The pieces are studio-scale
Planters, candle holders, bookends, wall tiles, feature vessels. Small enough to demould on a bench, not on a bed.
Decorative concrete · Small-format tooling
Decorative concrete moulds for the studio, not the yard.
Silicone moulds for planters, vessels, homeware, feature pieces and retail props — small-format tooling for studios and workshops that cast concrete in ones, tens or a few hundred.
When it fits
When decorative concrete tooling is the right route.
The finish is what sells the piece
Retail buyers are looking at the surface. A soft arris or a mould seam on the face kills the piece. Silicone captures the finish faithfully.
You're pouring in tens or hundreds
A single-cast for a one-off feature is one job; a mould that will pour two hundred planters a year is another. Both have a silicone answer.
The mix is unusual
GRC-inspired thin mixes, pigmented concrete, pastel cements, terrazzo, ashcrete. We know which silicones stay stable against which chemistries.
The choice
How a small-format decorative mould is built.
Small decorative moulds are usually silicone rather than polyurethane. The pieces are usually small enough that the material cost is manageable, the detail matters more, and silicone is more forgiving of the range of mixes a decorative maker might reach for.
The mould is typically two-part with a designed parting line, or single-piece flexible where the geometry allows it to peel away. For undercuts — pieces wider in the middle than at the top or bottom — silicone's flex is what makes the mould possible at all.
Where the piece has to sit flat on a shelf, we design a flat base into the mould. Where it needs a drainage hole (planters) we can cast one in rather than have you drilling it after — the silicone plug with a rigid stem is the standard trick.
What we need
To quote this properly.
Sketches or a sample piece
A drawn concept or a hand-modelled prototype. Either works.
The concrete mix
Plain, pigmented, terrazzo, GRC-inspired. Determines silicone grade.
Annual pour count
Fifty pieces, five hundred, five thousand. Silicone grade scales with it.
Whether you're pouring by hand or by pump
Determines the pour port and the vent locations.
The honest bit
Decorative pieces are less forgiving than they look.
A decorative concrete piece looks simple on a shelf, but the mould is often more delicate than a comparable structural mould. The pieces are small, the finish is scrutinised at arm's length, and any bench dust or trapped air will show as a defect on every casting.
That's why decorative moulds are usually best kept away from a working precast yard. If you're a studio pouring for retail, we'll spec a mould that suits your working conditions. If you're a yard occasionally taking on a decorative piece, we'll flag what will need to change in the release regime for that piece.
Pigmented concrete stresses silicone differently to plain concrete. Some pigments contain chemistry that shortens tool life. We'll ask what you're pigmenting with and, if it's known to be aggressive, we'll spec a grade that stands up to it.
Drill down
2 variants of this service.
Each one has its own page with the detail we'd normally cover on the first call.
Related
Where this fits in the wider system.
At a glance
The idea in a picture.
From sample to finished cast
- 01Sample, drawing or scanWhat the finish must match
- 02Master patternCarved, machined or taken from the original
- 03Liner or mouldMade in the right elastomer
- 04Trial castChecked with your mix
- 05Production castsLiner reused across the run
- 06Kept on fileReady for repeats
Swipe to see the whole diagram
Get in touch
Send us a photograph of the panel or the elevation.
One photograph tells us what surface you're chasing, and one line about the mix tells us what silicone or polyurethane will survive it.
Real people, a real workshop
You deal with the people who make it.
No call centre and no middlemen. When you contact TCI Construction, you speak to the team who design, build and check your mould.
- A real Warwickshire workshopUnit 15, Waterloo Park, Bidford-on-Avon, Alcester B50 4JG.
- Real people on the phoneCall the team on 01789 224228, Monday to Friday.
- The same team on every jobDesign, production and aftercare come from the people you see here.
- Part of TCI GroupFive specialist brands, one engineering team. Visit TCI Group.
Thomas LaneManaging Director
George PrestonDesign & Project Manager
Kelly BallingerHead of Partnerships
Jim AndertonProduction Manager
TheodoreEmployee Welfare