This project definitely takes the cake for “project that requires the most patience.” I learned that a lot can go wrong with casting and molding, but I am happy that I have learned this process through a (mildly painful) trial and error.

To start, we mixed the alginate in a 2:1 ratio with water. This was pretty easy to make, and there was some room for error with the ratios. After leaving my ring fingers in the alginate mold for about 10 minutes, it was solid enough to pull my fingers out. I secured the screws with tape and placed them over the remaining holes, and I was ready to make my plaster.

Making plaster was a difficult process. We first followed the 2:1 plaster:water ratio, but the solution hardened as we poured the solution into our molds. The plaster was so thick that it would not go into the holes, only remaining on top. We removed the plaster and started again.

This time, after remaking our alginate molds, we tried to make a plaster:water ratio that was slightly above 1. We sort of eyeballed it, ensuring that we added enough plaster to avoid bubble formation on the top of the solution during the mixing process but not much more than that. We poured this solution into our new alginate molds, and let it sit for about an hour as we cleaned up.

We decided to rip apart the alginate to remove our fingers. I successfully removed my intact fingers from the mold. They were connected by a base made from overflowed plaster. When I snapped this base in half to remove the fingers from each other, I accidentally dropped one of my fingers, cracking the finger. Heartbroken!

I came back the next day to repeat the process for the last time. I left my casted plaster in the alginate mold for about 2 hours. This time, I made sure not to overflow my beaker with plaster so that the two fingers remained separate. I carefully removed them from the mold, and…it worked! I used a knife to round out the bases of my fingers, and I used some sandpaper to smooth them out. Then, I screwed each finger into a little stand.

I was ready to spray paint. I chose the blue paint, which inspired the name of this blog post. After a clear coat, my fingers were ready to go!

I can’t say this was my favorite project, but I had never done molding before so it was cool to learn it. Maybe I’ll give it another shot someday…

Cost Analysis:

Cost Type	Cost	Price	Source	Quantity	Total
Materials	Plaster of Paris	$10.98/4 lbs	Home Depot	4 oz	$0.69
	Alginate powder	$1.25 /oz	Amazon	8 oz	$5
Labor	Molding and Casting Worker	$20/hour	CareerExplorer	1	$20
	Design Engineer	$38/hour	Indeed	1	$38
Overhead	Drill	$4/hour	Home Depot	1	$4
Waste/Scrap	Plaster of Paris	$10.98/4 lbs	Home Depot	12 oz (group)	$2.07
TOTAL					$69.76