Plaster Bandage Life Casts

[Wired]

I've made a couple life casts using plaster bandages already, but they were really hard to get out of, for example my forearm piece I had to cut open with a craft knife, and that could have gone horribly wrong... Has anyone got any advice on how to make these? I can show pics of how I'm doing it if anyone wants.

 

[samuel murray]

Just a suggestion, but maybe you could make some sort of divider with bits of thin cardboard or something like that. Similar to how helmets and such are molded with a bit of a divider down the middle, then when it sets, just pull it out and remove the cast

 

[Nintendude]

When you make a life cast with bandages you will want to put something like petroloum jelly so you are not burned by the plaster material probably one of the best ways to get the bandage off is to use a special pair of scissors that one of the blades has a serrated edge and the other blade of the scissors has a straight edge after the cast is off use tape to secure it back together and wrap it with a plaster bandage inside and out along the cut line, not sure whether you want to use resin or what you will be casting inside the plaster cast, but I think you can also go to TK560.com I think there's a tutorial on how to do all this on there or another site I''m thinking of.

 

[Wired]

Thanks for the advice, I used the jelly stuff in the first place as I'd remembered from art in school it's harmful to skin. I had a look around and the closest I could find were bandage scissors which are like a funny angle compared to normal ones. My problem with scissors was that I couldn't fit them between the cast and my arm…

 

[Nintendude]

The trick to getting the scissors in there is you can use a exacto knife to cut just a little ways in if you have to so you can go the rest of the way with scissors you may have wrapped it too tight if you can't get the scissors in to cut it.

 

[Wired]

yeah I did XD Thing was I was going for a really accurate one but I guess I lose the accuracy when sculpting clay onto it, I'll try that next time. Idk how Sevv got out of his life cast from the waist down :S

 

[wolfshui]

the only way to make it easy(its really just more work) is to make a two part mold. first use petroleum jelly(not harmful) and only use pieces to wrap half your arm in the plaster bandages. you want to let that dry and then while its still attached, wrap the second half. Once dried it should be able to come apart will minimal prying. once off the arm it should look like a "arm" shaped cylinder that's cut right down the middle.