tips from a pro: Smooth on "Fast" silicones are meant more for brush-on application and to be applied in layers, rather than the pour up method you used. The particular one you used is made to be tinted so it is not the cheaper version, that one is meant more for silicone prosthetics than mold making. After doing a brush up mold to about 1/4-1/2 inch thickness you can stabilize it with a few layers of plaster bandage, or even just some smooth cement (no gravel). could have likely done it with 1-2 kits, or 1 gallon kit. If you mist the mold and the foam fill with water it cures faster and you would have been able to turn out more per day. Also, great stuff is expensive for what you get, expanding hard foam 2 part costs less when purchased in bulk and can set up way faster and avoid the over-drying of the silicone. You can also condition the mold every 4-5 pulls with a mold release like universal or ease release 200, as long as you are starting with the mold release from the beginning that silicone should last a LOT longer. If you are adamate about using great stuff, there is a metal dispenser you can get that is pretty awesome for reuse of a can. I have a LOT of tips and tricks for this if you need more.

Sorry in advance because I'm about to break your heart. There are easier and way cheaper ways. I know because I cast 100 foam skulls from Great Stuff. A surprisingly simple and CHEAP method of making the mold is to use tube silicone caulk - the clear stuff from any big box store. Make sure you have enough on hand. Cover your pumpkin with a light coat of petroleum jelly, squirt the tubes of silicone into a bucket half filled with water. With rubber, latex or nitrile gloves, gather the silicone into a ball and start spreading it on your pumpkin. It'll stay in place. You have a little time to work if you end up needing more tubes and you can make later repairs the same way to your mold if needed. Downside is the silicone mold wll need to cure for a while. Keep washing it until it quits smelling like vinegar. If you cast too soon it can warp the foam. Then - just a spritz of water is all you need for a mold release between it and the spray foam. Finally, it would be life changing, and much much cheaper, to invest in a Great Stuff spray gun and start using the big cans of foam. So easy to keep reusing and the solvent cans work great for cleaning. Give it a try. You won't be disappointed.

I enjoyed watching you make these pumpkins, even though things didn't turn out at times you had a sense if humor about it to just move on. The results were awesome loved the lights and pumpkins on the fence. Bravo!

A Tip ... If the can is not empty , a little rince of acatone through the straw and in the can tip will desolve and clean it for reuse.

Wow, what a labor of love. I wanted to just let you know a couple of things I've learned, the hard way, working with silicone. It really matters what silicone you use. I use mostly SmoothOn products, both tin-cure and platinum-cure. Silicone is expensive no matter where you get it. SmoothOn's silicone products, in particular, really need to be stirred well in their containers before you mix them--some of the components often settle at the bottom, and not stirring can make your silicone not set up. Making a block mold, as you did, has many advantages, but is costly in terms of silicone, and the silicone must be at a minimum 1/2" all around (more, really). You can also buy a silicone that's made not for pouring but for brushing on. Brush it on in layers over your object, and add keys (little chunks of silicone that stick out) to the surface. Then, before removing your object. make a "mother mold" from something you can apply that sets up to a firm, rigid shell. You let the keys stick up through openings you make in the shell. That shell will support the mold, and the keys will keep the mold from collapsing inward. Lots of things will work: epoxy putty dough is easy to use, though fiberglass is cheaper. Spray foam isn't very economical. Once you calculate the volume of your mold by water displacement, you can use very specific amounts of a two-part foam that comes in bulk in half-gallon jugs (Amazon). You can buy the density of foam you want, and choose whether it's rigid or flexible. Mix measured parts 1 and 2 together equally, then pour. Placing a rigid lid with a hole in it will let you apply a little pressure manually to force the foam into better detail. Love your videos!

Love the diving into a project with no experience. Learning as you go is great.

