Soft clay for making a mould of hands & feet

choccyface2006

Oh thank you Dizzy Lizzie, thats lovely!

Sarah x

choccyface2006

I think I will buy alginate and Herculite casting powder, I hope Hobbycraft have got it, otherwise Ebay

Sarah x

nanokitten

It doesn't matter what you use to make the positive as long as it will take the imprint. Old fashioned potters clay eg terracotta is what they mean, it is good as it shrinks slighly as it begins to dry making it easy to release from the plaster.

you should get an adequate cast using eg: plastercine (gently warm by working in your hands for a while it takes quite a good impression, mud (we took plaster casts of animal prints as kids and it works great, try making home made playdoh so you can alter the consistancy, add a little oil, make it quite thick and then refrigerate before casting to stiffen it up a bit.

Alternatively here are two part modelling puttys eg green stuff which will take a beautiful detailed cast: http://shop.warlordgames.co.uk/green-stuff-modelling-putty-537-p.asp

choccyface2006

Thank you nanokitten, very interesting, I like the idea of making our own doh. We warmed the play doh yesterday but it really didn't give enough detail but that could be to do with the plaster too. I think I might leave the mud though, although my daughter would love to get stuck in with it! I will also check out the potters clay, it sounds like the stuff they used would it just come away from the plaster or would you need to use anything to help it lift out, I was worried that if the clay set then it would just fuse together with the plaster?

The green stuff looks good but could work out expensive as you need quite alot!

Sarah x

phunkles

http://www.hawkin.com/find/keyword-is-hand/product-is-08288/pgs-is-20
Make a perfect 3D impression of a child's hand or foot, then scratch a name into the plaster and hang

The kit allows a 18cm star-shaped plaster-of-Paris plaque to be made with a perfect impression of a child's hand or foot. Cleverly the impression is 3D. Names, dates etc. can be scratched in around the edge and a hook is inserted in to the back to allow it to hang.
all you need in a kit £4.99

Lemoncurd

I haven't tried with clay so can't say which is better (guess it depends on exactly what you want to achieve) but you do get every little detail down to the little creases and fingerprints with alginate.

nanokitten

If you use potters clay then the plaster absorbs some of the water from the clay and the clay shrinks making it quite easy to remove, you need to time it right (too long and the clay starts to go hard and gets tricky to remove). I think overnight is probably about right.
other tips, if you make sure the clay is all one solid chunk (by throwning it against the table to squish it) rather than lots of little chunks pressed together you have a better chance of it coming out in one piece.

I do a night class where we make lots of moulds, using clay and plaster works really well and you should get good detail. the only hitch is little baby hands are very soft so you may not be able to get such a good impression (in which case I'd try the putty as that stuff is amazing (just expensive). I agree about alginate too.

other tips: for a fine cast, carfully seive the plaster before mixing, put cold water in a container add the plaster to the top a bit at a time and let it sink in by its self to help prevent lumps, then stir, it should be like thick cream. bang on the table to get rid of any bubbles. once you filled you mould do lots of banging to get any remaining bubbles out.

choccyface2006

Wow thanks again nanokitten, those tips are really useful. I might even print them off and make sure I try them

I couldn't get potters clay at Hobbycraft and alginate was more expensive than Ebay even with delivery, I asked about what would be the best way to make the cast but the assistant had never heard of alginate and didn't know how to use it. She suggested the Fimo soft but that was expensive for the amount I would need and I didn't know if it would work, so I left with only a bag of light plaster.

I have made some salt dough and done another impression but again the detail wasn't there but I've filled it with the plaster anyway.

I'll get what I need on Ebay I think and go from there.

Sarah x

Natbag

Not sure if it helps, but I saw baby hand/foot casting kits with a lovely frame in Home Bargains today - I think they were £4.99 possibly less but were RRP much more than that. I have also seen cheaper kits in Asda with a little plaque for about £2-3.

choccyface2006

This time I used salt dough to make the cast, its come out better with more detail, I think it would work better with smal wrinkly hands and feet!

This is the cast of my daughters hand and mine we did this this afternoon.

Sarah x