I've been experimenting with different ways of making latex parts for a fursuit... I have some paws to finish as a commission and I wanted to make some latex pawpads, but I had left my plaster of paris at home, along with my already made plaster pawpad molds. But I have a big box of Super Sculpey firm, so I tried making a mold with that, and what do you know, it worked!



Here's what I started with. The Sculpey (Normal Super Sculpey should work too, can't image why it wouldn't) I formed with my fingers into a hollowed out pawpad shape. I pressed some rough texture into it with a scrap of buckram. Looking back, it probably would have been easier to start out with a positive of the mold, but oh well.


So I baked the negative mold with my trusty heat gun (I don't reccommend baking Sculpey in an oven that you prepare food in... toxic stuff can accumulate in the oven over time). I then pressed some soft Sculpey into the mold and pulled up the positive you see on the right. You will probably want to start with the positive instead of doing it the kind of convoluted way I did.


I baked the positive and that became a "stamp" with which I made the rest of the pawpad molds. Cured the Sculpey and put aside my positive for later.


Then I poured my latex into the hollow molds. It really really helps to put the latex in RIGHT after baking the clay... when the Sculpey is warm, the latex will dry faster. I put these aside for about a day and a half to dry. Afterwards, I saw that the latex had settled down into the molds and needed to be filled more, so I poured in a bit more. Also, lol @ naked lady on latex jar.


After a very gentle poking after another day, I found the pawpads dry enough to pull from their molds. Success! Comes out easy and looks great.


Now you can trim the edges and attach them to your paws. Yay!

Hope this has proven helpful. :)
I rather like this method more than the plaster... plaster is such a mess and it degrades with every single casting. The sculpey looks like it's going to hold up a lot better over time.