Molding for beginner?

Are there any books out there or tutorials on the web.

Id like to start by molding a hand, what materials would i need and equipment?.

FXMan
Moderator

http://www.likeastory.com/boards/Forum19/HTML/000312.html

By the way, you can look for Lee Baygan's book on Three Dimensional Makeup Techniques. This is one of the better books on the subject. As well, Crazy Lou's site has a lot of links to sites that will have plenty of information to scan over. Good luck.

I want to make a rubber or latex hand, Can someone please tell me the best way to make a mold for a hand.

I was thinking about getting a container filling it with alginate then placing someones hand into it until it sets 2-3 mins.

Then mixing some plaster and putting that into the alginate mold,after that sets i would then have a plaster mold of a hand.

Next i would have to place the plaster hand into another container and cover it with some kind of rubber solution which once set i could cut into too halves and thats the mould.

I could then use that mold for making my rubber or latex hands?.

Does any of that make sense?

Is there a better or easier way of doing it?

Thanks in advance

I'll assume you want to slush cast liquid latex:

Slush Casting
Latex slush casts best in a mold made with highly absorbative material. This means white art plaster or hydrocal A, either one well dried out before casting in it. Forget Ultracals or dental stones and don't add acrylic fortifier to the mold.

The simplest approach is to do an alginate mold of the hand (backed up with a mother mold of plaster bandages or other rigid material) and make a flexible cast in it. Cast more alginate or a low temperature casting wax (flexwax or microcrystalline wax) in the alginate mold of the hand.

This can be used to make a one piece plaster mold or hydrocal A mold. Melt out the wax (or slice it up carefully if using alginate) to remove the positive.

Dry out the mold by gently baking it for an hour or so on very low heat (be careful, molding plaster is weak and can collapse if over baked). Let it cool slowly to avoid cracking the mold.

Slush cast the hand by filling the mold with liquid latex and waiting for a thick skin to build up on the mold walls as the water & ammonia are absorbed into the mold walls. This is called dwell time" and varys from latex to latex, but 30 - 45 minutes isn't unusual. Pour out nost of the latex (still liquid) and let the thick "slush" layer dry. Warm, moving air (hair drier) speeds this considerably.

This hollow rubber obect can be trimmed and painted and filled with whatever you like or find necessary.

You can make a two piece mold, but then you have to deal with removing mold seams on the cast piece.