Brilliant effort!!! love the dive in attitude and you still reaped a hell of a reward despite the mistakes!! your family mustve had an amazing halloween!!! well done!😁👌

Hey, day late and a dollar short, but my 2C: I would set up on a smooth sheet with a clay border around the pumpkin instead of the cardboard. Spray mold release on your pumpkin. Brush some silicone over your pumpkin, then Mix thyvex in your silicone to make it thicker, brush on the first couple layers to build up the walls. After mold is made use molding epoxy or plaster cast (I use plaster bandages) to make a hard shell to hold the shape. Make a flat top on the cast layer so it sits flat when you flip it over. MOLD RELEASE IN YOUR MOLD, then your foam. Should help the silicone last longer. Either way, it was really cool and I want to try spray foam for casting now!

The pure joy you had when you pulled that first foam mold was priceless! Bravo! It's always a sad day when the mold starts to fail.

I use to make these as well but I wrapped a soccer ball in plastic to push the foam into the voids. Congratulations on a job well done.

I loved your video, especially showing your errors. Because it's not always as easy as it looks. Thank u.

Great video. Those look amazing all lit, and the best part is they're all different. Great job.

That was a great “test”, yielding close to 200 pumpkins! I’m definitely going to try this. I have a few other ideas that I’m planning to try, incorporating this method. DIY Foam is definitely a cheaper option than the retail versions are sold. Thanks for the idea!

PumpkinFreak posted a video on his process for making foam pumpkins. In addition to the mold making he dusted the silicone mold with baby powder then sprayed the mold with acrylic spray paint before putting in liquid foam. Then when he unmolded the pumpkin was already painted. Not sure if it would work the same if using the spray foam but maybe you can try it.

Great video! Your trial and error make the comments so much more valuable. If I didn't see the hard way I might be tempted to ignore the advice and do exactly what you did. Thanks for sharing.

I’m really impressed with your dedication to keep spending money in order to save money.

Man that was so good making the mould made me laugh out loud Soz. I admire your determination to make all those pumpkins and they look amazing well done Grant 🎃

I've subscribed. I enjoyed this channel. Good Humor, but you still learn alot. He makes the mistakes for you.

Awesome results! Thanks for sharing the learning experience! Some great comments already and I can’t wait to see next year’s version!

Great work!

Awesome video!!! Keep up the great work.

Water! Before and after you fill the foam, spray it (mold and inside pumpkin foam) with water. It helps it set up quicker. You can spray, fill, spray, wait four minutes, pat down, wait a few minutes, remove. It's still soft but it will be set up enough to do another. Awesome build! I will have to give this a try.

Came for the pumpkins, here for the Smugglers Room t-shirt. Always good to see a fellow Swarzy Fan in action. The pumpkins were a labor of love, I had a similar yet adjacent year casting paper mache vintage style pumpkin Pails. Kudos.

Been wanting to do something like this great job and tips definably will be eating for next year video 😅😅🎉🎉

Those are awesome

try some cooking oil in the mold might help

That was fun. I would love to try that in the future. I will take your experience and run with it. :D

If you mist some water in the mold before putting the foam in it will make things easier.

I made a successful silicon pumpkin mold about 12 years ago, you need a core piece (inner mold) to make the pumpkin hollow, it's another silicone mold which is filled with plaster with several pieces of galvanized wire sticking out of it and then more silicone on top of the plaster to completely encapsulate the plaster like a sheath then the galvanized wire that is sticking out out of the edges of the plaster is later bent down about 90° to rest on the (outer mold) to make a bridge so you have a hollow gap for the foam to expand to a perfect even thickness. The first thing to do is to sculpt some natural clay or wax based clay in your pumpkin mold to build up the thickness of your (pumpkin flesh) before then adding the silicone and then once the silicone is cured, then fill the silicone with plaster while adding some reinforcement and galvanized wire that sticks out of the edges of the inner core piece about 4" to 5 " inches which are bent down 90° degrees Then once the plaster and silicone core piece is cured, remove the core piece and then remove the clay from the outer mold. (note to use a thick galvanized wire as this is acting like a bridge from your core piece to your outer mold and a thin wire might collapse as plaster core piece is heavy) This silicone/plastic core piece makes an even thickness in the foam and it also makes the texture of the pumpkin flesh which looks more realistic as you can sculpt the texture and thickness of the flesh of the pumpkin to your desire using the clay. A couple more tips to give you is your outer silicone mold that gives you your actual pumpkin shape should have a plaster mother mold as well built up with layers of cheese cloth and plaster and I would even add some chicken wire in between the layers of plaster so your foam can't (bow) or warp which can break the mold so it needs to be a pretty strong reinforcement mold. The other tip of advice is to dust the silicone mold with some talcom powder and then paint the silicone mold with several coats with some pumpkin orange acrylic paint which has some flexibility to it and as well as the stem with a stem colored acrylic paint of your preference and allow the paint to dry in between coats then fill the mold going in a circular pattern with the foam and then mist with water then lay in the core piece and allow it to cure..

