First thank you to Cake Central's forum boards that got me started, and I modified them to come up with this method that worked for me. My apologies to all you true sugar artists! This was my first attempt at sugar work, so these may not be perfect instructions, but at least I know they worked for me.
The total process of making the molds and the bottles took me three days so keep that in mind when planning out your time.
Instructions for Sugar Beer Bottles
Remove label and wash the bottle you want to mold, fit a cork wrapped in plastic into the top so that it is even and flat with the top of the bottle. You may have to cut the cork to size first, then wrap in plastic and insert into the top of the bottle. If you do not use the plastic you may get bits of cork in the top of your mold. This will not harm your mold.
Place your bottles on wax paper and using Rubber Latex (I found this at Michael's) paint several coats over the entire bottle (except the bottom of course), letting it dry in between coats. Extend your coats down to 1in onto the wax paper. It is best to let it sit over night after the final coat. It took me 15 coats to get a good mold. The latex dries clear so you want to put enough layers on so that you can no longer see the bottle.
Once it has dried completely, coat the outside of the mold with baby powder so it does not stick to its self and begin lifting the mold from around the bottom of the bottle, loosening it all the way around.
Roll the mold off the bottle. To roll the mold completely off the bottle it will most likely turn inside out. Simply use a mixing spoon to push it right side out. As the mold cures more over time it will stop sticking to itself and you wont need the baby powder anymore.
This part was in the directions but I skipped it and just used a heat resistant cup. Here are the real directions in case you would like to try it: Using any kind of modeling clay, make a half bottle mold using the same bottle, this will be the support for your latex mold. If the mold tilts the top of the bottle downwards at bit this helps.
Rest the latex mold in the clay mold or heat resistant cup and then prepare your sugar.
Mix ½ cup sugar and ½ light corn syrup in a two cup glass measuring cup and place in microwave. Microwave the mixture for 6 minutes at 50%. then micro at full power for another 2-3 minutes, depending on how dark you want your bottle. It will continue to darken a bit once you remove it from the microwave.
Carefully pour the mixture into the mold a little at a time, rotating the latex mold slowly to evenly coat the mold, letting it rest in the cup to keep it’s shape. The latex will be hot to the touch, so gloves or potholders are needed. Once you have coated the mold, continue to pour the sugar into the mold and continue to rotate until you have used all the sugar and it starts to set. If you stop turning too soon all the sugar will slowly fall to the bottom (or top of the bottle) and it will take a while to dry. I continued to turn for about 15 min after all of the sugar was in the mold.
Once the sugar has cooled, remove the mold from the sugar bottle the same way you did from the real bottle, loosen the bottom, and roll the mold off the bottle. When you get to the neck give it a gentle tug and it will come free.
I hope these make sense and at least point some of you in the right direction to start making your own bottles.
do u do just 15 coats bcoz i been paintng mine alday from 10am to 9pm now and it still doesnt look like it is thick enough? how long did it take you? n how do you keep the bottm inch equal coz my bottle is stil not conectng to the bottom
ReplyDeleteCan u just fill a shallow pan with the latex rubber and dip the bottle in?
ReplyDeleteHow did you store the bottle without it becoming sticky?
ReplyDeleteDo you spray the mould before pouring the sugar glass in. I tried this tutorial and found it very hard to get the sugar glass bottle out of the latex mould
ReplyDelete