Jelly wax is unforgiving. Because it cures transparent, every flaw in the mold cavity shows up in the finished candle — a stray bubble, a faint tool mark, an uneven surface. With opaque waxes you can hide a lot. With jelly wax you can hide nothing.
This is a walkthrough of a crystal cluster mold we produced for a client project, from 3D printed master pattern through to demolding.
Why was Shore A 15 silicone used for this jelly wax mold?
This project used Shore A 15 platinum-cure silicone for a relatively simple crystal cluster model intended for jelly wax candles. The hardness was selected for this model and its demolding requirements; it is not a general specification for every crystal cluster shape.
Model geometry and mold flexibility. The silicone needs to flex enough to release the master pattern. Shore A 15 was the grade used for this project.
Surface detail. Marks or trapped bubbles at the mold surface can be visible in transparent jelly wax castings, so care is needed during mold making.
Step 1 — 3D printed master pattern and mold housing
The master pattern is 3D printed in-house, along with a rigid housing that holds the pattern and contains the silicone during the pour.
Printing the housing rather than building a temporary box matters here. The housing controls wall thickness on every side, which keeps the finished mold consistent — and a consistent wall thickness is what makes demolding predictable rather than a matter of feel.
Step 2 — First pour: a small batch
This is the step most people skip, and it is the reason the mold comes out clean.
Instead of filling the housing in one go, the first pour is a small quantity — just enough to cover the base and seat the pattern.
Why: a full-height column of liquid silicone puts real hydrostatic pressure on the seal at the bottom of the housing. If that seal has any weakness, silicone works its way underneath and you lose both the pour and the surface quality where the leak formed. A shallow first pour keeps that pressure low while the base seals.
It also gives trapped air a shorter distance to travel out of the fine detail at the bottom of the pattern, where the crystal tips sit.
Step 3 — Second pour: fill completely
Once the base is secure, the housing is filled to full height in a single continuous pour.
Pouring in a thin, steady stream from one corner — rather than dumping it in — lets the silicone push air ahead of it instead of folding air into the mass.
Step 4 — Four hours to full cure
Platinum-cured silicone at room temperature. No demolding before full cure. Pulling a mold early on a shape like this is how you get distorted facets that never come back.
Step 5 — Demolding
The housing comes apart, and the mold is peeled back from the master pattern.
The video shows the Shore A 15 silicone mold being released from the master pattern. For other models, assess the geometry and demolding method before choosing a silicone hardness or deciding whether the mold needs a cut or parting line.
What this means if you’re sourcing molds
If you are developing a jelly wax product, the mold specification matters more than it does for opaque candles:
- Hardness has to match the geometry. This relatively simple model used Shore A 15. Other shapes may require a different hardness or mold structure, depending on their undercuts, fine details and demolding requirements.
- Cavity surface quality is your product’s surface quality. There is no finishing step that fixes it afterwards.
- Consistency across a production run. If your molds come from different batches of material, small differences in surface and shrinkage show up in the castings.
We produce our own platinum silicone, match our own pigments, print our own master patterns, and make our own molds. That means we can trace a finished mold back to the material batch it came from — and adjust hardness, colour or wall thickness for a specific product rather than picking from a catalogue.
Working on a jelly wax or transparent casting project?
Send us your design, 3D file, or reference sample and we’ll advise on hardness, mold structure and tooling.
