This week’s project was a simple one. We were asked to make a mold of our finger using alginate and then cast a plaster hook using that finger mold. After that, we post processed the finger hooks and we were done!

This project started during class on Tuesday the 31st. As a class, we all made molds of our fingers and then poured in some plaster. When we came back to the OEDK the following Thursday, most of our class’s fingerd crumbled as we de-molded them. This happened due to the plaster absorbing some water from the alginate and that caused issues with the plaster curing. I also noticed my finger was quite squished and I realized that was due to me holding the sides of the silicon beaker that the alginate was in. Because the alginate and silicon were both so soft, the mold deformed as I held it like that.

Coming back to this project, I did the same process as before but took care to set the mold on the table as it cured in both the alginate step and the plaster step. I also made sure to de-mold the plaster finger before it got too soft and crumbly. I made sure to label the silicon cup with my name before doing the molding and casting process so that I wasn’t messing with the tape with messy hands. Once I mixed up the alginate in a 1 to 1 ratio by volume, I poured it in the silicon cup and put my finger in slightly curved so that it made a good hook. I did this for 2 silicon cups and placed one of my pointer fingers in each mold. the After about 5 minutes, my fingers could come out of the molds. I made this process a little easier by pulling the alginate closest to my finger away so that I could slip out my finger and relieve some of the suction.

After the mold was done I gathered all the necessary materials for the casting process. This included Plaster of Paris, water, and a couple screws. The plaster is mixed in a ratio of 2 parts plaster to 1 part water. Once that was mixed, I poured it into my molds and positioned a screw to be in the middle of the top of each finger. I secured the screws by poking them into a piece of tape and draping the tape over the cup. I came back the next day to de-mold my fingers. They both de-molded with ease and the screws were positioned nicely. I over-poured the first finger a little bit, but the extra plaster could just be scraped off with my fingernail. I was surprised by how much detail the alginate captured and the plaster picked up. You could see my fingerprint quite clearly.

For post-processing, I figured there was only one way to go. I needed to make gold fingers after the old James Bond film- Goldfinger. This simply consisted of a coating of gold spray paint. I made sure to apply the spray paint in super thin layers so that it didn’t clog up the detail of the fingers. After that I was left with two gold finger hooks that I can now hang anywhere.

Cost Analysis:

Materials:

I used about 8 oz of Alginate-  $0.91/oz on Amazon for a total of $7.28

I used 4 oz of Plaster of Paris- $0.10/oz on Amazon for a total of $0.40

the amount of spray paint used was negligible

I used 2 screws from the free bucket in the OEDK

The total material cost adds up to: $7.68

Labor:

I spent 30 minutes molding my finger and 10 minutes casting it. I also spent 30 minutes post processing my 2 fingers. If we assume the average hourly wage for a mold maker in Texas of $18.96, the fingers cost $12.64. For the post processing, assuming the hourly wage of a painter to be $21.57, the fingers cost $10.79.

The total labor cost adds up to $23.43

The total cost to make two gold finger hooks is $31.11