Questions and queries.

[ameliaflavell]

Hello

I have never made anything in clay before but I have just started to get into using plaster of paris to make body cast, but i want to get into making body cast but using cloth and wax, but I do not have the first clue as how to do this.

This is my first time posting so any advice would be great

thanks

[fritchie]

Amelia - Maybe I'm misreading your question, but if you want to make partial body casts, most people consider the best material to use for a mold is alginate. I've never done casts from the body, so all my information is secondhand. Here are two posts on this site regarding alginate as a mold:

http://www.sculpture.net/community/showthread.php?t=2100&highlight=alginate

and

http://www.sculpture.net/community/showthread.php?t=1519&highlight=alginate

I'm also assuming you want the final cast to be in cloth and wax. If you want instead to use cloth and wax as the mold material (wax on the body, reinforced by cloth), you probably can do something like that, but be careful not to let the wax get too hot, and you will have the same problems getting hair caught in the wax that you would have with plaster.

I'd suggest you read the posts above and then ask more questions if needed.

And, welcome to the site! We all learn from each others' questions.

[HappySculpting]

Hi Amelia,

Here is a link to another forum. http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=304636

The guy's name is Bob that did body casting to create the sculpture "Mitzi". Maybe you could contact him for help. Please let him know that I, (Sculpturedolls), referred him to you. :)

Hope this helps...

Tamara
Sculpturedolls

[ameliaflavell]

Hello

Thank you very much for your ideas and links I found them very useful, I can now start my project, but I have to rember the vaseline!

Thanks

Amelia

[bloodgroove]

go to pinkhouse.com
they have really informative videos on how to do body castings with alginate, that are far better than plaster bandages. The plaster bandages dry out the skin if you're not well lubricated and are harder to work with than the alginate. Also, if you do face castings with plaster you can hurt the model. A professor I knew of was casting a woman's face in plaster and he could not get the mold off her nose because of the slight undercuts on the bridge of her nose. He ended up yanking the plaster off her face and breaking her nose. Not pleasant.

Alginate is also easier to get of hair than plaster. Pinkhouse has all the products you'll need.