Last year, I taught myself how to mold and cast objects. I wanted to make sculptures using the vaccum- forming process, which is how a lot of commercial plastic packaging is produced. It involves such high temperatures and pressures that only very durable objects can be used as templates to form the plastic. For something soft or pliable like the human form, or a piece of clothing, you need to cast it first, because those materials would lack any definition. First I tried to use casts made of a kind of powdered stone, but the pressure caused the edges to crack. I ended up casting with hard plastic and rubber. The hands in the picture are leftovers from learning the casting process. They were so beautiful that I scanned them so I could make some 2006 calendars with the images.