Where to source TPE?

Hey all! Been a while. I randomly decided to work on my doll again recently (had taken a pause to work on some other projects for a while) and figured I'm close enough to the casting stage to start looking for TPE to cast his skin out of. (That's the plan ideally, as I have a skull to put it over more or less, but I'm experienced in resin enough to fall back on if that plan doesn't work out lol.)

I've looked at items that can be melted and reused but most seem a bit expensive for experimenting. Has anyone tried this before?

Here's my sculpt thus far of my character. (He's undead so a few facial features are supposed to be missing lol)

You might have to search for “TPE Thermoplastic Elastomer”. You’ll get some “explanations of” sites, but you should also see places to source it.

Stryker2011 wrote:You might have to search for “TPE Thermoplastic Elastomer”. You’ll get some “explanations of” sites, but you should also see places to source it.

Most of the places I've seen selling it seem to be providing it for industrial use and don't really have prices posted.

Yeah, that’s what my brief search showed me. I wonder if it’s just not possible to get. Have you thought about silicone? I know there are places to get that.

I was also considering silicone but I don't think it'd color in the same way that you can color it in the same way you can TPE so I was hoping to avoid the inevitable eff-ups that experimenting with silicone usually has lol

Have you looked at Smooth-On and their Silc Pig products? That’s silicone that you add dyes to.