This week we were tasked with creating a mold of one of our fingers, then casting it with plaster to create our own personal finger hooks.

To start, I mixed the alginate powder with water in a 4:1 ratio to create a thick liquid alginate that would serve as my mold. Next, I poured the mixture into a small beaker and dunked my finger inside. To finish the mold, I had to leave my finger in the alginate for about 10 minutes to let it set and become solid. Once it was ready, I carefully slid my finger out and I was left with a mold of my index finger.

I then moved onto creating the plaster that would become the actual finger hook. For this, I mixed the powder with water in a 2:1 ratio and slowly poured enough into the mold to fill it without covering the alginate. After this, I grabbed a wood screw and suspended it halfway into the plaster using tape so that I could attach the hooks to a wall.

Finally after waiting about an hour, I gently removed the finger out of the mold and was suprised to see it came out intact.

I repeated this whole process again to create a second finger and began to post process them. For my project, I decided to spray paint them using an aqua blue color then used a clear coat to make them shiny.

Overall, this was an interesting project to complete and I learned how to mold and cast a simple object with relatively low difficulty.

Cost Analysis

Mold Mixture: ~6 ounces = $5

Plaster Mixture: ~4 ounces = $3

Labor: $15/hr – Molding/casting/spray painting for 1 hour = $15

Total = $23