Casting and Creating Modeling Work With EnvironMolds, LLC

Alginate is every life casting artist’s dream come true. It captures detailed body molds without harming the model in any way. However, it is a soft mold and needs to be reinforced with a shell mold for it to retain the shape.

While plaster or cheesecloth will work effectively as a mother mold that keeps the alginate from flopping on itself, another problem arises. Given that alginate does not adhere to anything, how will the alginate mold and plaster bind to each other?

Artists have devised a novel means by embedding fiber in the alginate mold surface. The fibers are what will bind the plaster to the alginate, thus keeping the two molds together after demolding!

However, regular cotton fiber will not do here. EnvironMolds offers veterinary grade and fluffy Kendal cotton roll for this purpose. And you don’t have to coat the entire alginate mold surface with the cotton fiber either; just a small square will do the job!

Indeed, just cut out about a six-inch square from the cotton roll and separate it into two equal halves. The inside will have soft and fluffy fiber which should be gently patted on to the alginate surface after spraying it with an alginate retarder. A light touch is needed so as not to disturb the alginate surface. One half of the cotton pad is enough as the fibers will adhere to the plaster mold and keep them together!

EnvironMolds even offers brass name plates engraved to give the finished life cast and elegant and professional finish!