The seventh homework had to do with molding and casting. It required us to use the skills learned in class to make a mold of one of a our fingers and then cast it in order to make a wall hook… a very creepy-looking wall hook.

Step1: Making the mold

Since my girlfriend was visiting for the weekend, I let her be part of my homework and made the wall hook using her finger to make the mold.

The first thing I did was create the mold of my finger to use for the homework. I order to do this I used about 2oz of alginate (that purple stuff the dentist uses) and mixed it with about 4oz of water. After mixing well, I asked my girlfriend to place her finger inside the alginate, curve it, and leave it there. We waited for the alginate to become gelatinous in consistency for about 5 minutes before she pulled her finger out. The hole left behind would serve as the mold.

Step 2: Casting the Finger

I used contrite to cast the finger; of course, I can’t just pour in the powder, I have to first mix it with water. Mixing the rockite with water is more complicated than it sounds because I did not want any bubbles inside the casting material. To do this I got about 4oz of water and very slowly dropped rockite into it until right before it reached the surface of the water. Then I mixed it slowly and pour the resulting liquid in to my mold. I debated whether to fill up only the finger part of my mold or to pour some extra and have a rockite circle to which the finger would be attacked. I opted for the circle in hopes that it would be less creepy… I was wrong. I then placed a screw at the top of the rockite and left it there to dry.

Step 3: Post processing

I waited for a day before returning to take the finger out of the alginate. I tried to pull out the finger carefully to avoid breaking the mold, but it wasn’t possible. Luckily, I wouldn’t need the mold anymore.

Once the finger was out, I sanded it down the best I could, one of the two fingers had a significant amount of bubbles that had to be sanded away to make it look and feel better. Once sanded down, I proceeded to paint the base (the circle) black, and the finger itself white, using acrylic paint. After the paint dried, I went back and sanded the finger down again just to make it smoother to the touch.

Cost:

Labor:

• Someone who knows what they’re doing: $5 (at $10/hr)
• Me: $10 (at $10/hr)

Material:

• Alginate: $6.95 (Signature, Amazon)
• Rockite: $13.12 (Amazon)
• Paint: $17.40 (Blickrylic Black & White, Blick Art Material)

Total: $47.47