Hi Everyone! A special personal project this time 😉
In this video I show you how I’ve casted the hand of my girlfriend in alginate as a mould followed by the casting in an Acrylic polymer plastic.
The process is fairly simple and fast, not much equipment of materials are needed to get this project to a good finish.
The Acrylic polymer can be painted or finished after curing in any finish you like. I’ve used some gold to finish the fist.
Materials used and their information:
Acrystal prima: polyestershoppen.be/acrystal/...
Alginate: polyestershoppen.be/siliconen...
1. To make the casting of the hand you start with the alginate:
The alginate mould is made by using some clean water, make sure to use water that isn’t too hot to make sure you have enough time to mix and cast the hand. I found that having the water in a bucket and adding the alginate powder while mixing works best. Mix fast and scrape the edges to make sure everything is well mixed. Having a few lumps in your mixture isn’t a big issue. After mixing I brushed some of the material on my girlfriend hand and she put her hand in the mixture. Make sure your subject is in a comfortable position to stay for the next 10 minutes of curing.
After 10 minutes the subject can remove her hand from the alginate mould big gently wiggling out her hand. Now you’re left with a moist alginate mould. And can proceed directly with the casting of the Acrylic polymer, In my case Acrystal prime.
2. To make the Acrylic casting:
Mix the Acrylic in the mixing ratio’s supplier by your supplier. Acrystal consists of a powder and liquid that has to be mixed to a milky texture. Once mixed you can let it sit for a few minutes to make sure most of the air bubbles are out. Due to it’s low viscosity no vacuum degassing is needed put might help for bigger castings. Once poured in the alginate gently tap the mould to remove any trapped bubbles. After about 1h everything should be cured and hard.
3. To remove the part from the casting:
Use a knife to cut up your alginate mould in small sections and dig out your casting. One of the downsides of Alginate is that you can only use it once. Another important thing is to do your Acrylic casting as fast as possible after you’ve made your alginate mould to avoid shrinkage of the alginate.
To finish your part you can use any types of paint, If you’d like a skin tone on your part you could use some paint, In my case I’ve painted them in gold using an acrylic paint and another version just with some spray can clear.
If you wonder why I needed a casting of my girlfriends hand? I wanted to buy a ring for her and didn’t know her ring size. By using the casting I was able to make a close estimate to go to the ring maker.
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#Alginate #casting #hand