kulrblind

Hey All:
Anyone have any tips about doing body casting? I've seen a few websites on it, but mostly for professional services.

If anyone has any tips or advice on how to go about it, I'd love to hear. Also, if you did it and loved / hated the results, could you tell me more about it?

If you don't know what it is, you can check out pics here:
http://www.artisticbodycasting.com/gallery.htm

Consider that link NSFW, just because it's obvious what's being cast there - the female torso.

Thanks!

Lexi

Sorry, no tips. But thank you for the link. It's a really cool idea!

isis

I bet if you got yourself alot of plaster of paris, and put it in a box, you could make a mold of your body. then, you could pour something into the mold to make it. Not quite a cast per say, but I think it'd be pretty cool. I was thinking of doing my whole arm like that as an art project, purely for the shock factor of having an arm sticking out of the wall of my bedroom

tecoyah

My wife and I did belly casts for our last two kids and had mixed results. My advice(as I was in charge of application). Make sure the humidity is low when you start- fascilitates drying.
Use as much material as you can- we used kits.
make sure the woman is VERY comfortable- moving around will misshape the results.
oil the skin liberally- to avoid unpleasant sticking.
Firm up the breasts- my wife was a bit touchy about the moderate sag, from the drying and anatomy.lol

we also dried the umbilical cord into a spiral and hung it on the finished cast, between breasts.
we had home births so we could keep this momento, you may not have the option, but it looks really cool.
If you do it must be dried in a thin layer of oil. in a bowl.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

__________________
Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

bermuDa

I really like the one in the second group with the hands over the stomach, very artistic!

__________________
I am the very model of a moderator gentleman.

yakimushi

Use a lifting agent! Plaster will bind to skin when it drys! Vaseline is a good one, you can spread it evenly and the plaster will not adhere to it.

Also think of the heat factor, as it sets plaster gets very very hot.

kulrblind

Thanks for the tips, yakimushi and tecoyah. I'll see if I can hunt down a kit locally. Hope there's something available!

tecoyah: I trust you made a bust (no pun intended) from the plaster mold, eh? What was the medium? And did you find the "heat factor" mentioned by yakimushi a problem?

tecoyah

The Heat was negligable, and infact Sarah said it felt good. Search the web for the kits, My wife is a reviewer for E pregnancy and we used several kits in her research (all obtained online).
I just asked my wife and she recommends "proud belly" as the best we used. She also said to use all the strips in the kit, and just keep layering until it is gone.
Very important is to have a place to put the cast for drying that will support it without changing the shape. This was the hardest part for me. Make sure it is in a warm dry place to dry, or it takes forever. Good Luck.

__________________
Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

kulrblind

Thanks again... I've just checked out the ProudBelly site, and ordered a kit. Thankfully, they ship to Canada (and from within Canada, so no duties or extra taxes!).

yakimushi

Hmmm, glad the heat thing wasn't a problem. I've only used plaster in sculpture shop application, so it was probably a different mix never intended for human contact.

I think making these body casts is really cool, do you guys make wax or plaster positives from the casts you're making?

And if possible, could we see some pics of the results?

kulrblind

I'm not sure what's possible, but I'd really like to make a bust of it, rather than just paint the cast itself. If that does happen (i'll have to find the right medium to cast it, which could be a challenge), i'll take pics and post them.

yakimushi

You could just recast it in plaster, the only drawback would be the weight.

I don't know what your looking to spend, but it shouldn't be too expensive to have a casting shop do one in bronze or aluminum. I imagine it could be done for under $400, maybe even less.

kulrblind

Interesting idea. I wonder if there are such places in my area. I'll look into it. Would that process necessitate destroying the original plaster mold, or is it something that can be repeated? I would hate to lose the original.

yakimushi

The way I did my bronze casting was to create the original work in clay, then make a cast of that in plaster.

Once the plaster set up, I made a wax casting from the plaster mold. As long as you're careful, you can make an infinite number of wax casts from this mold.

After getting the wax bit cleaned up, you start to layer the casting material over the wax, encasing it.

Once thats done, there's a few modifications to do, but you're ready to burn the wax out (hence the reason its called the "lost wax" method). Basically the shop will place the casting mold into a kiln at about 1000F and let the wax burn off, as well as getting the rest of the moisture out of the mold.

With the wax burned out, its ready to cast! After casting (and depending on the success of the cast) all there really is to do is break out the metal, wire brush any silica that may be stuck, and cut off the pour points.

If the mold popped while pouring the metal, there is significantly more cleanup (mine took another 50 hours with a grinder), but a professional shop shouldn't have this problem.

And finally, the piece is sandblasted, and if so desired, a patina is applied. Patina's come in red, black, and green for the most part, and prevents the bronze from naturally oxidizing.

Ok, sorry about the length, hope I've answered all your questions!

xim

thats freakin weird!

__________________
If I could be anyone in the world I would be Britney Spears. Shes in so many commercials about pepsi... www.ximcity.com

kulrblind

Hey all: Just got finished the process today, and I must say, that was pretty fun, but wow! do you ever have to work quickly. Here are a couple of pictures for those who asked:

http://users.eastlink.ca/~mmilloy/thebelly2.JPG
http://users.eastlink.ca/~mmilloy/thebelly5.JPG
http://users.eastlink.ca/~mmilloy/thebelly8.JPG

It'll be a day or two before it's fully dry and ready to be handled. We're talking about how we might like to decorate it.

KellyC

wow...another new thing for me...can any one tell me whats the point of doing this? It seems interesting, but I don't know the reason behind it. Just for fun or what?

__________________
Him: Ok, I have to ask, what do you believe?
Me: Shit happens.

kulrblind

Well, it's something that's becoming more and more popular (which is alright in my books), but in our case, it was originally born (no pun) out of a desire to commemorate the whole "pregnancy" event. Pictures can only say so much (and, I'm a lousy photographer with no sense of imagination)... and with this being our first, we're mystified with the body's ability to change in this way. It seems strange to admit this, having seen dozens of pregnant women around us, but it's different when you go through it yourselves.

So.. yeah, in a way, it's just for fun, but it's a more permanent memento of the pregnacy -- as opposed to the more dynamic nature of the child him/herself!

minyn

there are people who bosy cast as a living. go to them, they know what theyre doing. specially since your pregnant, you need to be careful of what stuff you use to cast yourself.

__________________
"Woke up this morning with a blue moon in my eye"
~A3 "woke up this morning"

"Don't compromise yourself, you're all you've got." -Janis Joplin

yakimushi

Excellent! I'm glad it turned out!

Any plans for a positive?