I’ve been experimenting more with silicone kitchen mats and EPDM rubber for making jewelry. I think both materials are nice for wearables because they are lightweight, fairly tough and waterproof. They can be crushed and return to their original shape which means it’s O.K to sleep or shower with them on. The thinner EPDM (1/64") feels almost like fabric but it’s still elastic and resilient.
I’m sure more intricate designs are possible but for this batch I wanted some simple geometric goodness. The display cards are made out of inexpensive chipboard from Blick Art Materials since I like that textured look.
The above designs are made with 1/32" thick EPDM rubber. I did experiment with other thicknesses, 1/64" was rather nice, and I had some trouble cutting 1/16" cleanly. I wrote more about that in this beyond the manual post.
Silicone is very nice too, I comes in more colors and seems more widely available:
I really like the geometric shapes! They are very interesting to look at, and very clean and polished. I especially like the flower made with hexagons.
I’ll have to read more about the rubber. For some reason cutting rubber and silicone never crossed my mind. They were more of an engrave material that I’ve never tried. Do they feel like they have melty/sticky edges when you are done? Is there a lot of post-cut clean up?
Thanks!
The edges on both materials are rather clean, the end up with some dust that cleans easily with soap.
Though on the thicker (1/16") EPDM it got a bit sticky as it melted more with the 2 passes.
Post cleanup is mostly wash with soap and warm water and then dry, which is not too hard.
Great inspiration here! I like the idea of using flexible materials here. I have cut silicon for gaskets before and your concept for wearables is great. I seem to get a lot of flame when cutting silicon. You? A rabbit hole indeed that is worth going down!
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