2 x 900g Alginart Chromatic ALGINATE – Moulding Impression Compound – Hand, Foot, Life Casting

I tend to use this to make life casts. It is easy to use, safe (I think it is made from seaweed, though I could be wrong) and even smells rather nice. It also gives really terrifically detailed casts, with a bit of practice.If you haven't used it before, here are a few tips that I learnt the hard way.First off get a container that you are going to use for your cast (I use a 5L jug for a typical two handed cast). To get an idea of how much alginate and plaster solutions you will need, put your hand/whatever into the empty graduated jug, making sure it doesn’t touch the side or bottom and add water until it reached the top of where you want the cast to stop. (Mark the level). Take your hand out and mark this lower level too. This lower level, gives you roughly how much alginate solution you’ll need for your life cast. The difference between the upper and lower levels (in mL) will give you roughly how much plaster solution you will need to fill it with. (By way of guide, it usually takes about 800mL of plaster solution to do a two (adult) handed cast, as shown in the photo below)Next, get everything ready, before you start, because once mixed, the alginate solution sets hard in just a few minutes, so you need to work quickly. I use 4 parts water to 1 part of alginate (by weight) and mix using an electric wisk in a big bowl (the hardened alginate comes off the blades in hot soapy water). The electric wisk gets the mixing done as quickly as possible (don’t hang about - don’t mix for more than about 20-30 seconds or until the alginate has all gone into the water). Again, just to give a very rough guide, in the 5L jug I used here, I mixed 2.5L of cold tap water with about 600g of alginate.Next I quickly transfer this pink solution to the 5L jug and immerse the hands in it. The alginate sets in about 3-5 minutes, depending on temperature of the water you use and the room temperature. The colour changes from pink, to a pale grey colour when hard.Loosen your hand by very slowly and gently flexing and wriggling your fingers and wrist. It feels like your hand it stuck solid, but it is only held in there by suction and you will feel it gradually coming loose. Be patient and take your time getting your hands out, as you don’t want to tear the mould. This may take several minutes.Once your hands are free. Prepare the plaster and pour, at an angle into the mould, making sure you remove all the air pockets trapped by half filling with plaster and then tilting the alginate mould to let any air escape. Then fill to the top with plaster and allow to set.After a few hours, remove the alginate mould from the jug. Now comes the fun part!Carefully remove the alginate covering the plaster cast (it feels like hard, heavy blancmange!).At this stage, the plaster cast is set but still quite moist on the outside, so you can remove any little plaster nodules on the surface, before allowing to fully cure.It’s good fun and the amount of detail you get in the plaster casts is remarkable.Recommended

Bought this product and it was delivered very quickly, I watched a good few videos to learn how to mix this product and still managed to mess up the first two mixtures. No fault of the product as it works perfectly after a couple of practice attempts. Would highly reccomend product

Good value for money and gives plenty of time to mix and set. It has easy instructions and the colour changes to indicate when it's done. The only downside is the bag should be made resealable! Store it in a plastic tub or you'll end up tipping it everywhere.

I have not yet used this as I am preparing for an experiment. I would recommend wearing a dust mask when using though as the powder is very fine.

Love using this, ive bought quite a bitAnd will continue to re-order more in future

After wasting a full 900g bag of this alginate following the instructions that came with the alginate (also on the bag itself) I was very upset and disappointed with the results, I had to go on YouTube to find other instructions that advised me to use a whisk immediately when mixing the alginate with the water starting of very slow then getting faster (the packet and instructions say use a knife or flat spatula to mix) and also to pour the water onto the alginate (packet says to pour alginate onto water) using the method from YouTube gave me a much better result with smooth alginate, however the packet instructions of pouring the alginate onto the water made the alginate extremely lumpy, I am very upset as I have wasted a whole 900g bag of the alginate following those instructions and if I had not brought two packets I wouldn’t of been able to finish my art project for university, overall after finally getting the alginate to the right consistency (via YouTube) the mould came out perfect and had all the detail I needed. I would suggest if anyone is using/ going to buy this alginate to do further research on mixing to be absolutely sure on the technique.

Works great

Brilliant stuff , fast delivery very pleased 👌👍