Experimenting with Mix2Mold
If you’ve read my first post about Mix2Mold, you know that while I saw a lot of potential in the product, I also struggled with it a little bit. I wasn’t about to give up, though, and so I did a lot of research. Mix2Mold is so new that there isn’t a lot of info out there about it yet, but I did find a couple of videos that gave me hope. Hope turned into more experimenting, and now I’m excited all over again!
My first takeaway from the videos I watched was that the white Mix2Mold might be easier to work with. When I first shopped for it, I could only find the colored bags, so that’s how I ended up with blue and green.
My second takeaway was that I needed to mix with a whisk. While I use craft sticks to mix just about everything, I needed a whisk for this to avoid lumps.
Fortunately, it all seems much easier to find these days, and I also had a Michaels gift card burning a hole in my pocket. I decided to go all in and buy the five-pound bucket of white Mix2Mold (it really is a much better value) and the tool set.
Spoiler alert: I have no regrets.
What did I use to color the Mix2Mold?
Let’s start with Unicorn Spit. So far I’ve had mixed results with this. When I removed the first pieces from their molds, I was incredibly impressed. The bigger dish (maybe technically an ashtray?) is practically perfect. These colors are incredible, and it is SO smooth.
When I looked a little closer, I noticed teeny tiny bubbles in the heart dish. The colors are beautiful, but there are bubbles.
As for the snail, well, that pour was a little more complicated because we had to mix three different batches (I think the equivalent of two XL plus one L mold) to fill it. Each batch was colored a little differently, and I didn’t really put much effort into making sure the mixture was making it down into all parts of the mold. That is totally on me. So when I saw a few bubbles in this piece, I wasn’t too surprised. The inside is perfectly smooth, so it’ll make a great planter. We’ll see what happens next time!
The next day, I attempted two candle jars and a plant pot. One of the candle jars came out just about perfectly. The others have some weird little bubbles (I guess?) in them. I watched one form on the bottom of one of the jars as it was curing.
I also made this little dish, which turned out beautifully.
All of the hearts are very smooth and unblemished, but the colors are super muted because I poured the hearts last. Here are a few of them:
As usual, I probably went overboard on the color with the Unicorn Spit. But when it works, it is AWESOME!! It reminds me a lot of paint pouring. I didn’t want to mix it too much so that I wouldn’t muddy the colors too much, so the colors on the bottom of the mixture were a lot more muted. I still think it looks really cool.
My GUESS is that I either used too much of the Unicorn Spit, or there was some kind of chemical reaction, and that’s what created the bubbles/holes. I don’t know why some pieces would come out perfectly, though. If I figure it out for sure, I will report back.
I didn’t stop with the Unicorn Spit, though. I also brought out my chameleon mica powder! Oh. My. Goodness. As soon as I de-molded these, I opened the Michaels app and ordered another 5lb bucket of Mix2Mold.
Seriously, this stuff is absolutely gorgeous. I can’t get enough of the color shifting. To get this effect, the first thing I did was brush the mica powder onto the inside of the molds. It takes very little to get good coverage. Then I mixed a batch of Mix2Mold with black RIT dye and stopped when I got a fairly dark gray color. I was afraid of adding too much RIT, so I didn’t try to go darker, but I don’t think it made a difference anyway. I poured the mixture, waited an hour, and voila! I do think these will need to be coated with the gloss sealer, so that’s next.
Here’s an idea of what it could look like if you swirled some mica powder into the black/gray mixture. This was sort of an afterthought, so I’ll explore this idea more later.
Updated Mix2Mold thoughts
Right away I noticed that the working time was longer than it was with the colored powder. Not as long as the twenty minutes I saw advertised, but definitely longer. That by itself made the whole process a lot less stressful! I was able to fill the little heart mold, the bigger dish, and a bunch of hearts before it started hardening too much to be workable. I suspect that once you add any colorant to the mixture, the clock speeds up a bit. Except for the RIT dye. I had so much time that I was worried it wasn’t going to cure at all.
Also, despite the bubbles I showed, there are still far fewer bubbles in the final pieces. Seriously, most everything came out so smooth. Much different from the blue and green pieces I made before. I think some of that has a lot to do with the longer working time.
To recap, here are a few things I learned this time around.
White Mix2Mold, in my opinion, is the way to go. If you can find a way to color it that makes you happy, you can make it whatever color you want. For me, the white actually gave me the time and opportunity to experiment that I didn’t have with the colored powder.
Mixing with a whisk makes a huge difference! I couldn’t believe how much easier it was to get a smooth consistency with a whisk vs. a craft stick.
Unicorn Spit works well to color the Mix2Mold, but maybe don’t use too much of it? Still testing this.
Chameleon mica powder is AMAZING.
Adding the powder to the water made it easier for me to mix, particularly if I was mixing an XL batch.
Overall, I am thrilled! I still have some experimenting to do, and I’m excited to do so. My kids have gotten into it, and it’s fun to hear their ideas.
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Here’s everything I’ve used so far
- As I said, I have not used the gloss sealer yet, but I will be very soon.
A few things I still want to try…
Glitter. Why not?! I might start with sprinkling it in the mold before I pour the Mix2Mold just to see what happens. It seems like it would be a waste to mix it in.
Mica powder. I just want to see if this works as a good colorant.
Alcohol ink. I already have a ridiculous number of colors, so why not see what it does?
Gloss sealer. It gets good reviews, but I will be using a foam brush to apply instead of the brush that comes in the box.
The next thing I’m going to invest in (in addition to another 5lb bucket) is a large silicone measuring bowl. Something that is easy to clean but can handle a larger volume of Mix2Mold. There are all kinds of molds I want to try, too!
Have you tried Mix2Mold yet? What do you think? Follow me on Instagram to see what else I do with it. I’m excited to keep experimenting!
Happy crafting!
