Baby Casting | Page 4 - ArtMolds

Spread open the alginate mold and carefully pull out the casting. Check it for flaws, there are bound to be a few. You can clean them up with your box cutter. You can also fill in any depression with a little Spackle wall repair compound.

If you are making a presentation or completing a paid commission, wait forty-eight hours and then seal your casting with clear polyurethane matte sealer. Krylon® and Rustoleum® are good brands to consider. 

As a picture without a frame, your casting is really not complete without some sort of display mounting such as wood or marble base. You can attach the casting to either using two-part epoxy found at the local hardware store. Finally, a personalized brass name plate affixed to the base on which you mounted your casting will provide that special gallery touch to your artistic works.

Figure 16. The baby’s hand is inspected, and once it is cleaned up, it is ready to mount on a presentation plaque.

Figure 17. The baby’s hand is inspected, and once it is cleaned up, it is ready to mount on a presentation plaque.

Casting a Baby’s Foot.

The casting of a baby’s or toddler’s foot follows the identical procedure used for hand casting. The inference, of course, is the extremity. Instead of a round mold container you need to use a shallow rectangular container. This can easily be obtained by using a deli container or a small plastic food storage container. You will need a little mold alginate to fill the container as it is usually a little larger the half cup used for the hand.

After the alginate is set, extracting the foot may require you to use a plastic knife to separate the alginate in the back of the heel so the foot can more easily slip out. But that is really the only difference. Casting the foot mold is identical to casting a hand mold.

Casting a Baby’s Bottom

For casting a baby’s bottom you will need a shallow bowl and about one pound of fast setting alginate such as LifeMold. Mix the alginate with warm water that isn’t hard (distilled water is always preferred) and fill the bowl. Have the mom place baby into the bowl while the alginate cures. This should take no more than three minutes or so.

Figure 18. A foot casting is being taken using a small plastic container as the mold container.

Figure 19. To create a casting of a baby’s bottom, the baby is placed in a shallow bowl filled with alginate.

Then lift the baby straight out. You may need a little help for this as the alginate will create a suction against the skin. So take your fingers and gently separate the alginate where it is sticking to the skin to break the suction.

Inspect the mold as it has the tendency to contain loose  bits of alginate at this stage. So hold the alginate and the bowl together so that alginate mold doesn’t drop out and flip it upside down to clear out ant debris. The mold is ready to cast at this stage. Mix casting plaster and water. The mix ratio for CastRite is 10 parts CastRite to 7 parts water by weight. Fill the mold to the top and wait three hours before de-molding.

Figure 20. After the alginate has cured the baby is removed to reveal the alginate mold.

Figure 21. The alginate mold is filled to the top with casting plaster and left undisturbed for three hours.

When the casting medium has set carefully flip the bowl, alginate mold and casting medium upside down to free the mold from the casting bowl. Lift off the alginate to reveal the newly cast baby's bottom. 

Once the casting is cleaned up of flashing and small holds filled with Spackle set it aside to dry for forty-eight hours. Then seal with a matte clear polyurethane.

Happy Mold Making!

Figure 22. Once the casting plaster has set, the casting is removed to reveal a highly detail casting of the baby’s bottom.