This project was pretty straightforward! I ended up experimenting a little on accident, but it all worked out alright. I made the first mold (left) by guesstimating the ratio: just because it was hard to measure out a 1:1 volumetric ratio with a scale. Then, I misremembered that we used a 50 grams alginate/ 250 grams of water in class. I poured into both because I wanted to see the difference and they performed almost identically in terms of the end result- the only difference was that the second mold (right, with a little too much water) took a little longer to cure and was a little bit wetter throughout the process.

 

The plaster pour was also pretty simple, I again guessimated until I had a mix that was slightly thicker than water- like the consistency of tomato soup. It also worked fine, and was pretty solid after half an hour. I left it to cure in the mold for a while just in case.

Holding the screw in place with tape did not serve us well in the practice round in class, so I cut some small square of cardboard to use instead for a little more stability. It worked really well with 2/3 molds-one of the screws in the lefthand mold wasn’t fully sunk and popped off when I pulled the mold out. It was nice to have backups, and the two that worked were both of my right index finger, so I did have two matching casts.

     

Like I mentioned- there was basically no difference in the quality of the cast between the two molds, and this is how all of them looked when I pulled them.

 

And here’s the finished result!

 

Cost analysis:

Alginate: 1 lb is available for $8.99. I used approximately 80 grams, which comes to $1.59.

Plaster of Paris: Amazon gives a rate 1 ounce for $0.12, a conservative estimate would be $0.24 total.

Spray paint: $7 for the whole can.

Labor cost: 2 hours at an unskilled laborer’s rate would be around $20.

 

Total: $28.83 total, rounding for $14.40 each.