Concrete Hands Casting

So I love my husband’s hands. I have seen this technique called ‘Life Casting’ done before and thought my husband would be the perfect hand model for me!  But I didn’t want to simply buy a kit to make it, I wanted to create this using my own ingredients. I have never worked with concrete before but I am always looking for something new to try.  So after a little research on the Internet, I was inspired by a cool website called MadeByBarb.com I see Barb also has submitted a few of her projects on Instructables, as well - I am a fan!!  I gathered my supplies and dove right in…

• Alginate Impression Material (I used LifeMold brand purchased on Amazon. Alginate is what dentists use to make a casting of your teeth. It’s a strange but cool product! )
• Distilled Water (you can also use soft water, but hard water makes the Alginate mixture chunky)
• Rapid Set Cement-All
• A bucket to mix the cement in
• A container to mix the Alginate and cast the hand
• A wire wisk
• Fine grade sandpaper
• A handsome hand model
• A glass of wine (optional)  

1. First I had to find a container that would be wide enough and deep enough to fit my husbands hands when held in position. I found a small trash can would work good.
2. I put 10 cups of distilled water in the trashcan, and quickly mixed in a 1-lb bag of Alginate Powder (about 4 cups). NOTE: They say to add the powder to the water, not vice-versa.
3. Now mix it up quickly and vigorously to get the solution to mix thoroughly. It should start to get smooth.
4. When the mixture starts to get like soft pudding, its time to immerse your hands.
5. I had my husband hold his hands into the shape I wanted and he slowly sunk the shaped hands into the Alginate solution. After about 4 minutes with my hand model holding his hands in place, I could tell the Alginate was firm enough for him to dislodge his hands. 
6. The molding material is not hard but it has a super firm, flexible, rubbery consistency when hardened. My model lightly flexed and wiggled his hands to free them as he pulled them out of the solution.

The mold looked perfect! So now I had to mix the cement.

I saw a lot of different concoctions for what people use, from Portland Cement to Plaster of Paris. One of the best websites I found, for working with concrete – in a craft sense - was again, https://www.madebybarb.com/ She has a page discussing tips and tricks for concrete crafting. So I decided to go with CementAll by Rapid Set. It has a very smooth finish when dry, and it sets up quickly!

1. I mixed 2 cups of water and 8 cups of Cement-All and got a perfect consistency similar to a thick milkshake. 
2. I poured the cement mixture into the 2 holes that were set up in the Alginate. NOTE - DON”T DO THIS: I should have stopped pouring the concrete when it got to the top of the holes. But I continued pouring the concrete over the top of the mold (Pic 4) not thinking about how it would set up. You will see why not to do this later.
3. After the cement is in the mold, tap vigorously around the container to break up any air bubbles, and hopefully make them raise to the top, so your casting doesn’t have any holes or bubbles. 
4. When done, I let this sit for 1 hour. That is why I like this Cement-All, it was quick!

1. After an hour, I turned the trash can over a large try to remove the mold. 
2. I needed to coax it around the top edge with a knife since I made the mistake of adding all the extra cement at the top. 
3. I flipped it over again and it came loose just fine.
4. Now I started removing all the Alginate, just digging in with my hands and peeling off chunk after chunk of the product, exposing the hands!   

And this is where I realized what I did – my hands now had a base (Pics 5 & 6). If the hands where in some other sort of position, it would be good to have a base so you could stand it up, but this hand position doesn’t need a base – especially one in the location it was in! So my trusty hand model helped me score and tap off the extra cement in that area.

Cleaning up the hands was probably the most tedious part of all, as you really want to get in the cracks and crevices to remove the Alginate that might be stuck in there. But its easy to remove with a pointed object, as its soft and the concrete is hard. I used a metal skewer, a wooden chopstick and I also used a toothbrush to clean it up as I went. I also used a fine grade sandpaper to smooth any rough edges where needed.

I did the best I could and then let it dry overnight. I was happy to see in the morning that the cement had dried to a nice rustic white! It amazed me at the detail this cement had in it! Look closely at the 2nd pic and you can see finger prints! On the 1st image in the next section, you can clearly see the veins in the back of the hand - so cool! I was really pleased with how this project turned out.

When I was done, I poured myself a glass of wine (optional) and admired my work – and my husbands hands!

After thoughts

• I should have picked a wider container. Although the hands came out great, the opening in the palms wasn’t very wide so I was limited as to what I could put in the opening.
• If you have one of those paint mixers that you use with a drill, that would have been great to use to mix up the Alginate. The Alginate was pretty 'hefty' and it was hard to mix it good with my little wire wisk.