Showing posts with label brass name plate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brass name plate. Show all posts

From Casting to Life Casting and More!

Posted by EnvironMolds , Labels: , , Friday, November 18, 2022 3:55 AM

 

Casts are a part of our everyday life even without us realizing it. They have many practical purposes and are largely used in manufacturing. Artistic casting draws on the same principles of mold making and casting. However, the intention here is to create works of art that have an aesthetic vibe and look pleasing to the eye. Many of them are mounted on a base and finished with a brass name plate to give a more professional appearance.

In fact, many of the art works on display in galleries are castings. The process starts with making a mold. This is nothing but a negative impression of the final cast. It can be made from an existing master that has to be reproduced. However, all castings are not always reproductions.

Artists often create a clay model of the sculpture or casting they have imagined. This is easy to shape and work on as it can be modified as required. A mold is made of this initial model before casting the same. Therefore, it becomes a kind of secondary casting that will be made in the artist’s material of choice. Casts can be made of diverse materials like plaster, gypsum, wax, polyurethane resin, silicone rubber, latex rubber and more.

It is even possible to make them in metal, wood or stone. This doesn’t have to be the original material; recreating a faux copper, bronze, silver, marble, porcelain, wood or other appearance is possible by using cold casting powders.

Therefore, casting is an artist’s haven that becomes an extremely creative medium even as the results are satisfactory and even extraordinary at times!

Making life casts possible

Casting is not limited to inanimate objects alone. Innovative artists have extended this medium to making three-dimensional reproductions of humans as well. Life casts of the hands, feet, face, torso are very popular and are used in many ways to commemorate or capture life events. Group castings are also created with couples, parent-child, friends and the like.

As mentioned earlier, the technique is similar – first make a mold of the part of the body that is to be life cast. The difference here is in the level of care and attention as a living and breathing person will be involved. The model has to be prepped for the session and the materials should not harm him/her in any manner. Alginate and skin-safe silicone are the best materials to use here.

Once the body mold is ready, casting is quite a straightforward process. It is usually made of plaster that can be finished and displayed as required. Life casting artists proudly finish their creations with name plates engraved with the details of their work!

EnvironMolds (https://www.artmolds.com/) is a one-stop shop for everything to do with mold making, casting and life casting.

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Getting a Casting Right

Posted by EnvironMolds , Labels: , , Monday, June 13, 2022 2:02 AM

Casting is the art of making a replica of an object right down to its shape, dimensions and intricate surface details. The first step is to make a mold of the model before proceeding to the casting. The cast can be in the same material as the model or a different one like resin, rubber, plaster, concrete, etc. In case of an art work cast, it can even be displayed on a mount with a brass name plate.

Making the mold plays a crucial role as this will dictate the quality of the final cast. However, casting cannot be dismissed as a simple process of just pouring the casting material into the mold either. There is a lot that can go wrong with the casting in case of lack of proper procedures and caution.

  • Apply an appropriate release agent on the mold as this will allow for easy demolding without damaging the cast. However, going overboard can make the cast greasy and porous.
  • Ensure that the casting material is bubble-free by mixing it under vacuum or even pouring the casting in a vacuum environment.
  • Always shake the casting materials prior to use and follow the exact mix ratio as prescribed. This can affect the curing and make the cast soft, sticky or with weak spots.
  • The casting material has to be mixed properly by scraping the sides and bottom of the container. Otherwise, strips of uncured material will show up on the final casting.
  • Position the mold (and shell mold) properly as this can impact the shape of the casting. Always fill the mold till the brim to ensure that the proper dimensions and details are replicated in the casting.
  • Always check that the mold is not leaking in any manner. Close corners and seams with clay or other sealant to ensure that the casting material does not end up seeping out of the mold.
  • Temperature also affects the casting. Low temperature can increase the viscosity and processing time while too much time will accelerate the curing. Large temperature variances will impact the quality of the cast.
  • Follow the timelines of pot time, working time, cure time and so on. Allow the casting material to sit in the mold for the appropriate time to ensure that it sets properly. Demolding too soon is a strict no-no. On the contrary, do not leave the casting in the mold for a prolonged time either!

Finally, the demolded cast can be finished as desired and even displayed with a customized name plate. EnvironMolds (https://www.artmolds.com/) offers a range of quality name plates engraved with varied options for personalizing the same. Additionally, the art supplier manufacturers and stocks a complete arsenal of materials, supplies, tools and equipment for mold making, casting and life casting.

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Correcting Mistakes in Plaster Life Casts

Posted by EnvironMolds , Labels: , , , , , Tuesday, March 2, 2021 11:12 PM

Errors are bound to happen at different stages of the body casting and life casting process. Here we take a look at the problems that can surface in a plaster life cast and how to correct some of them.


