First, wriggle the fingers around to loosen and then carefully pull the hand completely out of the mold. When it’s firm to the touch, your model can remove its hand. Feel the top of the alginate from time to time. Sit tight, about 10 minutes or so, as still as possible while the mold begins to set around the hand. Make your model move their fingers around to make sure that you have alginate settled into all of the little pockets and crevices a hand will make. You’ll need to go only as far as the wider portion of the hand – go to the wrist and you may not get out of it. Also, be sure not to go into the goo up to the wrist or beyond. Make sure that your model’s hand is not touching the bottom or sides. When you are happy that there are no lumps of powder remaining, pour them into your mold container. It will begin to set pretty quickly, so really get it stirred quickly. First, pour your water into your pitcher and then follow with your alginate powder and stir vigorously. For my 8 cup container, I used 7 cups of water and 7 cups of alginate. The manufacturer recommends that you use a 1:1 ratio with water. Step 1: First things first – mixing your alginate and transferring it to the container you will be making the mold in. self-adjusting (sawtooth) picture hangers with spikes to push in.rectangular shaped bowl (I used a reusable/disposable food storage container in the 8 cup size).
Holding onto a necklace I realized that my hands would be an awesome place to hang them and they’d be pretty neat and artsy too… So, if you want to cast the hands of friends and family, check out the supply list below! But I’ll be darned if I’m going to attach some pretty knobs to an old piece of wood just because everyone else is doing it. I just so happen to be needing some place to hang all of my lovely necklaces. People use alginate to create casts of body parts as art or keepsakes or special effects/body parts for movies. A little more research later and I found this art called lifecasting. But come on, being able to buy this stuff online is awesome and I was gonna do it regardless. So, I bought six pounds of the stuff, straight off of my phone with no idea what to do with it. It’s used in food as a thickener, it’s used by doctors in medicines and special wraps to heal injuries and it’s used by artists for loads of things. It’s this stuff that is made out of, you guessed it, algae and not only dentists use it. Now, what is alginate you might ask? Have you ever been to the dentist and had to sit with that awful purple goop in these plastic trays? That awful stuff is oozing down the back of your throat, all so your dentist can tell what your teeth look like? Well, that, my friend, was alginate. Searching Amazon on my phone out of boredom one day I ran into the most awesome stuff – alginate.
#PLASTER HAND MOLD HOW TO#
So, I bought a couple of boxes of plaster of Paris a while back ago with no real intentions on how to use the stuff. When I get to craft with new supplies or techniques, I totally flip.