ImPRESSive Reusable Molding Putty (www.impressiveputty.com) allows you to make molds of many objects just by pressing the object into the putty or pressing the putty over the object. One of the questions we’ve been asked is what can you mold with each size of the ImPRESSive Putties. . This sounds like such a simple question to answer, but the math is a little tiresome, so I’m going to show you examples as we discuss the math.

First the math:

The ImPRESSive Putty has a density of about 1.6 grams/cubic centimeter or 0.9 oz./cubic inch. And in most cases you want to keep at least a quarter of an inch thickness as a good rule of thumb. Larger molds may require thicker walls to provide more stability.

• 1.5 oz. covers about 6.5 square inches of surface.
• 6 oz. covers about 26 square inches of surface
• 1 pound covers about 65 square inches.

Now the example with a video using the Food Contact Safe ImPRESSive Putty.

We have 4 different sizes of ImPRESSive Putty, a 1 pound size 450 grams, a 6 oz size or 170 grams, and a 1.5 oz trial size, 73 grams. We also have a 5 pounder or 2.2 kg size for even larger molds or more molds. It comes in a box. The 5 pounds of mold making putty is well suited for larger in-situ mold making opportunities such as a statue or part from a building.

So for the 1.5 oz size you can cover 6.5 square inches of a part. If your part was a simple cube, like a building block, you could cover 5 of the 6 sides. As our first example, here’s a simple building block made into chocolate. Of course, most shapes are not exact cubes so you’ll probably be doing more fancy shapes, which means calculating the surface area becomes a bit more difficult.

Think of the 1.5 oz size as a trial size for keys, buttons, coins, etc. You can actually do quite a few tiny molds for buttons with the 1.5 oz size. We also made a Mickey Mouse hand with the same ImPRESSive Putty. To melt with placed the putty into the microwave for 14 seconds. Let it cool before handling as it will be a bit hot to touch and manipulate.

The 6 oz. ImPRESSive Putty is 4 times as much as the 1.5 oz. so you can cover 26 square inches (168 square centimeters) or a cube with 2 inch sides. This turns out to be pretty close to the dimensions of a this cute little salt shaker, which is about 2 x 2 x 3 inches in dimensions.

Here we are cutting down the side of the mold to make it easier to pull out the shape and then we pour in melted white chocolate. To melt the 6 oz. size place it in the microwave for about 45 seconds for most microwaves. Less time if you’re at higher altitudes such as Leadville Colorado. Let the Putty cool a little before handling because it will be hot.

Little People figurine. Here we make a two part mold. Mold 1/2, chill this in the freezer, then press the other half. We then pushed in fondant.

For the 1 pound size This toy train engine is 6 x 3 x 2 ½ inches in dimensions. Because it’s not a complete box shape, I am pushing the limits of what you can do with the 1 pound size, but we squeezed it out by making the mold a little thin in some spots. I actually had to re-melt a spot or two to fill in a hole that had formed on the outside. I also cut down the side to make it easier to get the chocolate out.