Plaster Hands

For this project, we were assigned to use alginate to make a mold of our hand, which we would pour plaster into in order to make a sculpture out of our hands. The first step of this project was to make the alginate. Alginate is a liquid that is used to make molds. It is made from a powder that you mix with water. Ms. Medsker made a big batch of alginate that we all used to make our molds. To make the mold of our hands, we had to stick a hand into the alginate which was in a plastic cup. We had to keep our hands inside for a while so that the alginate could turn into a jello-like substance. Then we took our hands out and poured plaster into the molds. We peeled the alginate off our hands when the plaster hardened. When mine came out, some parts, like the tips of the fingers, were broken off and there were a bunch of little air bubbles that prevented it from being smooth. I wasn't satisfied with how mine turned out, so I decided to make another batch of alginate and plaster and start over. I repeated the same steps, being very careful that the position I had my hand in would allow for there to be no broken pieces. A few days later, I took the plaster hand out of the alginate and it looked a lot better than my first one did. I still kept the first hand in case something happened and I had to use that one after all. Our next step in this project was to come up with a design/materials that we could use to turn our hands into a sculpture. It had to connect to us in some way, so I decided that I wanted to make a variety of little butterflies, bumblebees, and dragonflies because I like nature a lot. I also knew that I wanted to paint the hand but I wasn't sure what color to do. I decided to paint it yellow because it a very natural color and it's one of my favorites. I used watercolor to paint my hand, but I made sure not to add too much water to make sure the hand got well-covered in paint. I only had to do one coat and I was satisfied. Next, I started making my little insects. I used sculpey clay, which can be baked a small oven. I started with the bumblebee, then the butterfly, then the dragonfly. I made sure to use a variety of different colors and techniques to give them texture. When I was done making the little insects I used the oven to bake them. When they were done baking, I took them out of the oven and glued them onto the hand using gorilla glue. I stuck them onto random places and didn't have certain places that I wanted them to be placed. Overall, I think this project reflects who I am as a person and what my personality and interests are like. I think this project is a success, but if I were to change anything about it or go back and fix something, I would add more detail to the bumblebee.