Plaster Sculpture

The whole composition for my plaster sculpture was simple. I had to first decide on what hand expression did I want my peer's hand to form. Therefore, I decided to incorporate sign language in my project and by doing so I had chosen the letter "S" in sign language to be the hand expression. Always before you put plaster strips on skin is to cover that area of skin with petroleum jelly otherwise known as Vaseline. Reason being is because when the plaster is all dry and ready to be removed from the person it won't pull off any hair or get stuck on the skin and it will easily smooth off painlessly. Once my peer's entire hand was covered in petroleum jelly I dipped the plaster strips into the bowl of water, squeezed the excess water and then placed onto my peer's hand. Key to making sure the strips aren't too wet is that when you dip the plaster strip into the water to lightly press on the strip and get rid of the excess water. When you place the strip onto the skin you must immediately rub the plaster strip with your index finger. After the whole entire hand is covered in plaster strips and there are no holes or gaps always put a second layer on top to be sure. Once you have the second layer done now comes being patient and letting the plaster fully dry. The thing to letting the plaster dry is that there is no exact time of when the plaster will dry. However, to make the plaster dry quicker you can gently wave your plastered hand back and forth and plus it keeps your blood circulating. Once the plaster is entirely dry take a scissor and carefully cut a slit in the plaster at the end of the wrist. Take a hold of the persons hand and let the person gently pull their hand out of the plaster. Go back and cover the slit opening with plaster and let that dry, should only take a few minutes. The fun thing now is that I got to paint my plaster sculpture purple and add some blue and I painted the words "LOVE" on the fingers.

symbolizes the letter "S"

side view of the hand

"LOVE"