For this project, practicing molding a hand in alginate, then casting different pieces and a hand was very important to learn about how each material dried and how to extricate the concrete from the alginate.

For the first two attempts at casting my finger hook, I did the attempts right after the other due to the long wait time for the concrete. While the alginate molding went well, when I poured the concrete, I attempted to coat the inside of the finger before pouring the concrete, and I don’t think I did it exactly right because when I uncovered the piece, while it had a thin, thin shell for the entirety of the finger, the tip of the finger’s shell crumbled because there wasn’t concrete inside it fully, to support it, and it crumbled. Then the second finger broke at the end of the finger. Additionally, I realized the bolts I had grabbed instead of screws were impractical and slightly too covered and crooked. I considered trying to cut away the extra parts of concrete made from the impression of the rest of my hand, but ultimately moved on to another attempt.

After this attempt, I molded two more finger hooks, but this time straight mirror copies to reduce the time it would take and to lessen the complexity and hopefully have better luck coating and filling the finger mold with concrete when casting. I then left these alginate molds to dry before pouring concrete into them, so the concrete would dry correctly.

At this point, we discovered the multiple issues people were having with the alginate and the concrete were due to the age of the materials and stopped this project.