Cost Breakdown for at home use

Alignate: 1lb $10

Plaster of Paris: 4lb $8

Spray Paint: $6

Clear Coat: $7

Screws: (For this is free, everyone has that one drawer or area of random screws)

Hourly: $14/hr for 3hrs ($42)

Total Cost: $73

Process

This assignment was a good introduction to a brand-new type of material that I have not had any experience with. This taught me to learn how to work with positive and negative spaces. Additionally, by learning about plaster of Paris and Alginate I am able to purchase them on my own and begin experimenting on my own any projects I may want.

Initial steps of creating the fingers were done in class. Result:

As you can see the curled finger did not do well like the straight one. This taught me that the positioning of the molded object is harshly constrained by gravity and any hang over of the alginate will be imposed onto the plaster as that is why my curled finger has a divot in the tip of the nail.

Did some sanding to make it look nice. Result:

Got the harsh looking bumps sanded out but there is no saving the look of the nail. The subsequent uses of plaster of paris will include the angle of entry and the container will be taken into consideration. A main failure was that the alginate container could not fit my hands into the same space.

Finally, I used the blue spray point and the clear matt spray to coat the outside of the fingers and let outside to dry.

Result!

  

Thoughts on this:

I may use this method for making metal objects. I have seen what it takes to make plaster but maybe if I apply this molten silver or aluminum I can make something cool looking! Also I like the creepy look of the fingers 10/10.