In my “Other Life” (meaning my creative, crafty side that rarely gets to peek out these days) I am a Life Caster. I am technically on hiatus from that though, because I simply don’t have enough hours in the day, and that little side business cannot compete with the actual money-making ones. However, I did/do have 2 outstanding gift certificates in circulation, and they’re both almost ready to expire. So today I did the feet of an 18 month old baby.

Normally I dread doing older babies and toddlers, because they tend to struggle and generally freak out when their bits hit the cold casting material. I guess you have to see it from their perspective though – some strange lady arrives at their door, makes lots of noise (prep work) and then grabs you and puts your feet/hands/bum/whatever into a container of really cold goo. Then when you try to get the heck out of there, you’re held tightly by said strange lady AND your own traitorous mother!

This is why I always have moms do the “cold” test before hand (seeing how they cope with having their hands or feet in a bucket of cold water while being held still), and make it a good experience. I also spend a few minutes talking to my victim model and playing with toys, patting the dog, yadda yadda.

This mom did good – little Madisen sat like an angel and babbled happily at me, only occasionally glancing down at her encased feet, and didn’t seem to mind that I had her legs in my grip. We babbled about the scented candle, the toy in her hand, and all sorts of inanities, and then, before we knew it, it was over and she was slipping out of the casting and getting on with her day. This was a good casting, and I’m always grateful for those!!

I do the finishing work in my home studio, because while the casting material is food grade and completely safe, the actual cast is made of some pretty nasty stuff that we don’t want kids breathing in. When it’s cured and ready to go in a few weeks, I’ll finish it with a gorgeous pewter (my favourite) like I did with these feet.