Life casting begins with capturing a mold of the human body and ends with a finished cast that is an exact reproduction of the model. The body mold is usually made using alginate or skin-safe silicone rubber while plaster is preferred for the life cast. The final piece is usually mounted and finished with a brass name plate.


Now there is a lot that can go wrong during the body casting and life casting process. While a lot has been written about working with alginate, let us take a look at the possible complications that can arise during the plaster casting:

Air bubbles – Like any other mold making or casting material, plaster also has a propensity to trap air that can show up as unsightly bubbles on the surface of the cast. Life casting artists are always advised to pour the plaster slowly and carefully in a thin stream from a corner of the mold. Tilting the plaster-filled body mold a bit or tapping the sides will also cause the trapped air to rise to the top and can be burst easily. However, if some bubbles still happen to appear on the life cast, they can be smoothed out with the thumb, back of a spoon or by applying some water. Some artists pop them gently with a knife and then fill the hole with more plaster. Rubbing with sandpaper will help level out the final cast.

Broken fingers – Features like nose and fingers are small and delicate when compared to the entire life cast. They are very likely to break during the demolding process – it could be that the plaster has not set enough or the artist has applied too much pressure or is working in a hasty manner. The broken part can be refastened by wetting both the edges and applying some plaster. Reposition the piece and hold it in place till it sets properly. The joint can be smoothed with a wet finger or some thin plaster.

Similarly, other distortions or squashed features can also be corrected with some careful resculpting. However, it is always better to make the corrections in the body mold itself as far as possible rather than risk disfiguring the life cast.

Rough surface of the casting – At times, the plaster surface of the casting may seem coarse and bumpy in places. This can happen due to various reasons like skewed ratio or improper mixing of the plaster. Either way, the best recourse it to smooth out the surface with sandpaper.

These techniques will work for minor errors and corrections. In case of a major blunder, it is better to redo the life cast rather than keep trying to correct an inherently flawed or inadequate piece.

And when the perfect piece is ready, it can be mounted on a marble or wooden base and finished with customized brass name plates engraved for that wonderful gallery finish!

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Life Casting The Feet

Posted by EnvironMolds , Labels: , , , , , Wednesday, May 27, 2020 6:53 PM

A life cast is always a treasured keepsake. While hands and face are the common body parts favored for a life cast, recreating the feet also makes for a novel souvenir. Making it is a wonderful experience too!

Hands make beautiful life castings. They are very popular for commemorating special occasions, marking the birth of a baby or just celebrating with friends. The possibilities are endless – people try out different ideas - like a couple holding hands together, a rings of hands with friends, parents encircling the hands of a newborn child, a person holding a golf ball, a baseball glove or a trophy and so on.

These life castings can be made in plaster or even cold cast in metal or stone. They are finished with a brass name plate to mark the name, occasion and other details.


However, it’s not just the hands, even the feet have many a story to tell – a step, a movement or even just the position. A life cast of a foot is a complex creation that looks interesting due to the three-dimensional composition. Parents love to get a life cast of their newborn’s feet and even encircle the feet with their own hands to signify the inherent love, care and protection. The casts look beautiful and can be treasured forever.

Making a mold of the foot and then a life cast is also quite a challenge in itself. The leg is usually encased in a batch of alginate mixture. Deciding the pose and angle is important here. The model should feel comfortable while the foot is dipped in alginate. Care is also required as the drying alginate may tend to crack with the body weight itself.

In fact, foot molds are usually made in two parts as it is difficult to extract the leg from the alginate mold once it has set. Even if the life casting artist tries to make a cut to separate the leg from the alginate, the mold may be rendered useless. Making it in two parts is better with proper keys for the registration of the parts and sprue holes for releasing the trapped air.

The foot mold has to capture very many details right from the toes and nails to the folds in the skin, the indentations and even the tiny lines per se. In fact, the mold will also recreate the cracks in the soles of the feet et al. These have to be finished properly prior to the final casting to avoid reproducing them in the cast!

Often artists use trial and error to work out the best method of making the mold from the body. This calls for patience and foresight while making the body molds again and again.

Finally, the life cast of the feet, or any other body part or even the entire body should be finished with name plates engraved with the title, artist name and other details. This will give a professional, gallery finish to the life cast and add to the experience as well!

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Capturing Tiny Memories of a Baby with Life Casting

Posted by EnvironMolds , Labels: , , , , Tuesday, February 18, 2020 4:06 AM

A little one will not be so little for very long. The best way to capture the baby’s moments is to seal them in a life cast. Casts of a baby’s hands, feet or even the bottom will make for a lovely memory.

