Recreation of body parts with Jesmonite

To start you need to make a mold of the part of the body that we need to recreate. The material we will use will be Alginate. Yes, a similar compound which they use in dentistry and that will allow us to remove the mold very quickly and safely without it constituting any type of aggressiveness towards the skin.

For this activity we are going to take as a reference the mold of one hand.

Material needed (the quantities will depend on the number of copies you want to make):

-Alginate for molds

-Mixed sticks

-Container (plastic or paper)

-Precision scale

-Jesmonite acrylic resin

-Water (to mix with the alginate and to clean yourself, you do not need any type of solvent)

-Container where fits the body part you want to recreate

Step by step to create copies of your hands with Jesmonite:

1-You will need to have a container to pour the alginate on the one hand and mix it in its proper percentage with water (100gr of alginate / 210-250gr of water).

After that, immediately afterwards, we put our hand inside the mixture when it is still very liquid and wait between 3-5 minutes.

* For an adult hand we recommend about 450gr of alginate

2-Once the alginate is dry, it provides some flexibility and margin so that you can get your hand out well (you can always help yourself with a little soap before putting your hand on to facilitate unmolding.

* For other parts of the body, the same procedure must be applied, although it can also be applied directly above (as is the case with the face).

3-Well, we already have the mold. Now the next step is to pour the resin, acrylic resin. We recommend that you try Jesmonite resin, which in addition to perfectly copying every detail of the hand in an amazing way

It is very easy to use, it is a powder base and a liquid base that when are mixed (1kg of liquid / 2.5kg of powders) create a composite that can even dry you for half an hour to an hour. It is important to add that you can pigment this resin so you can make your pieces the color you want.

Both the Jesmonite AC100 (more resistant but also more viscous) or the AC300 (less resistant but also more liquid) work perfectly.

* The amount of Jesmonite that is normally used for an adult hand is about 500 / 600gr, for a small child's hand it would be more or less half, so we always recommend that you calculate it since it can be done in one way very easy: just with a measuring glass, putting water on it and then sticking your hand in, what has risen in the water level will be the volume of our hand, we have to multiply that result by 1.8, which is the density of Jesmonite .

4- Once we have the resin mixed with the pigment (we have a reduced working time of about 10-15 minutes) we recommend applying a little of the mixture in the alginate mold and making sure that it enters through all the holes creating a thin layer by the face where there are more details. Once a first layer has been made, it is time to pour all the resin, always from the lowest area, ensuring that there are as few bubbles as possible.

5-Between half an hour and an hour you will have your piece already made, it is time to break the alginate and discover the piece we have created!

Now comes the big question ... And if I want to make more copies, do I have to make an alginate mold again? Well, no! Why? Because you will already have an original piece with which you can work, the easiest thing is to make a mold of that hand in silicone and that mold if it is going to last you many more copies.

This whole process will not last you more than an hour or an hour and a half. And remember, it is a totally safe activity, in which no toxic elements are involved and very visual because you can get the results very quickly.