Plaster Cast Hand

This life cast was created as part of the Intro to prop making course in Oct 2023. The brief was to complete a life cast in plaster. I wanted to include some kind of function into the life cast so that it had a use. I chose to pose my hand in a way that could hold a phone whilst it charged.

The 2 challenges were how to hold the pose accurately for long enough to let the Alginate set and how to pose the fingers in a way that would hold the phone securely, but minimised the risk of air pockets.

Holding the pose accurately was solved by making a scale replica of the phone out of model board that could be held within the Alginate. Holding a pose that reduced air pockets was more of a learning curve and took 3 attempts to get right, eventually working out that the pinky finger needed to be held straight instead of wrapping underneath the phone, which caused it to point upwards creating an air pocket in the Alginate.

Below you can see the stages of the life casting process.

A tube was made from model board, tall and wide enough to fit the posed hand, with extra space at the top which would add a round base for it to stand on.

Alginate was measured out, mixed and poured into the tube, then my hand, holding the model board phone in the desired pose was pushed down into the Alginate with some small movements to make sure it had seeped into all the spaces between fingers, palm, etc.

Once the Alginate had set, I removed my hand without the model board phone, that needed to remain in the mold for the plaster to form around and would be cut free later.

Plaster was then mixed and poured into the mold, just over an inch above the level of the alginate to create the base.

Here is the cast hand, with the model phone having been cur free from the Alginate mold.

You can see the indentations on the 3rd and 4th fingers where it was held in place.

Here is the finished cast, with the base having been sanded smooth.