I really like watching this video. I have seen a lot of short in fb. But didn’t have the energy to come and watch the full movie on till today. I really like it and got really inspired i LOVE HALLOWEEN. But we don’t really celebrate it here in Sweden yet to the fullest potential. Everyone is focused on Christmas. That’s sad. I’m tankful that you took the time to do this and let us follow along. ❤Happy Halloween. 🎃

cut a big store foam one in half use

If you do something similar again, spray foam the bottom of your mold so it supports your foam, doesn’t, droop.

I was just thinking of a way to do this. I will be doing something like this for next year.

Love it!! Those look great! You can also clean the foam tubes out with some wd40

spraying water on the mold will help it skin over faster . Brake clean sprayed in the nozzle and the top of the can will clean it right up for future use.

You did well for limited skill. Near the end the mold was dying. A brush on mold with a hard shell may work better for next time also called a mother mold. punished props has a series on molding.

You can use silicone calk, thind with mineral sprints.

QUESTION: when all was said and done, what was the final cost per pumpkin excluding labor?

Spray water on the mold, which acts as a mold release so the foam comes up easier.

How many pumpkins did you get from one can?

How about using smooth on brushable latex then make a mother mold out of plaster . And use sika fence post expanding foam . Thats what Im going to do after watching this .

So here are a few thoughts I will put out there. First off, I’d say you did pretty good making that mold. The only tip I have would be to do a brush on mold with a thickened silicone to save on material(though you would need to make a shell/mother mold). Second, all molds will eventually deteriorate. You can use releases and stuff but even using them, molds will not last forever. Third, for Great Stuff, I THINK the only release you should really use is water. I suppose a spray wouldn’t hurt(can make painting harder though). That being said, fourth, is it actually cheaper to cast Great Stuff than buying a big kit of expanding foam meant to be cast in molds? They can be temperamental and are definitely not as easy to use, I have always wondered on the cost effectiveness of using Great Stuff to cast though. And my final thought is that for basic bulk jackolanterns, I’m not even sure they need to be cast in a mold. Allen Hopps has a great tutorial on making one. Don’t get me wrong, they are not as detailed as something in a mold but when you have hundreds, it’s not always about individual quality. Haunted Overload uses a similar technique. Honestly, I’m impressed with what you did there, especially if you aren’t super familiar with FX techniques.

You can apply silicone in thin layers. Use WED clay to make a small wall, and brush it on.

That much foam would be worth considering using a foam gun. They cost around $20-$50. You can close them off when you're done and it will be ready for the next pumpkin. Then you'll get the full use from each can of foam.

The Cement is in there for weight to keep the pumpkin from being blown away

As everyone else is saying, great work! I recently discovered StiltbeastStudios' channel and he does a whole lot of Halloween stuff with spray foam. You may find some good tips or inspiration for some future stuff (if you aren't sick of the stuff like food service people are with pumpkin spice 😛).

Fill a bowl with silicone then place the pumpkin master in with weight to hold it in place

Isn't that stuff incredibly flammable? You know people are going to put candles in them.

Why not make molds of a real pumpkin ?

Once you knew it worked why not make a few more molds

Allen Hopps, Allen Hopps, Allen Hopps. StiltbeastStudios