Hippo Brief - Casting

To make sure the plaster jacket held the vinamold as tight as possible, I have to use a belt to hold the two halves together. It works on a ratchet and took me at least half an hour to figure out how to work it, and my fingers are having seriously rational fears of decapitation whenever it's around - but needs must and all that.

My first cast came out with a wall of plaster in the join between the legs and head where some of the mixture had obviously gotten between the opening in the mould. Since the vinamold has fully cooled down it is ever so slightly smaller than the jacket and so when the plaster mix is poured in it forces the join to separate.

So being ever so resourceful I adapted two sculpting knives into wedges and jammed that mother, aint no plaster gettin the better of me! Works a treat.

The first cast I did was a bit of a fail all round really, I left the plaster mix a little too long before pouring into the mold and so it wasn't really liquid enough to hug the entire shape, it left ripples at the sides as though pouring toothpaste or something of a similar consistency. This in turn left huge unfilled gaps in the hippo itself.

Now that I've perfected my casting techniques and I know that the mold definitely works I can begin to assemble a small battalion of cuteness that can fight enemies in the face with a mixture of confusion and warm, fuzzy feelings.