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How easy is it to use our kits and create good casts?
Life-casting is not the easiest thing you will ever do it takes practice to get it right, this is why our luxury kits include enough material to make more casts than you need (of a baby less than 1 year old) to ensure that you can practise with your first couple of attempts before creating the casts you are going to display. This is a basic overview of how you create a cast of a baby’s hand or foot using one of our kits.
- We recommend that you read through the instructions carefully to ensure that you know what you are doing and make sure that you have everything ready that you need.
- Measuring and mixing the impression material – measure carefully as this will affect how the material works. Our kits include colour changing alginate which helps you to know when it has set as it will turn white, some of the dye will go onto the outside of the cast when you cast it but when this dries, it will dry completely white. This alginate is specially produced for us and will capture very fine detail, ensuring that you will be able to get highly detailed moulds, it is derived from seaweed and is very safe to use.
- Once you have mixed the impression material and pushed your child’s hand or foot into it, it only takes about a minute to set so you won’t be waiting around trying to entertain your child whilst it sets. If you find that it sets too quickly then try making the water cooler and even adding a little extra water than in the instructions as this will give you a little more time. If it takes too long to set, then try making the water slightly warmer (luke-warm or room temperature), this will make is set faster. Try to ensure that you cannot see any part of the hand/foot through the mixture and it is all covered, if you are struggling with this then you can try using more mixture or a larger bag or container. When set, it is like rubber and you have to wriggle your child’s hand or foot out of the mould.
- It is best to cast your mould straight away as the mould quality will deteriorate pretty rapidly. Mix the casting plaster slowly; follow the instructions carefully with this to ensure the best results and do not over stir. Pour some into the mould and tip it back out, and then pour in slowly and steadily to ensure that you do not add any extra air into the mould, taking your time here really pays off as air bubbles if caught in the end of fingers or toes can leave you with missing fingers and toes. Tapping the mould can help to bring any air bubbles to the surface.
- When the plaster has set and you are ready to disclose your cast, do it slowly, break the mould away in small pieces to ensure that you do not break off any fingers or toes. If you do happen to break off a finger or toe, it can usually be salvaged, leave the pieces to dry out thoroughly and then glue it back on, once you have painted over this, it will be barely noticeable.
- Make sure that your casts will fit into your frame or onto your display plinth before you paint them. If not then you need to sand them before you paint them, sand the back or the bottom of the cast until they comfortably fit and you have given yourself a nice flat surface to glue.
- We do recommend that you cast feet first and once you are confident doing these, you move onto hands as hand moulds offer more spaces for air bubbles to get trapped in, they therefore take more practice to get right. A small baby will naturally hold their hands in fists and this is what you should expect your casts to be. Nails need to be trimmed and short for best results and we also recommend that you do not allow your child to put their hand into their mouth whilst it still has bits of the impression material on it as this could be a choking hazard. Also do not put any part of the body into the casting mixture as this gives off heat and can cause terrible burns, only use the alginate near skin to take the mould as this is safe to use.
- Our kits are put together by us for us; we control what goes in them and can therefore ensure that only the best materials are used. Our materials have been thoroughly tested and are used in our studio where we do our professional castings too, so we are familiar with how they work and what things can go wrong, therefore we can tell you how to get it right. Our frames have been chosen to give you as much variety as possible and they are all absolutely beautiful and I would be happy to hang any of them on my wall.
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