A child is a baby for hardly any time. The initial months and years may be frenzied, but very soon the time will seem to have flown away. Before the parents realize, the baby has grown into a toddler and will bloom into a young boy or girl. The parents find themselves longing to cling on to these precious moments even as they delight in watching their offspring grow into mature and independent adults.

Photographs and videos can never do justice when a parent wants to really ‘hold on to’ a quickly growing child. How about a life cast of the baby with a brass name plate instead?

Indeed, life casts of a newborn or infant’s hands and feet are very popular keepsakes among the new parents of today. Even the baby’s cute bottom can be captured in a naughty life cast. These make for a wonderful memory of the baby that will be cherished forever. The baby life casts can also be gifted to a grandparent or other close family member as an emotionally powerful keepsake of the little one.

Making the Baby Cast

Capturing a body mold of the baby is a simple and straightforward process. It works easily with newborns as they cannot move or fidget at all. The mold can be made while the baby is asleep itself.

Experienced life casting artists can work with infants and toddlers too. The body mold doesn’t take long to set and all it takes is holding the child in place for some time to keep him or her from squirming.

The parents need not worry about the material affecting the child’s soft and sensitive skin either. Alginate is a natural, organic material that is derived from seaweed and is totally safe for the skin. The artist will still do a patch test first to check for any reaction on the skin.

The alginate paste is first applied over the body part to be cast and then the mold is reinforced with plaster bandages. It sets fairly quickly and can be demolded easily. The artist will first apply petroleum jelly on the skin to ensure an easy removal.

Once the mold is cured, the life cast is usually made with plaster. It is even possible to make a fake metal or stone life cast using cold casting powders. The finished cast can be framed and finished with name plates engraved with the name of the baby, the date and so on.

In fact, it is even possible to go a step up with a parent and child casting. Hands intertwined or overlapping each other or joined together in prayer – there are numerous options and the only limit is your imagination!

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Preparing for Making a Life Casting

Posted by EnvironMolds , Labels: , , , , , , Thursday, December 12, 2019 4:36 AM

There’s a lot that goes into making a life casting. The procedures and materials may vary, but the artist will always need to prepare his studio and pay particular attention to the model’s well-being.

There are many different ways of making a body mold for life casting – some artists use alginate, some prefer skin-safe silicone rubber, while some simply use plaster bandages to capture the shape and size of the abdomen or torso. Even the life cast can be made in plaster or even with resin for cold casting to replicate the look of stone or metal.


It goes without saying that every life cast is a beautiful work of art and it should be appropriately finished with a brass name plate. This name plate will announce the name of the artwork and the artist along with other details like date of creation.

When starting with the life casting, the artist needs to prepare the place and the model for what lies ahead. It is better to protect the floor with plastic sheets or other covering. Keep hand towels handy. All the required materials and supplies should be kept ready to avoid undue delay while making the body mold. The studio should not be too cold or too warm either. There should be bathing facilities so that the model can wash off the residue once the mold is removed.

In a similar vein, the artist should brief the model about what lies ahead. Discuss the pose and practice it beforehand to ensure proper comfort. Props and supports can be provided if needed. Emphasize the need to stay calm and stationary while the work is in progress. Explain the process so that the model is aware of what will happen.

Finally, the artist should work carefully and without taking too much time over the process.

Life casting artists can procure all the required materials, tools and supplies – like alginate, plaster of Paris bandages, mixers, spatulas, rasps and even name plates engraved – from the EnvironMolds website, Artmolds.com. They also provide instructional materials, workshops and personal guidance, as needed.

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Art Supplies Available at EnvironMolds

Posted by EnvironMolds , Labels: , , , , Monday, September 23, 2019 2:18 AM

The EnvironMolds website features an interesting array of art supplies that are distinctive, top quality and handy as well. It includes eyes, body parts, paints, makeup, name plates, mounts, etc.

EnvironMolds specializes in providing easy access to everything to do with mold making, casting and life casting materials. It’s not just about materials, tools and equipment needed for creating these intricate artworks. The website, Artmolds.com also features an Art Supplies tab that encompasses a wide variety of unique and useful art supplies to support these arts.

This includes eyes and body parts, makeup supplies, paints and dyes, craft kits, marble and wooden bases and name plates engraved. Let’s take a look at some of the offerings:

•    The eyes and body parts feature realistic looking glass and acrylic eyes for life casts and sculptures. This includes flat backed, semi-round and fully round eyes along with hand blown ones (with or without veins). Larger-than-life plaster study casts of body parts are available for studio reference and the Styrofoam mannequin head can be used for mask making.

