One of the most difficult things about silicone molds is trying to figure out a way to label them.  If you do have a laser engraver that will work but I found it easier to use the knife to carve the numbers in or letters or descriptions that I need to have and then follow it with an ultra fine sharpie.  Now use black as some of the other colors will bleed so let's just do a quick illustration of this.  Let's call this 114.  So again make it a little bit of a depth of cut into the side 114 I can do it here, I can do it here.  Obviously another side if I choose to, down in the bottom. But here's what the trick is.  We'll take the ultra fine Sharpie we'll find the cut.  Now this is really the only type of ink that's going to stay with the mold as everything else tends to wipe off.  Some people will put a paper tag in I don't like that idea as it'll make the thickness of the mold change.  You can see our ink from the side but you can also read it comfortably from the face or up here across the hinge bar.  Once the hinge bar is out you'll be able to see this much better.  So whatever you may want to mark the date, the style number anything that's going to help you identify the mold.

In my style of cutting where in mold making where I'm actually leaving a hinge bar in as I mentioned before I'm not going to be cutting this in two separate pieces as we would normally do with them with a rubber mold or with a silicone mold.  By keeping this section still connected I can keep my keys for locking the mold at an absolute minimum and again I keep the cavity clean the two halves are joined together and it's always going to stay together.  So the first thing I'm going to do to start is to make the corner key.  Now the knife is not going to leave the mold as I do this.  I'm going to be making a pinking shear type of zigzag line until I get almost to the corner.  I'll keep the point stationary and I'll make the corner.  It'll become apparent later why I'm doing this but this is really the only keying I need to do to keep this mold in perfect registration and again whether I'm doing HD or whether I'm doing wax.

Alright so my strategy again is to try to keep a parallel cut so they don't get the overlapping incline and to always find the part with the knife and move in an outward direction.  Never try to come to find the part from the outside.  Never double cut meaning don't go back over an area you've cut and try to cut again or you're bound to make a flap in the silicone and that's what we're trying to avoid.  So I'm going to go ahead and cut this and then we're going to look at it in closer inspection.  You want to remember to always stay on the same side of the ring and keep in mind where you've been cutting but the real beauty of the clear silicone is that you're going to be able to review and see exactly where you've been cutting.  You can see my cuts and where I've started to go and now I'm going to follow that line all the way down until I get to the hinge bar.  It's probably difficult for you to see at this angle but I'm basically laying my knife on the edge of the pattern and sweeping to the outside.  Now from here you can see that I've advanced all the way down the sides but I can only go so far without releasing the core.  Now this is difficult when you stretch silicone to keep your eye on the right angle and cut along that right angle.  Some people will actually take a red sharpie and put a line on their pattern before molding and sometimes that will transfer into the silicone to make that job easier but I'm going to go in now and release the core and remember I'm always going from the pattern away so I'll meet at the center as I go and cut and release the core because I must release the core to go further down.