Plaster gauze dressform [final base]

Made the positive yesterday. Holy crap, that took longer than the negative, despite being 3 rather than four layers and technically smaller.

Lined the negatives with paper towel. Wet the strips of plaster gauze and put them in. With these I was extra careful to make sure all the plaster was smoothed out, so maybe that's what took so long...?

One of the many perks to it being so dry right now was that the positive was solidly dry about 24 hours later, so I went ahead and filed down the sides and put the two halves together using more plaster gauze on the outside

It was at this point I realized I'd made a mistake with the positive: it needs to be trimmed to the edge of the negative before it dries. This way it can more easily be shaped.

The greyish stripe from the gauze makes it disorienting to scroll up and down. It took me a minute to realize it wasn't my eyes

 

Hmmm...stand will be made when I get back from school this week. Or tomorrow.

Ah, and will add really, really horrible jewelry photos. They'll be updated with nicer ones...someday.

 Literally taken as I was packing them up to be sent out to Little Black Box. 5.19 priority shipping on a 2 lb, 11 oz box. Can't properly express how happy I am they're located in TX *,*

Plaster Gauze dressform [negative]

On a mission to make a dummy in my size. I've been picking the project around for about a year and a half now, though at that point it was going to be a duct tape dummy.

Things used:
-Plaster gauze. I bought a 270 ft. box (20 lbs) on Amazon for 50.00 As for amount....eh...I wrapped myself from neck to mid-thigh four times and used about a third of the box (5'2, 125 lbs, U.S. dress size between 4 and 6).
-A large bowl of hot water and access to a dumping point + more hot water.
-Strong, sharp scissors. Tested two pairs of scissors on a test-palette the gauze just in case.
-Mother, to wrap me
-Brother, to cut more strips of cloth when we realized we were running out of the right size.

Many of the sites tell say to put on a thin, skintight shirt. Maybe this works if you're only doing two or three layers, but, er, not so much with four layers. If I have to do this again (please god, no ~_~), pantyhose on my legs and a bra I don't particularly like. Nothin' else (the plaster peels off the skin painlessly). The shirt was not only a pain in the rear to cut through, but it partially stuck to the inside of the negative. However, the next time around, I'm going to attempt with just three layers.

So the other mistake made was using long strips at first. Mother thought it would be easier, like wrapping tape. No, no. Cut short strips (8"). A mountain of them. (Estimated amount by measuring bust, waist, hips, and body length, x3. Then, for good measure, a mountain of short ones.

Started with horizontal strips just below the bust and wrapped down, down. Then 'crossed the heart' and filled in the bust and shoulders. Repeated with vertical and slanted strips, then horizontal. Rub, rub, rub the plaster into the gauze.

I read to let it dry mostly before cutting it off or it wouldn't keep its shape, but I let it dry too much, so cutting was not fun.

But it's off, and we'll see the accuracy once the negative dries and I make the positive. *sigh*

I can already tell I 1. didn't stand straight enough and 2. moved around too much. Ah, well.