Best medium

[Rocky3213]

I need some suggestions on what to make mold from. I'm have made a Mustang horse emblem that will be covered with leather by my custom car upholsterer so that the emblem looks as if carved into the leather. I've used soft wood for patterns but I'm done with that phase. I don't think wood will hold up under the installation process. I've never used anything other than wood until now, so I have no experience on how different plastics (or whatever) carve.

Thanks

[spalted]

Will the mold remain behind the leather, or will it be wet formed vegetable tanned leather, so the mold will just be used to tool the leather against?

[Rocky3213]

Will the mold remain behind the leather, or will it be wet formed vegetable tanned leather, so the mold will just be used to tool the leather against?

The mold will stay under the very thin upholstery leather forever. There will be no tooling other than forming and gluing the leather around the mold.

[spalted]

I've never done it, so this is just a guess, but I wonder if something like a 6-8 lb. polyurethane foam would work?

[Mugsowner]

Any plastics you use can not be of the type that melt easily. Cast acrylic works great, but extruded acrylic does not. PVC also works nice. As long as it does not melt back together you should be able to use most plastics.