How Easy is Baby Casting?
Posted: Wednesday, January 06, 2010
by Summer Hatton
For Keep's Sake
Creating 3d castings of your baby's hand or foot can be a very rewarding experience and needless to say, by doing it yourself, you can also save a lot of money.
The best place to start is with a baby casting kit. There are a number of companies that sell these online, including For Keep's Sake with or without frames. The kit usually includes the following:
Chromatic Alginate or another moulding material. This is used to create the mould of the baby's hand or foot. For life casting Alginate is the most popular moulding compound because it is completely safe and in fact used by dentists in the mouths of both adults and children to take dental mouldings. It can also capture all the fine creases in the skin, resulting in a life-like finish.
High Grade Casting Powder . This is used to create the cast and once dry can be painted in the colour of your choice.
Poly Bags or a Container. This will be used to create the mould in.
Cocktail sticks. Once the cast has set and is dry and the rubbery alginate mould peeled away from it, there are often little bits of the mould left in some of the skin creases of the case. Cocktail sticks are useful for cleaning these little pieces out
Stirrers
Paint and Paintbrush.
Deep rebate box frame. This usually includes a twin aperture mount so that a photo can be displayed as well as the casting.
Complete set of instructions.
Glue
There are 7 general steps to the casting process:
Step 1 Prepare the baby's hand or foot by rubbing a generous amount of baby moisturiser on it. This will help to ease it out of the mould when it's been created. Mix vigorously to break down any lumps, the colour will turn pink whilst being mixed.
Step 3 When the mixture has reached the desired consistency (consult instructions) you will need to pour it into the container or bag that you are using and place the foot or hand into the mixture.
Step 4 Setting time will vary so again consult the instructions. Usually fast setting alginate is used, given a baby's tendancy to wriggle, which be take under a minute to set. Once set, carefully remove the hand or foot so as not to tear the mould.
Step 5 The casting powder is then mixed with water, stirring slowly and carefully to avoid air bubbles. Once the mixture has reached the desired consistency it is poured bit by bit into the mould, swirling the mixture around the mould to ensure that it reaches all the nooks and crannies. Once full the plaster is left to set.
Step 6 Once dry, usually a few hours later, the mould can be broken off the cast. It is a rubbery like texture and will break away easily.
Step 7 The cast can now be painted. Most kits include a silver or gold paint, but any colour acryllic paint can be used on the cast for an effective finish.
Step 8 If you have chosen a kit with a frame, the last stage of the process is framing the cast. You may find that the flat side of the cast is a little uneven and may require a little light sanding. This can be done easily using a fine sandpaper. Once flat the casting can be stuck to the backing board and the back of the frame closed.
So how easy is baby casting? I think you'll agree, that provided you buy the right kit and get the right instructions it's much easier that you would have ever imagined. Don't forget to visit For Keep's Sake to view our range.
3D casts of your baby's hand or foot (or both) make excellent keepsakes and will ensure that you can never forget how small they once were. Invaluable!
"For Keep's Sake" sells a range of baby casting kits and frames. Visit http://www.forkeepssake.co.uk to view our kits. We also sell Baby Keepsake Frames, 3D Name Frames, Wooden Wall Letters and Name Canvases.
Find us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/For-Keeps-Sake/339796330205
Follow our Blog: http://forkeeps-sake.blogspot.com/
This Article has been viewed 465 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (7 total)Hi Summer.Welcome to SearchWarp!This is an excellent article on making casts. But the title had me going for a minute. I wasn't really sure what to expect. Could just be my fault, I tend to take things quite literally. Glad to see you weren't talking about taking a mold of a complete baby or casting it out of a window or something. :)Dianne
Welcome to SearchWarp Summer ...Great article, interesting idea. I was actually expecting content about movie casting ... after reading the title!!
Thanks, Summer, for writing. Welcome to SearchWarp. ~mogama~
Thanks for your comments guys. I guess until I had a baby - baby casting meant nothing to me so I'm not surprised for the confusion :o) nevertheless once you have a little one it's one of the best ways of preserving a keepsake and memory all in one. Just for the record, i've no idea about movie casting lol. Happy new year all and thanks for reading my article.
Something very new to me....
Welcome to searchwarp! I tried to do this with my daughter...and failed miserably...where were you 20 years ago? Nice work, thanks.Rich
I have used one of these kits as well, and they are quite easy. I treasure the imprint of my son's hand. In fact, your article inspires me to update that, since it has been a while. Your articles is well-written and easy to follow. Welcome to SearchWarp, and thanks for the great article!
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.