Face Casting Procedure with Alginate

Difficulty Level: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Difficulty Level: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 With the EASY Face Casting Kit & DVD

While its easier to learn this procedure with our face casting kit, you can purchase the bulk components and do it yourself. This is not a difficult procedure, but please be patient with yourself because the first one may not come out as well as you'd hoped. Learn from your mistakes and have fun with it.

Setup: Get all your materials prepped and ready to go before you start mixing anything. You'll need:

	1/4 pound alginate (we recommend 590, 680, 880 or Genesis"V" for this)
	2 cups of lukewarm water (not hot)
	2 rolls 3"x5yd plaster bandage
	Large plastic garbage bag to protect subject's clothing
	Mixing bowl and whisk for mixing alginate
	3 pounds LiquiStone Gypsum Cement
	Small bucket of water for wetting bandages
	Vaseline
	Small lump of Plasticine clay
	Scissors
	Paper towels
	popsicle stick or similar stick
	Sense of Humor

Cut your plaster bandages into strips. About 1/4 of them 6 inches, 1/2 of them 10 inches and 1/4 of the 12 inches. Also cut about 10- 2"x 2" squares.

Vaseline: Put a generous amount of Vaseline on the subject's eyebrows and other facial hair. This will keep the alginate from going down between the hairs. Most moustaches can be treated the same way. Beards are a challenge and not recommended for beginners. Also put Vaseline on any hair that will be covered by plaster bandages like sideburns and above the forehead. You don't want plaster sticking to hair- painful to remove.

Perimeter Frame: Wet some plaster bandages, fold them over lengthwise and make a perimeter frame for your face mold. This is a terrific innovation and we recommend it highly.

Mix the alginate: Put the water into the powder and stir with the whisk, then beat it until smooth or about 40-45 seconds total. Don't rush, but move quickly- the clock is now ticking. With 590-IBG and 90°F water, you'll have a TOTAL of 5 minutes before it sets.

Apply the Alginate: Pick up some alginate with your hands and start applying it to the forehead. Work your way down and around the edges. Leave the nose for last. Make sure you are overlapping the plaster bandage perimeter by at least half.

Gently push alginate into the corners of the eyes with your fingertips. If alginate begins to drip off the chin, you can catch it and put it back on the face.

Talk to your subject to make sure they're OK. Don't try to make them laugh. It won't be funny if you ruin the mold.

Nose: With your popsicle stick, carefully paint alginate around the nose opening.

Bandage Squares: Since we've used warm water, the alginate will start setting from the inside first. When the surface is still tacky, pick up the small dry plaster bandage squares and start tapping them into the surface of the alginate all around- cheeks, forehead, chinline, etc. This will give our outer plaster bandage shell something to hang on to.

When the alginate is set, cut it back with a dull knife so the alginate covers just half of the plaster bandage perimeter.

Plaster Bandages: Begin wetting the plaster bandages. Do this gently and quickly. Gently squeeze out excess water and begin applying them to the alginate from the outside in. The first row should overlap and attach to the outer perimeter that's already there. When you do this the edge of the alginate is pinched between two layers of bandages and makes the whole structure much stronger.

The nose needs to be well supported. The little thin strip shown at the right is really great. Put on two of them for safety. There are several pictures here that show different types of nose support. Use them.

Keep going until the whole face is covered with at least 3 layers of bandages. Remember this is the structural support that holds the alginate in the proper shape, so scrimping here will have consequences later. You will need a total of 1 1/2 to 2 rolls of 3" plaster bandages.

Remove the Mold: It usually takes about 10-12 minutes for the plaster bandages to set firmly. When they do, ask the subject to scrunch up their face, move their eyebrows, mouth etc to help loosen the alginate from the face.

At the same time, begin gently prying the edges of the mold from the face. If you didnt' use enough Vaseline on some of the hair, you're going to need to reach underneath the edge and cut the hairs. At this point there's no saving them anyway and pulling them out is much more painful than cutting them. Try not to let that happen.

Have the subject keep their eyes closed for a few seconds until they can get used to the light. Its like coming out of a movie theatre in the daytime.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: You must, must, must coat the exposed plaster bandage perimeter with Vaseline before you begin to pour your cast. The plaster will stick to the LiquiStone and become one unit, almost impossible to remove.

You've also got to plug up the nostril holes so stone doesn't leak out. This can be done with a plaster bandage on the outside and Vaseline on the inside or you can mix up a little more alginate and put it into the nostril holes. Be artistic about it and you'll have less to clean up later.

Pour the Casting: We recommend a "double pour". That is two thin layers of LiquiStone instead of one thick one. Mix up about 1 1/2 pounds of LiquiStone. (LiquiStone mixes 3 parts LiquiStone to 1 part Water (by weight). That's the OPPOSITE of how you mixed the alginate.

With your hand, begin applying the LiquiStone to the inner surface of the mold going up to the edge of the plaster bandage perimeter- not over it. The LiquiStone will tend to slump down into the low places so keep working it up the sides until is begins to set (5-10 minutes).

When the first layer sets, mix up another 1 1/2 pounds and repeat the process. This time embed a piece of wire into the LiquiStone so you can hang up the face cast later.

When this last layer sets hard (about 2 hours) you can remove the cast from the mold. It should come out pretty easily.

Finishing: Trim the edges with a grinder, rasp or file. If you need to repair a couple of small bubble holes, soak the area with water before applying a small amount of LiquiStone. Otherwise the water will be absorbed out of the patch material by the casting and it won't set properly.

If you need to carve out a small amount of LiquiStone due to an imperfection in your mold, do so as soon as possible. LiquiStone will double in strength in the first 24 hours.

Painting: Wait at least 3 days before painting with spray paints because the LiquiStone must be completely dry. Krylon makes some wonderful metallic spraypaints that look great on this type of sculpture. Shiny gold or silver usually look cheesy, but the bronzes, pewters, coppers and brasses can look very nice. Put the paint on in thin layers to avoid dripping. White and gold paints will drip much faster than other paints (for some reason) and will also cover surface detail quickly.