Making one’s own chocolate molds from finished objects, as I demonstrated last year (and with the chocolate feet saga), is pretty easy. However, I never quite figured out how to make a not-yet-existing object in chocolate.
In particular, this year I want to make the Weavolution logo to put in candy boxes as a donor/volunteer thank-you. (I am also making an AIDS Lifecycle logo thank-you, but there I have an existing medallion to work from.) The main roadblocks are:
- I want good detail, which is hard to get in a small object;
- I am sculpturally challenged, so creating something in miniature is especially difficult for me.
I considered a variety of techniques, which I won’t elaborate here because it would take too long, and finally thought of using a variant of a technique I used back in college, when we used photo-gel and laser-printed transparencies to create silkscreens. So I did some web searches, and came up with this very useful site. This technique transfers the laser-printed image to a thin sheet of photopolymer “rubber” – essentially, a 1/16″ deep rubber stamp made from a laser-printed image. At first it looked like I would have to buy a big pile of equipment in order to try out the technique – which I am not willing to do (yet) since I don’t know if the photopolymer plates will print thick enough to show up in chocolate – but it appears that you can also expose it using the sun, which is what we used to do with our photogel silkscreens in college. So I will buy some laser transparency sheets, create some sort of graphic in Photoshop, and try out this technique. I will probably order 5 or 6 of the photopolymer plates and do some experimentation. I have (don’t I always?) some interesting ideas about creating lettering and texture.
I am also contemplating what flavors to put into this year’s boxes. twenty-one of them are nailed down (my “classic” flavors), but that leaves eight or nine additional items to go. So I will be doing some experimentation over the next few weeks. Top on my list to try are saffron-honey and some things with licorice root (which I personally prefer to anise), but also peanut butter and other tasties. More on that later.
On Su Butler’s suggestion, I have switched to a live-tension warp and am getting MUCH better tension. I will probably put on slightly heavier weights tonight and try weaving to see if that unsticks things. If so, I’ll start weaving the red-orange-yellow shawl. That will give me something to do while the photopolymer plates arrive.
I saw your article about using photopolymer to make chocolate molds. I have a website called The Chocolate Mold Factory that provides free instructions for people who want to make their own custom chocolate molds. One of the techniques I used to get logos and graphics into was photopolymer plates. Another way is to have magnesium plates made, which can be done quickly and without too much expense.
As far as using photopolymer, the relief height you need for chocolate will depend on the graphic you want to mold and the type of mold you want to make. For example, if you want to make a silicone mold, you don’t need the print to be as high. However, if you are trying to make a thermoformed (vacuum formed) mold you will need it to be a bit higher.
If you go to my webiste there are alot of different articles about making molds and different model making methods.