Yet more Power Grab

It’s rather strange, really.

Years ago, I needed to just add a little ridge to make that pelvis bone fit my head. Standing there in the hardware store staring at epoxy’s, glues, and caulk, Power Grab caught my eye, mostly because I had no caulking gun at the time, and it came in pressurized canisters…

Now, it’s become integral. From sculpting masks, to Paper Mache, we use the heck out of the stuff. To my knowledge, I’m about the only one out there really sculpting with the stuff, as well. Well, the blog does have unorthodox in the title…

Strong points of Power Grab being:

relatively high tack (though I’m not buying the commercial for a second)
Water cleanup
EASY manipulation
repositionable if you mess up
somewhat flexible when dry

Some weaknesses include:

It shrinks slightly when drying
can crack
Does not like freezing (while wet)
And it’s somewhat flexible when dry. (the higher the humidity, seems the more flexible it is. Have had some things tend to drift out of alignment if left for long periods in high humidity.)

We’ve learned, adapted, and come to love the stuff for both the strengths and weaknesses.

So, it should be no surprise that when it came to Bob’s forearms and hands, I’m relying on the old standby.

Cutting a quick and dirty template out of cardboard for the forearm, we arranged some pieces of wire hangers to make the fingers.

From bob

Of course, I needed “help”

From bob

Just squeeze out a little power grab into place, wet fingers, and smooth it out. Just getting a basic attachement at this point, we’ll mache the thing for the actual form later.

From bob

I did mention the water cleanup, right? It’s REAL simple to clean up while wet. Soooooo…I had ‘help’…

From bob

Rinse some hands, wash some table…

Anyhow, after about 2 hours under the cieling fan, they were dry enough to peel away from the plastic.

From bob

Currently, we’re out of Power Grab. Gotta run grab some more, then we’ll mache these suckers, make the hands, and attach the forearms. THEN we are ready to paint and corpse the torso, while starting on the legs.

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