Make Your Own Colorful Rubber Toys!

This is a tutorial on how to make a colored silicone putty that after 24 hours, becomes solid rubber!

This means that you can make toys, bouncy balls, cable organisers and pretty much anything rubber.

This is a submission into the "Green" category, as will be seen at the end.

Image Credit: TKOR

You will need:

• Silicone sealant
• Food coloring
• Corn starch
• Paper bowls
• Mixing stick
• Caulking gun

Keep It Ventilated

Silicone sealants can let off strong fumes, so you should only use them in well-ventilated areas. Specifically, sealants containing acetoxy give off a strong smell of acetic acid that can cause dizziness or lightheadedness after long exposure, and while curing. If you can’t fully ventilate your work area, be sure to wear NIOSH-approved respiratory gear to protect your breathing.

You may also want to avoid silicone products that contain fillers, or non-silicone materials mixed in. Sealants marked 100% premium or pure silicone will not introduce potentially harmful chemicals even during the curing process.

Safety Gear and First Aid

Working with silicone can cause allergic reactions and serious eye irritation in some people. To help avoid touching your face or eyes while working with sealants, always wear gloves. Also remember to wash your hands thoroughly after handling. If your eyes or skin do come into contact with a sealant, wash out the area immediately and for several minutes.

Silicone sealants can also cause stomach irritation, nausea, and vomiting if inhaled or swallowed. While “don’t consume sealant” might seem like obvious advice, it’s also important not to eat, drink, or smoke anything else while using these products and to keep them out of the reach of children. If you’re using silicone to caulk in the kitchen, make sure it’s labeled food-grade for safety in food prep areas.

Fire Safety

Since many sealants come in the form of highly flammable aerosol cartridges and pressurized cans, it’s important to follow strict fire safety protocols—nobody wants an explosion. Do not store or wield these products anywhere near open flame or extreme heat, and keep a fire extinguisher or other fire retardant material on hand. You should also avoid doing welding or other heat work in the same area, even if you’re working around silicone foam that has already been exposed and cured. 

Small note: food coloring might not seem neccesary, however it is what activates the silicone which makes it into the rubber.

Into one bowl pour in some cornstarch and in the other some food coloring of your choice.

Note: the more food coloring you use, the deeper the color will be.

Squeeze the silicone into the food coloring with the caulking gun until you have the desired amount.

Remember, do this is a ventilated area of your room will smell strongly of vinegar for a while, and wear recommended safety equipment.

Mix the food coloring with the silicone using the mixing stick. From now you have about ten minutes of work time until it starts hardening up.

Now you may realise it is extremely difficult to work with as it is so sticky. To resolve this put on your gloves and add the cornstarch into the silicone. A good way to do this is to start be coating the outside, then streching it and applying more cornstarch. Do this until it turns into a play-doh consistency.

Now you have around 5-10 minutes until it starts to stiffen up. You can mould it into any shape you desire, I made a bouncy ball which works pretty well. This material is especially good for impression casting for things such as lego bricks, but you can use it for anything. If you want to connect two peices of rubber you can use some more putty of some silicone.

Just remember to use food-grade silicone if you want to make candy moulds.