Mold making and Casting products through EnvironMolds, LLC

 Use too few plaster of Paris bandages for making a shell mold and you will be left with a distorted mold on your hands. Tips on how to calculate the requisite amount of rolls will prove helpful.

Plaster of Paris bandages are a versatile accessory when making molds, and especially body molds. The most common use of plaster bandages is for making shell molds. Also known as mother molds, they provide rigid support so that flexible molds made of alginate, latex rubber and silicone rubber can retain their shape. The shell mold is made over the original mold so that it can house the mold and ease the casting process.

Apart from this, the bandages are also directly used to make form molds like the torso, belly and legs in body casting. They are also useful in mask making.

This brings us to the question – how many plaster bandages will an artist need for making a shell mold or even a form mold? Keeping sufficient rolls of bandages handy is imperative. In case you fall short during the mold making process, the mold is most likely to distort and collapse into a useless mess.

This is especially important as the bandages are built up in overlapping layers to ensure that the mold become sturdy enough after drying. Therefore, eyeball estimates by newbies can easily go haywire.

A simple rule of thumb is that the bigger the mold, the thicker should be the shell mold to ensure that it does not distort during the casting. Following is an estimate of the number of layers of plaster bandages required during life casting:

• Face mold - 4 layers
• Head mold - 5 layers
• Half torso - 5 layers
• Full torso – 6 to 8 layers

Now, a standard 5-inch roll of 5 yards plaster bandage yields around 900 square inches of bandage therefore, a single roll of plaster bandage will easily suffice for a typical face mold. A head mold will require 4 to 5 rolls and half torsos can be covered with 4 rolls. Full torso will take about 5 to 6 rolls for proper and thick coverage.

Environmolds (https://www.artmolds.com) offers a broad range of top quality plaster of Paris bandages. The creamy and smooth PopArt Plaster Bandages are available in 5 inches, 8 inches and 12 inches by 5 yards length. These are superior quality quick-setting bandages that are formulated to wet out creamy with a thick plaster consistency. They set quickly within 5-minutes itself.

Then there is the ArtBands Plaster Of Paris gauze bandages (5 inches * 5 yards) with a modern formulation that produces a consistent fast-setting plaster coat that adheres to the gauze cloth uniformly. It yields a smooth, creamy surface, is fast setting, resists delamination and gives excellent strength. The Gypsona Plaster Bandage is another premium bandage (6 inches * 5 yards) that has been the first choice of mold makers and life casting artists for over a decade.

 Clay is a multipurpose material that lends itself well for different uses. From sculpting and special effects to mold making, pottery and even other rudimentary applications – clay has a lot going for it.

Types of clay

The regular water based clay is suitable for children’s art classes and playrooms only as it tends to dry and shrink quickly. The professional grade oil-based clays are preferred by artists around the world. They have the same flexibility as regular clay, but the oil content keeps it from drying or cracking even after being exposed to air. They are firmer, capture fine details and can hold the form better as well. Heating and cooling allows the artist to control its malleability. In fact, this clay can be remolded and is inherently reusable.

Another variant of non drying and oil based modeling clays ballistic clay. This is primarily used by government agencies to test body armor as it is considered to be of similar density and elasticity as live animal muscle tissue.

 Mold making and casting requires the use of a release agent for proper demolding. MoldEZ Hair and Mold Release is used for the demolding of body molds and it proves handy for other functions too.

A mold maker or casting artist needs a lot of supplies and tools to make their art come alive. Apart from the regular items, there are a few tricks up their sleeve which ensure that the mold or cast turns out perfect.

For instance, the mold maker will deair the resins and rubbers in a pressure pot or vacuum chamber to ensure that the mold is bubble-free. Similarly, a casting artist will use specialized paints and dyes to color the resins and rubbers to eliminate the chances of cracking or chipping later on.

Another system that these artists follow is using a release agent before making the mold or cast. This is basically a lubricant which creates a slip effect and prevents the possibility of the material fusing to the model or mold. This in turn ensures easy demolding without any unnecessary stretching or tearing. It is basically akin to greasing a pan prior to baking so as to allow easy removal of the food without any sticking. This also fulfills a dual purpose as the release agent can seal the surface of porous materials.

Likewise, even life casting artists apply a mold release on the human body so that the body mold will come off easily without snagging in the fine body hair.

It follows that the type of release agent will have to vary depending on the usage. After all, a release that is suitable for metal may create an adverse reaction when applied on plastic and vice versa. This is why release agents are specially formulated for different materials so that they don’t impact the model or mold in any manner.

The life casting artist has to be particularly careful when working on the human body – specialized release agents like MoldEZ Hair and Mold Release or simple petroleum jelly works best!

Applying the release agent

Most release agents come in cans and can be sprayed or brushed on the surface to be molded or cast. Spraying is considered better as it will create a smooth finish. Brush marks can end up reproduced on the mold or cast and look quite unbecoming. Ensuring an even coat in the specified thickness is also essential.

MoldEZ Hair and Mold Release comes as a cream formulation that can be applied on the skin. It is usually preferred for the hair as the cream can be worked in easily and then combed to create a uniform effect. It will also wash out easily the first time itself. On the other hand, petroleum jelly can make the hair greasy and will not wash off easily either.

The same material also works well for filling in any pin holes in the body mold before proceeding to the casting stage. Some artists also apply this release agent on the edges of the alginate mold to bond it with the plaster shell mold.

MoldRite 25 is a popular silicone rubber formulation suitable for general mold making. The molds are easy to make and turn out to be high quality and long-lasting. They reproduce perfect details too.

Silicone rubber is a versatile material that lends itself well for making different types of molds. Moreover, the rubber is also formulated in diverse forms to suit varied purposes – there are separate formulations for general molds, food molds, body molds, mask making and doll reborning and even for making quick molds.

MoldRite 25 Silicone is a standard silicone mold rubber for making traditional molds from the house of EnvironMolds. It is favored by mold makers, sculptors, prototype artists, craft artists and other artists for making molds of candles, soaps, toys, picture frames, figurines, statuary, jewelry, plaster moldings, architectural pieces, prototyping and more. In fact, it is suitable for reproducing any item which requires high quality molds.