If you have come across my work before you will know that I like to video my projects and post them on my you tube channel “heritagecraft”.

My latest project is entitled AGrand Romantic Gesture. I take as my starting point that one of the most romantic sections of society is middle aged men, we are just misunderstood by middle aged women. Therefore in order to restore the Status Quo every now and again you need to make a Grand Romantic Gesture. Now if you lucky you have inspiration, but its more likely that having been in a relationship for many years you have run out of inspiration – sound familiar? Its a good think that heritagecraft is here to help.

The video starts off by showing you to carve a Lilly in a frame out of wood, which just happens to be a favourite of my own beloved, and you could stop at that point you would have a very successful present. However you could take it a couple of steps further and get at least four more presents out of this and solve your present problems for at least a year.

The first step is too make a mould of our artwork for which you need Food Safe Silicone. You can buy this from Special effects suppliers. I brought mine from http://www.backstageshop.co.uk who are good customers of mine so its good to give them an opportunity to get some money back. You will find there are several too chose from however I choose Bluesil RTV which is the food safe version, along with a silicon colour. You will also need some accurate scales, a disposable pot to mix it all together in and a stirrer. Best not use the stuff from the kitchen if your trying to improve marital harmony.

First of all I mounted the carving on a backing board, and made a wooden frame to go round it. If your going for a more free flowing shape you could use modelling clay to create the barrier.

Before screwing it down give everything a good spray with mould release spray.

The silicon comes in two parts, the silicon and the hardener, which you have to mix together in accurate proportions. For this product You need to mix 10 parts of silicon with one part of hardener, by weight, hence the scales, then add some colour. The proportions do vary so check the manufacturers data sheets. If you do this commercially you would then put the mix into a vacuum chamber to suck out the air bubbles, however as I don’t have one, then the technique is to add the materials together gently, and stir it together gently, that way avoiding air bubbles to start with. Once mixed you have to move quickly so get everything ready first.Pour into the mould and leave overnight to set. The next day your ready to take the mould apart and see if it worked.

Once you have given the mould a wash its ready for use.As mentioned earlier there is a video and that will be posted on the Heritagecraft you tube channel in the near future, so press the follow button to keep up to date and you will get the link as soon as it happens, you will also find out how I get at least two more presents of this. Where will it end I hear you cry.

So now we have done relationship advice who knows where we can go next. thanks for reading

Tom