Print. Sculpt. Stitch.

After a sculptor trainee week at a studio a couple months back I have been planning on building on my realism skills when it comes to figure work. In particular that of hands and feet as I know these are my weakest points in not only sculpture work but in that of sketch work too.
Therefore I have gotten myself some alginate to cast up some of these body parts so I can get some molds to study from for both two and three dimensional work.

And so I first began this by testing out the material and trying to work out the right timings and ratios, this was tricky as I have a material but no label or instructions which can be difficult to work out and get right.

The initial test was very small so as to not waste too much materials and make a mess the first time ever with this material. And so I decided to cast the top of my finger.
Already I was finding difficulty with this process as I was trying to get the temps sort of right before mixing the water to the powder. However it seems there was no point as it took a seriously long time to get the materials to start being at a casting point or remotely mixed even. It was very strange. The powder seemed to just turn in segments as though in cooking when the flour doesn’t want to mix properly in a liquid. But I eventually got somewhere and waited for the finger to cast.
The concoction seemed a little wet and took ages to work and still remained rather soft and in-detailed. But I thought maybe it is the small scale and I need to use more of the powder..

And so the large test began. This was even more of a disaster. The powder would completely not mix and in the end I simple had to give up on this test session. I believe I shall be investing in a whisk and certainly use much less water next time. And so here’s to future experiments, may they bare more fruit of success!