MAKING MOLDS FOR BODY PARTS, the usual resins are way too expensive for my one shot project to mold my feet. ?

Question

I thought of using melted paraffin wax, but what could I harden it with?

Rubber paint?

Sand mold?

I'm not looking for professional results, it's to do with an anatomy assignment. Any suggestions other than paying through the nose for top notch body casting resins would be helpful.

Answer 1

what do you want to do? Casting into an existing mold or making the mold? The casting resins you refer to are only used to fill into a mold, they are not used to make the mold itself.

The cheapest way to make a mold is usually plaster bandages (and you can make your own paster bandages if you need to), but I would recommend to google some instructions and make sure you know what to do. It will depend what body part you want a mold of. I would strongly recommend not to try to make a mold of your face unless you really know what you are doing. Probably a 2 part mold of a foot would be easiest.

Though if you are going to be happy with a cast of a footprint, yes, wet sand/loam would do the trick very easily. Use plaster for the cast.  

Answer 2

here is what we did back in 5th grade....

but please dont use this idea on your p***s. ouch!

we had this art project to draw, mold, anything your feet, your face, I chose my hand. =]

so what I did was I took candel wax. got a bowl of water. dipped my hand in the water then did it in the wax. then did it again in the water and again in the wax. so after doing that for about 10 cycles, it was nice adn thick enough for me to take the mold off.

i got an A on my mold. =]

good luck to you.

Answer 3

How about a good 'ol fashioned plaster mold? You would just have to make sure you take precaution not to have your skin stick to it.

Answer 4

Once you get the plaster mold - fill it with air-dry clay (spray Pam or other non-stick spray on the inside of the mold first).  Depending on the clay that you get - it could shrink a bit or crack when it dries so you might need to add some more clay or fill in some cracks to look "anatomically correct".  

Since this is just for a one-shot thing, you can make it look pretty by coating it with joint compound (use for drywall and available at any hardware store - it's very cheap) - sand and coat a few times and then you can paint or even copper leaf - depending on your final plans!  (I think it could look pretty cool if you copper leaf it and then put an aged copper wax on top of that).

Have fun!

Answer 5

go to the local Michael's craft supply store and buy the clay that is soft and then hardens, it's only about 3.99