4: 14º day and you have to dunk your arm in cold water for this

Another oddball piece of prep: a plaster hand sculpture off an alginate mold, this early one from one of those cheap life casting kits pitched at people wanting to preserve precious memories in an only middling-creepy way.

There's a particular function these hands need to serve in what I'm working on, so doing a few early runs to work out the pose and any technical troubles before stepping up to the 'official' casting material. I have notably small hands, but the tub the kits offer as a mold cup is still too restrictive to extend the fingers enough, so I'll replace the tub and give it another go.

(You may also be wondering, is that a blob of plaster sitting in the palm, and are there in fact little deformities everywhere? It is and there are. Do five-year-olds often do this with greater success? They do! ...No further comment.)