Honourable members of the Orchid list! Here is my query: suddenly my
customers all seem to have babies, and they have all of them at once
decided they want the eternal pleasure of their babies extremities
cast in precious metal. How to go about it? I can figure how to make a
mold in plaster or silicone of something that does not move, but
babies do not fall into that category… Looking forward to your tips
and experiences.
My compliments to all of you for the quality of this group! (Above
all Hanuman!!)
Try alginate, it mixes with water. It is basically nontoxic and used
to make molds for plaster impressions for teeth. Make a plaster cast
from the mold and then mold that with silicon or other mold material
to make a wax to cast in metal.
Larry Paul
Larry Paul Casting Co.
740 Sansom St.
Philadelphia PA 19106
215-928-1644 @Lpaul
Instead of hands and feet I have done babies fingerprints .I take
some friendly plastic.It softens in hot water but will make a
fingerprint when warm and will not harm baby.Gently push baby’s finger
into it if willing let cool trim with scissors cast and solder
bale.The plastic burns out readily and the print is as detailed as the
original.Have fun!J Morley Coyote Ridge Studio
Don’t know if this will help or not but you could try it. At the
hobby stores here they sell a product that is liquid in nature. It
sets up very fast, into a soft rubber like substance. It only takes
about 1 minute to set up. Then you pour plaster into the mold. It
picks up detail very well. In some places it will even pick up finger
prints. It will do a partial 3d. It is sold right along side of the
plaster and has a picture of a child’s hand on the from of the
envelope. I can’t find the package but will continue to look for it
and will post it when I find it. We used this to do my daughters
babies hands and if you can do it while they are asleep it works
well. I remember thinking when we were doing it that it would be easy
to do one time molds of objects that are delicate or won’t
take heat or pressure…Char
I found the gel, It’s called “3-D Gel” and is sold as a powder that
you mix with water. Botanical Science, San Bernardino, Ca. 92408 No
phone # though…Char
Hi poidi I was this weekend in my local art store and I saw something
very similar to what you described about the molds for baby hands and
you can even mold mom’s and Baby’s together, How to keep baby’s hands
from moving? I have the same question. Maybe we’ll find out in the
instructions Marco
I’m not a mother, but… Make the baby stay awake till evening without
a nap, get it very, very tired and cranky, and then do it while it’s
sleeping and looking oh, so angelic.
Christine in Littleton, Mass., USA, where it’s finally sunny but I
have two inches of water in the cellar.
Don't know if this will help or not but you could try it. At
the hobby stores here they sell a product that is liquid in nature.
Just a thought, it might be a good idea to check out how toxic some
products can be. Some chemicals can penetrate skin . . . so, one
should check before exposing baby’s hands, feet (skin) to these products.
Once you have a casting of the hands/feet/what ever, and a rubber
mold of it, make a casting using a product called “Reducit” (from
Pink House Studios, 35 Bank Street, St. Albans, Vermont, 05478
802-524-7191) and you can make a reduced copy of the casting (this
stuff shrinks). If you then make another mold of the shrunk item,
and again cast it in Reducit, etc. you can get hands, feet,
whatever, small enough to make earrings, pins etc. and if done
carefully, you will STILL have the finger prints in the small item. A
friend of mine did this with a casting of his hand, and you could see
the finger prints in the final castings that were about 1 inch high.
These folks also have all sorts of body casting supplies and
instruction tapes as this is their main area of sales.