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I bought some medium from a stall at the cake exhitition in Birmingham to make a mould for lace, to match my daughter’s wedding dress. Please can anyone tell me if edible/flexi lace mix would work in this mould? I’d rather have this type of lace as opposed to flower paste which has no give once it sets. It could also look too bulky and uneven if I were unable to achieve a very flat base surface. I’d like to make the mould and lace very soon in preparation for the wedding cake for March.

Many thanks
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Hi bellescakes

It can be done, that’s exactly what I did recently ( September) but it’s tricky. Did you get the two part silicone medium?
If you did, the trick is not to make the lace impression too deep nor too shallow. If the impression is too deep the flexi lace mix will seep too far down and will break once you try to lift it out of the mould. If the impression is too shallow you’ll get poor replication.
Silicon will stick to lace permanently and render it useless. To prevent this happening you’ll need to use a wax seal called seal dits or do as I did and that was to paint the lace with several coatings of children’s non toxic glue (pva) and let it dry. This seals any loose fibres and prevents them and the lace from imbedding into the silicone. The seal also makes the texture and pattern of the lace become stiff and more pronounced so it makes a better impression. Once the lace is sealed, mix together the moulding medium and roll out about the same depth or just slightly deeper than you would sugarpaste, lay the lace on it and press it down in a firm dabbing motion to make the impression. Don’t roll it because the silicone will stretch and distort the pattern. Dab it well but don’t let the silicone push through the pattern. It takes a good few minutes of dabbing to make sure all the pattern is impressed. Let it cure for the given time and release the orginal lace. I can’t promise you that it will work for you. I messed up several pieces of lace before finally getting one good mould. I wasted almost all my medium. The Clair Bowman gold liquid lace worked best in the mould which I made. I spread it on the mould two or three times and let it cure in the oven rather than on the worktop because it wasn’t drying as well as it says in the instructions. I waited until I could see it lifting away before removing. I bought more silicone medium from the Belgium chap at the show, I haven’t tried this one. I used the marvellous mould putty which has only 10 minute cure period which is not enough working time. I wish I had use my silicone plastique, it would have been so much better! Another thing you should be aware of is that the lace must have a definite texture, it doesn’t work on very fine mesh type fabric. Unfortunately this will be a case of try and see what works for you. One good thing is you can reuse the lace as long as you paint it either with the seal dits or with the pva glue. Seal both sides of the lace and let it dry completely overnight on a cake cooling rack or on something which will give it plenty of ventilation. If you don’t have a lot of your daughter’s bridal lace, practice with other similar lace to see how well your moulding works. I bought sample couture lace on ebay. I’ve just been looking for the supplier and can’t find it but I expect it will still be in my purchase history. I’ll let you have the name when I find it. My pieces were really cheap, like 99 pence, I see the same sample pieces now on other sites for £6.00 and over!! You’ve got time on your side for practicing, if I can help in any way let me know. x

Hi madeitwithlove

Sorry not able to reply until now. Thanks so much indeed for all your help and the comprehensive information you have given. I must admit I have been a little dubious about embarking n this lace project. But I won’t know unless I try it out. Your suggestion of experimenting with an off-cut first sounds very sensible as it would be a pity to waste the bridal lace I managed to get. The piece of lace is corded so I understand it would be easier to make a mould of this type of fabric. If you are able to dig out the details of the supplier of your lace on Ebay that would be really helpful thanks.
I have everything I need to make the mould including the putty and in the meantime I will look at Ebay to see if I can get any joy. Many thank for all your help. x

Hi bellscakes

It was very stressful for me too since I had never tried it before. Here is the ebay link
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xlace+applique&_nkw=lace+applique&_sacat=0
There are lots of suppliers, all I did was choose something which resembled the bridal lace I had to do.
To see other suppliers search in ebay ‘applique lace samples’ and select the cheaper corded lace. Your daughter’s wedding dress maker may be able to let you have some spare pieces of lace, it doesn’t matter if it’s not the same pattern, it’s just a piece for practicing. It’s such a shame that I can’t send you the spare pieces I have, they’re just sitting in my work boxes doing nothing!
I can’t emphasise more that the lace must be completely sealed other wise it will become embedded in the silicone and please, please don’t use the real pattern until you feel confident with mould making.
I forgot to mention earlier that once the lace liquid dried I turn the mould upside down and peeled the mould away from the lace. It came off ok on the ones which had three applications of the liquid lace. This seemed to strengthen the pattern for removal. I’m going to practice a little more but with the white liquid and see how that comes out!