C'est fini - July 9, 2026

The tooth-pulling is over, thank goodness.  I can't honestly say that the dread was worse than the doing, but it was close.  The appointment was at 7 a.m.  Worried that I'd oversleep, I asked The Husband to make sure I woke up when the alarm clock sounded, then I set a second, more annoying alarm on my phone and put it on my side of the bed.  I needn't have worried, for I was up and moving an hour before the alarm went off. 

At one point in the torture chair, I worried that the dentist was going to break my jaw trying to get the tooth out.  

But he didn't, and I was out of there by 9:30.  I came home, took two acetaminophen tablets, and moved on with my day.  The worst part was that awful hunk of bloody gauze.  Yuck!

My BFF called after lunch.  When I told her I'd just had a tooth pulled and probably shouldn't talk much (the gauze was still in my mouth at that point), she said, "Good!  Now you won't interrupt me so much!"  

Bitch.  ;) 

* * * * * * * 

Tuesday afternoon, I tried making a silicone mold from a slab of clay I'd sculpted and baked the previous day.  First, I tried the water method in which you just squirt silicone caulk into a tub of soapy water then gather it into a ball and apply it to the form.  The silicone stuck to my hands to bad that I feared I'd never get it off.  I tried rubbing alcohol, acetone nail polish remover, and lots of soap, but none of those things worked.  Finally, a hefty coat of petroleum jelly helped to slide the silicone off the ends of my fingers.  I'm still picking silicone from under my fingernails.

I tried the cornstarch method next.  Mix cornstarch with silicone and knead it until it makes a sort of dough.  I did this in a ziplock bag.  Used way too much cornstarch and ended up with a crumbly mess.  Meanwhile, silicone was oozing out of the caulk tube when I wasn't paying attention . . . . 

Eventually, between the slime from the first attempt and the crumbles from the second attempt, I managed to coat the baked clay mold with a thick layer of stuff.  Laid it aside to dry.  When I got home from the dentist, I peeled the silicone off the mold and pressed it into some raw clay.  (Broke the clay mold in the process.)  It was not a very good image.  

Yesterday, I sculpted another mold - same basic design as the first one, but with improvements.  I think I'll just stick with using it instead of fooling with silicone anymore.