8 Projects Made using Vacuum Forming and Mold Making Techniques

Thinking about investing in a desktop vacuum former for your next design brief or DIY project? Our in-house creators have pulled together some stylish products to inspire your next vacuum forming project. Whether you're inspired to make your own molds or want to use vacuum formed parts as elements of a finished piece, there are so many options with the Mayku FormBox.

If you're looking for more inspiration, follow @TeamMayku on social media or join the Mayku Community Facebook Group. If you have any making questions, we're always here to help.

Custom Molds for Brutalism Inspired Candles

1. Designed with Brutalism in mind, we cut and sanded wooden templates to form the mold for these candles. If you want to work with wax, you can dye clear or transparent wax to your desired shade, or there are plenty of colored waxes available. Check out this video of another candle project we tried too.

How to Make a Stationary or Paint Box Organiser

2. We formed a watercolor organizer around a paintbox, brush, and water well as templates, attaching the formed plastic to a notebook and securing with a red elastic band. This project works to hold together any notebook and items you want to keep at hand - have a look at our stationery organizers too.

Make a Magnetic Paperweight to Tidy Paperclips

3. Our paperclip tower used a 3D print as its template, forming a plastic mold around the object using the Mayku FormBox, desktop vacuum former. Into the mold, we poured plaster and dropped in a couple of magnets. Now, any metal stationery will stick right to the side! You could magnetize lots of other materials like concrete, Jesmonite or silicone.

Custom Clock Mold using Thermoforming

4. For another concrete project, we laser-cut wood to make our simple clock-shape template. After forming plastic around it in the FormBox, we popped a straw in the center of the mold to make room for the clock’s hands and added the concrete. Clock mechanisms are inexpensive and versatile - lots of room for experimentation!

Custom Textured Coaster Molds for Jesmonite

5. The template for these coasters was another 3D printing venture, although we’ve also used digestive biscuits as templates in the past! After 3D printing our coaster shape and forming it in plastic, we used Jesmonite (a Maker favorite) to fill the mold. If you wanted to add colour or texture to a coaster design you can dye your casting material or add terrazzo chips.

Geometric Terrarium Custom Mold Made with Vacuum Forming

6. We’ve made tons of terrariums by forming the same clay object twice to make the plastic shell and mold the concrete base. The model inside the formed shell is also clay, with sand and paints added to create a sense of realism. You could also adapt this design to enclose actual plants, just consider which varieties will grow happiest in this setting.

Custom Gemstone Soap Molds Made on the FormBox

7. The bathroom product possibilities are endless. Here, we used wooden templates to form our molds, which were then filled with translucent glycerine soap. You could try molding bath bomb mix, shampoo bar or massage bar blends into a similar mold shape to grow your indie beauty collection. Check out one of our early beauty makes, the Bath Bum bath bomb design on the Team Mayku YouTube channel.

Custom Chocolate Molds Made by Thermoforming

8. Yep, you can make edible anything with the Mayku FormBox! We’ve used letters in the past to make personalized chocolates and jello, but here we used shells to make a tasty, salted caramel filled gift. Flavours and colors can come in handy here too… how about sea salt choco-shells, or a white and milk chocolate chess set? Learn more about making your own chocolate molds on our blog.

Getting Started with Vacuum Forming and the Mayku FormBox

These are just a few of our ideas - remember, you also can form and mold with ice, foam, resin, silicone, plaster, Jesmonite, chocolate and much more. What are you excited to make with the Mayku FormBox?

For more inspiration head to @TeamMayku on social media or YouTube. If you have a question or are considering investing in a FormBox you can request to Speak to a Specialist at anytime.