I learned how to make my first rubber mold in class which more or less followed the process described here. There were a few slight differences; The silicon rubber I used was heated to 305degF for 49 minutes (seven minutes per layer), and instead of using a mold cutting frame I just had the scalpel and hook. We were also taught to cut the two halves apart with an uneven edge to ensure a better fit when the two halves were put back together - sort of like keying the two sides.
The best part about the rubber mold is that it picked up the thin jump rings I soldered on which hopefully means for my next swan pendant casting I won't have to solder new ones. It had been tricky soldering the jump rings to the pendant without melting them since the pendant has so much more thermal mass and took longer to heat up.
Last night I also soldered a thin piece of wire into a tiny hole in the pendant that was drilled with a 0.8mm bur. The pearl I'm going to add is 6mm in diameter and fits nicely onto the pin. I'll need to pick up some glue to secure it in place and then the only thing left is to attach a string of pearls or silver chain.
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