Casting ice cream/plaster mould

Q; Hi Tirantis,

I’m always advising students to "go and buy it at Tirantis", but now I need some advice myself if that’s OK!

If I need to cast an ice cream , i.e. the soft vanilla, Mr Whippee type swirl on top of the cone, would you recommend alginate?

Does alginate generate heat as it cures?

Many thanks for your help.

(Tirantis is a renowned supplier of materials and equipment for sculptors. www.tiranti.co.uk)

Paul Lindley

A; Hello Paul,

Tricky! I spose if it's a genuine Mr whippy kind they are always going to be pretty soft, and alginate (although it does not generate heat)will have a similar weight/consistency and might cause the ice cream to deform.

If you could get the ice cream much colder to firm it up then alginate would be a reasonable material to use.

Strangely if you could get the ice cream really cold you could try making the mould slowly in wax!! Then re-cast from the wax mould, and melt it from the casting. (just a thought) Have you considered piping your own ice cream in another material, like a really thick plaster.

Kind regards

Doug

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I think I'll freeze the ice cream and use alginate, but I also really like your idea of piping my own with plaster. Perhaps a could actually use a cake icing syringe if I get the consistency right (and clean it out afterwards!)

Thanks again,

Paul

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You can pick disposable piping bags, all you need is to test out a few nozzles (they would need cleaning - but it should be easy) If you wanted to, you could retard the plaster with tri-sodium citrate to give you a really long working time (1hour) and have a go at doing a few from one batch pf plaster.

Cheers

Doug

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I thought you might be interested in some earlier plaster experiments - http://process.arts.ac.uk/content/18-plaster-cake

Regards

Paul

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Hello Paul,

I couldn't resist and went and had a play, using prestia classic plaster, mixed far too thick and piped from a plastic bag with the corner cut off, had to work quickly.

See attached images.

Had a look a process arts beta, what a great little site, shame I cant add things really.

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