Sometimes it’s just fun to play around and create for the pure joy of it — case in point this little concrete pear. When our blog was MIA a few weeks ago, I went into a total downer. And when this girl gets down, she goes shopping for food. Does anyone else do that? So while walking around our local store, I spied a plump, little green pear with the cutest butt ever. Weird, I know. If I’m not feeling up tin cans to make a washing board, I’m checking out the butts on pears 😀 Anyways she came home with me and rather than chopping her up for a fruit salad, I decided to make a “two ingredient” mold, and immortalize her as a paper weight instead.
Kinda cute right?!!! She’s been drizzled with a rich copper paint sauce. If I ever master the art of cooking I’d love to make a baked pear dish with a drizzle of sauce. It looks like something that could be served in a 5-star restaurant. Okay, maybe not 😉 So since the only recipes I know how to follow are those that involve a strange mix of ingredients, let me share how to make a silicone mould or mold, using only two ingredients that can be used to cast almost anything.
But, before we get to the tutorial, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and hit that subscribe button below, so you never miss a post.
Right, let’s get to the tutorial. It’s easy, fun, and will open up sooooooo many new crafting possibilities.
Two Ingredient Casting Mold
- Silicone – the cheap stuff that smells like vinegar works best
- Maizena or cornstarch
If you can’t find cornstarch or you’re allergic, you can use tapioca starch or rice flour.
The Other Stuff
- Whatever you want to mold. I used my shapely pear 😉
- Plastic knife for mixing
- Mixing container
- Caulking gun
- Sharp knife
- Super Glue
- Gloves
How to Make a 2-Ingredient Silicone Mold
Prepping the Form for Molding
Wash and dry the pear, or whatever you decide to cast. Since I’ll be filling the mold with concrete once it’s dry, I stuck a pen lid into the bottom of the pear. It helps keep the pear upright while the mold sets and will leave a hole that’s the right size for pouring in the concrete mix later.
See what I mean about the cute pear butt 😉 I stuck the pen lid into a bit of polystyrene before mixing up the mold. It’s a trick I learned when painting polystyrene balls.
Mixing the Two Ingredient Mold
Put your gloves on and throw some cornstarch into a container. Cut the tip of the silicone tube off and put it inside the caulking gun. Squeeze silicone into the cornstarch. Roughly the same amount. Then add some more cornstarch on top of the silicone and mix. If you’re using your hands, wear gloves. Things get very sticky. You can also mix the two ingredients in a plastic bag to limit the mess. Oh, and it’s probably best to do this outside. Cheap silicone has an incredibly strong vinegary smell.
When it looks like it’s almost mixed, start kneading the mixture until it forms a stiff paste that resembles playdough. If the mixture is too tacky or sticky, add some more cornstarch. If it’s too dry and flaky, like in the piccy below, add more silicone.
Molding an Object
Once it’s ready, flatten it out a bit and wrap it around the shape you want to cast. About 7 to 10 mm thick is perfect. That’s about 1/4” to 3/8”. Make sure you squish it into all the nooks and crannies.
Sit back and wait for it to dry, probably about ½ hour depending on the silicone you used. Use a sharp knife to cut the mold and remove your form.
The two ingredient mold is very pliable so you can just peel it off. If you’re molding a pear, please don’t eat it. Rather wash it off again and add it to the compost heap.
The mold captures details beautifully and depending on how thick it was applied holds its shape really well.
Use super glue and carefully glue the two halves back together again, and it’s ready for casting.
Casting the two ingredient mold
You can either use concrete or plaster of Paris. I didn’t have to add any kind of release agent, I simply mixed up some concrete and poured it inside the mold. Just make sure you shake it around a little to get rid of any air bubbles. Once the concrete sets, carefully cut along the seam lines and remove your form.
This easy two ingredient mold can be reused over and over again, just wash it off, and you’re good to go.
To finish the pear off, I used some copper paint to create that 5-star restaurant look and added a bent, rusty nail as a stalk. The leaf is a piece of metal that had been lying outside in the rain for a few months.
A little bit of rust always works for me.
Don’t you just love that combination of concrete, copper, and rust?
Just a word of warning. Once you make your first mold, everything looks moldable 😀 We’ve turned an old broken doll into a garden ornament, transformed a bell pepper into an colorful jewel, and even created our own Egyptian cartouche using the two-ingredient mold. And since the mold is silicone-based you can use it to make candles too. Even teeny, tiny ones.
And if you like the idea of making your own silicone mold, don’t forget to save it to Pinterest so that you can find it again!
Let me know what you think. What would you mold?
Oh and if you don’t want to go to all that trouble and find some of the materials we used, we’ve got you covered. Disclosure: If you click on the links below, we may receive a commission from Amazon. But don’t worry it won’t come out of your pocket, and it helps us come up with more unique DIY and craft tutorials to share with you 😉
Or if you prefer to buy rather than DIY then perhaps these beauties will appeal.
