It is important to bind your alginate inner mold to your rigid shell mold. That is because should the alginate come loose within the shell it will not register properly when you are ready to cast and casting imperfections are a certainty. Since alginate does not stick to anything, embedding fiber in the alginate before it sets will give your shell mold something to bind to.

We have searched high and low and have found the perfect fiber for this technique. It is Kendall cotton. Its fibers are extremely supple and will easily be embedded in an uncured alginate surface.

Technique

Unroll about six inches of the cotton roll and cut into a six-inch square. Now separate the square into two halves by peeling them in half. The inside of the square has the softest texture fiber. Simply by gently patting the fiber square to the surface of the alginate you will leave behind enough fiber  . . . it doesn?t need to be a lot . . . to secure the shell mold. One half a pad 6-inch of cotton is all you will require for a torso mold.

If the alginate has set, this method will not work. However, by spraying the set surface of your alginate mold with Algislo from ArtMolds, the Algislo will temporarily dissolve the surface enough to embed the cotton fiber.