•    The paints and dyes section opens up specialized paints and pigments that are compatible with latex, silicones and polyurethanes. Skin-safe body paints are also available in a variety of colors.

•    The makeup supplies offer extensive options in high quality makeup products - face and body paints, eye makeup, brushes, applicators, bald caps, etc. - that are perfect for theatre as well as personal use.

•    The bases in wood and marble are just the thing for mounting a sculpture and give a finished look to the artwork. These are available in different shapes, sizes and colors to suit the sculpture.

•    A brass name plate engraved with the title of the artwork and the name of the artist lends the perfect finishing touch. The life cast or sculpture will get a professional look akin to the galleries! There are options in sizes, type of corners and lines of text.

•    The craft kits have an interesting lineup of options ranging from making pot castings, leaf castings, fossil castings to even life casts of the hand or feet.


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Opening The Eyes In A Life Cast

Posted by EnvironMolds , Labels: , , , , , Monday, June 24, 2019 3:54 AM

It is customary to make a head cast with closed eyes. But it will look real only when you can ‘open’ the eyes during the casting process. Expert sculpting skills will stand you in good stead here.

Life casting is an artistic process of making a beautiful likeness of a person. The three-dimensional creation surpasses the images produced in photographs and paintings and gives it an incredibly realistic impression, right down to the natural creases, the usual pores and even the real texture of your skin.

Once the body mold is done and the cast is ready, the finished life cast can be mounted on a suitable base. Adding a brass name plate engraved with your name and other details will be the final touch that gives a professional and gallery-like finish to the artwork.

The results look amazing, but getting there is replete with intricate complications. One of the most challenging aspects of making a life cast is getting the eyes right in the body mold.

The life casting artist will obviously apply the skin safe alginate or silicone rubber all over the eyes. The gooey substance is carefully worked over the lids and into the corners of the eye sockets to capture the contours in detail. This will create a life cast head with closed eyes. After all, it is virtually impossible for a model to keep the eyes open during the life casting process!

However, the closed eyes will make the head cast look akin to a death mask. Opening the eyes is what will add ‘life’ and make it look natural.

Experienced life casting artists have persevered to work out effective ways to sculpt the eyes open.



It is after a lot of trial and error that an artist will be able to make accurate incisions to remove the ‘eyes’ from the face mold. Exceptional sculpting skills are required to carve new eyes as if they are open. It involves shaping fully open or half closed eyelids with clay or plaster. The cavities and the lower lids also have to be sculpted and chiseled with infinite care and patience. Painting and other finishing techniques are used to create realistic eyes in the final life cast.

Alternatively, some artists also use prosthetic eyes to give their life cast a realistic effect. They carve out the sockets in the body mold and fit glass or acrylic eyes into the head portrait. This may seem easy at the outset, but it still requires proficient sculpting to fashion the eyelids and shape the corners in the mold.

Ready eye forms are available in art stores that look natural and add a lifelike appearance to the life cast. They should be chosen with care to suit the shape and color of the model’s original eyes. Some artists even prefer to make their own eye forms with resin and add detailing to the same.

Whatever ‘eye-opening’ method you use, do not forget to add brass name plates engraved once the life cast is ready for display.

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Animatronics By Way of Life Casting

Posted by EnvironMolds , Labels: , , , , Thursday, December 14, 2017 4:33 AM

Life casting has become very popular as more and more people want realistic three-dimensional representations of their face, hands baby bump and even the whole body. But did you know that life casting is not limited to say, making a body mold and cast of someone’s torso before putting a brass name plate beneath it?


Life casting enjoys great patronage in other fields, especially so in animatronics. We don’t realize it when we see it on screen, but the looming dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, the gigantic sharks in Jaws and the fictional aliens in ET are all courtesy some exceptional life casting. In fact, many of the babies, dummies and robots we see in movies owe their existence to life casting.

The artist first creates a 3-D model from the sketch before building molds and life casts from the same. The model is carefully finished and given a life-like appearance with flexible skin, facial features and other body parts. Electronic and mechanical components are incorporated to make the figure perform as desired. The movements are controlled by machine and filmed on camera to create some spellbinding celluloid moments.


Various materials go into fabricating the robotic devices. For instance, it requires alginate for making the molds, plaster bandages for reinforcing the molds, silicone or latex for simulating the skin surface in the final cast and specialized paints for the finishing.

All these items and other tools can be easily sourced from www.artmolds.com. EnvironMolds also provides customized brass name plates engraved if you are looking to make regular life casts of your family and friends.

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