And as always hope you have a wonderful week, filled with love and lots of interesting new finds. Thank you for popping in for a visit.
Last update on 2026-08-16 / Source Amazon Affiliates
200 comments
Hi, this looks like fun.
Just one question, to be sure that I understand.
When you take the mold off the concrete pear, the concrete still looks wet?
Should it be wet? or half-dry? Is it the same if you use it for cast?
That was just over-eagerness on my side. I couldn’t wait to see what my concrete pear looked like. Ideally the concrete should be set.
I want to try and make a mold of a finial for the full size bed I bought. It’s missing just one of the four finials. They measure 5 inches at the base and are 7 inches tall. Can’t you help me figure out how much silicone and cornstarch I’ll need. Also would I just squeeze it around one of the finials and guess if it’s think enough, or just go a little thicker on purpose?
The pear mold used about 1/2 tube, and if memory serves me correctly, she was about 5″ tall (not sure how wide though), so I would get two tubes of silicone since the finials are quite big. I would also go thicker so the walls of the mold can support whatever you’ll be using to make the finials. Hope that helps.
I have a question for you, so I want to make a mold out of a vintage, papier-mâché doll. What can I use to protect the doll from any damage when I make the mold? Also, do you know if I can press paper clay inside the mold, and how long to let it cure for if that would work? It needs to be hollow inside. Thanks for this post and any suggestions!
I can answer your second question; yes you can press paper clay inside the mold, but you may find that the paper mâché doesn’t pick up all the little details like hair or wrinkles (I’m not sure how big your vintage doll is). WRT the first question, I’m not sure. I’ve never tried using the mold over paper mâché. I have made a clay mold form and then paper mâchéd over that to create multiple copies. If the mâché has some kind of protective coat over it, like varnished you should be okay. Could you make a dummy mâché shape and test it out first?
wrap it with plastic wrap/tinfoil first.
What do you use as a release agent for things that can get stuck in it ? Because I have tried this and then I could not get it off of the skull head I bought that I wanted to make more of . Now my skull is ruined because I can’t get all the stuff off of it .
Oh no, Angel, I’m sorry to hear that. If your mold doesn’t release it’s usually because it’s too sticky/tacky and you need to add more cornstarch. I’ve never used a release agent, but I have heard you can brush on a mix of petroleum jelly and mineral spirits. To remove the leftover stuff you can try rubbing alcohol or silicone remover. Test it on a small spot first to check that it doesn’t damage your skull further (I’m not sure what it’s made from).
Hi, thanx for the tutorial. Does this also work for making cake moulds? If I use marzipan, is it still edible with the mold made of this type of silicone? Thanks
Hey Katya, unless you use the 100% food-grade silicone, I wouldn’t use the mold for baking or cooking.
Fascinating post! I caulked my porch last fall with a silicone caulk. I looked at it yesterday and it looks great. I want to try some of what you are doing. You are very creative. Thank you for sharing.
You are most welcome, Cindy. Enjoy playing around with this 2 ingredient mold recipe and thanks so much for leaving a comment. They always make my day.
I had to let you know your recipe worked like charm. I was worried in the beginning because it sounds to easy. THANK YOU. I made a mold of a beautiful small bottle and I was surprised at the detail. Really appreciate you sharing your knowledge with everyone.
You are so welcome, Mrs M. And thank you for coming back to let me know.
Clever idea! Never thought about using these ingredients.
Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome Kristen. Have fun playing
Can’t wait to do this. I will let you know how I go. Fingers crossed
I’d love that, Hellyn
Hi. I’ve just come across your info. It’s great. Love the mold idea and your other crafts.
Just a suggestion…would be great if you had a printable version, that could be filed and kept for future reference. ☺️. That way you don’t get all the bits not needed to be printed.
Oh right, kinda like the recipes that you can save. I’ll do some investigations and see if there’s something I can use for crafts. Thanks so much, Andrea.
I save all my craft and diy “recipes” to an app called Recipe Keeper (I know it’s in Google Play Store for Android; not sure about the iPhone app store).
You can even make “cookbooks” of the specific “recipes” and save them as pdfs or print them. Each recipe can be organized into categories so you don’t have to worry about crafts getting mixed up with actual food recipes.
Usually if the instructions are organized like a recipe, all you do is share the page to Recipe Keeper and it does the rest. It even grabs a photo.
Often as not I just manually copy the craft instructions and structure them the way I like them. I find it’s a great way for my aDHD brain to absorb the details of the craft.
That’s a brilliant idea, Fern. Thanks so much. I struggle to keep things organized too and this will be a great help.
