Priley Riley, Hand casts and an update on the chest cast, 7th May 2014

I did two more hand casts today- the one on the right of the photo turned out very well, whereas I didn’t get the result I was hoping for with the cast on the bottom left. This is because the knuckle area is slightly deformed, which was caused by the suction from me pulling my hand out of the wax mould. The cast at the top was made on the 21^st of March but I think the hand casts look nice as a group which is why I photographed them together.

My chest cast is progressing well. I have done a lot of work on it today and last Friday so that it can be put into a vacuum forming machine, which will produce a plastic mould of the chest cast. I will then be able to use this plastic mould to make the ice sculpture. The cast requires a lot of preparation before it can go in the machine; the cast must sit perfectly flat, the sides must be blocked in with plaster that is angled slightly so the base is wider, small holes must be drilled into the cast, any sharp edges must be shaven down, etc. All of these adjustments to the cast need to be made so that the plastic mould can be produced, be undamaged, and be separated from the cast without problems.