in with the food coloring and mixed it up with a old ceramic knife. After the silicone was mixed I put it in the cup of corn starch and tried to mix the corn starch in as best as I could until I got the texture I wanted to which then I pressed a shell in to get the mold.

I have always loved being around water, I have been a competitive swimmer all my life and have just always been drawn to it and everything about it. I love all of the animals and life that make a home in water. There is just something so mysterious about ocean life to me, not even scientists have discovered it all. I have collected shells ever since I was a little girl and this shell that I used for this project was a shell that I found in Italy.

I learned a lot during the process. It was interesting to see how quickly the silicone dried up during the process. I had to figure out how much time I had to actually work with it which was a little stressful because it dries out very fast.