Latex: Moulding with natural rubber

Latex is a natural material that reacts to light and heat

When latex milk or latex paste dries in the air, not only the consistency but also the colour of the material changes. When dried, uncoloured latex takes on a yellowish-reddish-brownish hue reminiscent of skin. Latex moulds shrink by up to 10% when drying - you should definitely take this into account when planning your project.

As latex is a natural material, it continues to react with light and heat even after drying. If latex is exposed to UV radiation, the colour becomes darker and darker, heat sooner or later makes the material porous – moulds and objects also smell intensely of rubber when warm.

Processing latex

Latex milk can be applied with a brush, latex paste can be applied with a spatula. Smaller objects are easy to dip – this gives you very thin and fine layers of latex. Depending on the type of object, you can also mould the latex to obtain an elastic shape.

To make a mould, apply the latex in several layers. The number and thickness of the layers depends on what you want to make.

As latex milk is preserved with ammonia, a sometimes intense ammonia odour develops during processing. Therefore, only work in well-ventilated rooms or wear a breathing mask .

To prevent the latex mould from sticking when removing it from the model, we recommend rubbing it thinly with talcum powder. This way, the mould can also be stored without any problems.

From latex milk to latex paste with latex thickener

If the latex milk is too liquid for you to work with, you can make a kind of paste from the milk using latex thickener. To do this, add 1 % to 5 % thickener as required, stir quickly to create a uniform mass and process the latex paste immediately. This also allows you to smooth the latex and apply thicker layers.

Latex colouring with pigments

pigments can be used to colour latex very well. We recommend that you always test this first to get the right consistency of the mass and to see how the colour changes during the drying process. This is the only way to achieve the desired result.

Moulding the human body with latex

Latex can also be used to mould the human body, for which it is recommended to use latex without or with only a very low ammonia content. Please note that some people have an allergic reaction to latex. The body parts you want to mould should be pretreated with Vaseline, for example, or covered with foil and, if necessary, be free of hair, as otherwise it can be painful.