When my grandkids were babies, we molded their little hands. They are one of my precious possessions, especially now that the youngest is 21 years old! We used alginate because we knew it wouldn’t be harmful to baby skin and plaster of Paris to make the project. You can get alginate here: https://www.amazon.com/Alja-Safe-Lifecasting-Alginate-3-lb-Box/dp/B000KVSU60
I fell in love with molding things and now that I’m retired, I have so many ideas I want to try. Your tutorial and mold recipe seem to be just perfect for my intended projects. Thank you for sharing, and for the wonderful way you explained how to do it complete with helpful photos. I can’t wait to give this a try!
You’re so welcome, Sarah. I’ve never tried the alginate version before but I’ll keep it in mind when my kids make me an Ouma. And I get you with falling in love with molding stuff. After making your first mold, everything seems moldable 😀
On the pear (materials used) the silicone is listed at $64.99 that may be what a case costs but the tube alone can cost anywhere from $1.99 to $4.99 or under $6 for the expensive one. just pointing that out for people who have never purchased silicone before so they don’t shy away from trying this. I loved the pear & the mold ideas are wonderful for so many things.
Thank you soooooo much for pointing out that the Amazon link was for a case of silicone not one tube, Melody ❤ I’ve updated the link with a cheaper version. When it comes to making the mold the cheap silicone is the best.
Where is this Amazon link for silicone?
Oops, sorry. I’ve updated the link. You should be able to find cheap silicone at any hardware store if you don’t come right.
Hi there! I made a mold and cast a figure using your instructions above – thanks so much for sharing. I used plaster of Paris instead of cement. Do you know how I should paint it? Do I need to use a primer then acrylic paint? Thanks 🙂
Hey Cheryl, plaster of Paris is quite thirsty so I would apply either gesso or a primer first, before painting. 😀
It nay be a bit late, (5 years too late!), to reply to this, but you can add a water based paint to your plaster of paris as you mix it, if you’re going for a That way, if a bit gets chipped, the model remains the same colour and doesn’t show a glaring white. I do this when making dioramas. Or if you’re actually painting your item, it could act as an undercoat and for the same reason.
That’s a great tip, Geggy. Thank you.
Will this work for resin??
It will, yes 😀
I loved this tutorial etc.! The 2 item mold was also great and things I do have ( which is great)! THANK YOU so much for this! It’s just what I’ve been searching for! Namaste
So happy you found it useful, Ruth. Have making making molds
mitä käyttäisit vapautus aineena,kun valaa hartia?
Hi Raku, for the pear I didn’t use a release agent, but the cornflour in the mixture does make it easier to demold. You can also thin down some Vaseline (petroleum jelly) with mineral spirits and brush it on whatever you’re molding.
Cant wait to try it out…and do beautifully written! I’ll be looking a pear butts now!!! ??
You’re going to have so much fun, Amber and I hope you find a beautiful pear butt 😀
Hi! Can I cast silver with this?
Oh gosh, Max. I wish I could give you a definite answer. We’ve never tried casting silver, but what I do know is that silicone handles heat really well. Maybe mix up a small batch and test it out? I would love to know if it does work.
Thanks for the great tutorial. Is it possible to use a previously cast object (ie, one that can’t be cut in half) and take the silicone mould apart without slicing through the object?
Of course yes 😀 You can use a craft knife to slice the mold off. Depending on what your cast object is made of I would make a shallow cut all the way around and then gently pry the mold off.
I am so appreciative of your tutorial! Do you think this would work to mold names that are thinly written into the concrete floor of my parents barn? My Parents are having to sell their property after 43 years. The names I want a cast of were scratched into the wet concrete of all of us kids probably 35+ years ago. I have one shot at getting a copy of these names molded and casted into something that is frame worthy or shadow box worthy as a forever memento for myself and siblings. I have to be able to create at least the mold in one morning/afternoon. Do you think this method would work? Any tips to making the mold, and not have the words turn out backwards when I cast it into the permanent structure. My common sense over thinking brain is telling me the names will turn out backwards?
That’s a wonderful idea Mandy and yes it will work. We used the mold to make an Egyptian cartouche, https://acraftymix.com/blog/make-egyptian-cartouche-diy/. The hieroglyphs were all cut from craft foam which is pretty thin and the mold picked up all the details. If you want to make doubly sure you can do it in a small space of time, mix up a small batch at home and stick it on a concrete slab or brick wall. The mold sets really quickly, so that shouldn’t be a problem, but I suspect you may have to put a very thin layer of petroleum jelly (Vaseline) on the lettering so that the mold releases easier. Don’t worry about the letters coming out backward. The mold will be in reverse, but once you cast concrete or plaster of Paris inside the mold, the finished piece will be the right way around. Have fun and please share your amazing creation once it’s done. I really think it’s going to be so special.