About Silicone

Silicone rubber is a relatively modern material that is at once liquid and solid, soft and firm. Made from silica - sand - as its core ingredient, as a rubber, it is resilient and rebounds.

In the art world it is used behind the scenes for the preparatory processes of mould-making and casting. Its unique properties of setting, taking a detailed impression, grabbing and yet being flexible and non-stick, have made it ideal. In building trades, in various grades, it is available as a tubed material to fill gaps and seal building materials ranging from low-end DIY offerings to specialist high-end formulas.

The silicone I choose to work with most often is solvent-free, conservation grade silicone with UV filters. When extruding with it, it immediately starts to cure (‘room temperature vulcanising’) and if I want to take any secondary steps with it, I have to move quickly before it has started to 'skin' over. Some of the pieces, especially those with a built up density such as the 'Slabbs' series, end up taking a couple of months to fully cure, as the time it takes for the air to reach deep into the silicone slows. Equally, with the table-top sculpture ‘After Party’, the silicone that had been squashed under the feet of the wine glasses was a very slim amount in depth, but had very little exposure at the edges to any air - it also took nearly two months to cure.