Open Casket - lessons-learnt from first (unsuccessful) experiment to cast the shape of my body

 My plan is was to use plaster-soaked cloth to record the imprint of my body, lying as though on a bed. I did my first test of that today. 

I put down two pieces of foam from a waste mattress, covered them in polythene sheet, then soaked a pillowcase in plaster, laid that on top, laid polythene over the top (so it wouldn't stick to my hair) and then laid myself on top and got comfortable. The plan was that the pillow case would harden enough in 30 mins that I could then stand-up and it would retain the shape of my body (in this case my head and shoulders).

Unfortunately it was not a success. The pillowcase did harden, but after 30 mins wasn't stiff enough to support it's own weight. As a result, when I stood-up, the bulk of the area under my back 'popped up', destroying the impression. This could only be avoided if the material was stiff enough to either retain the shape against the upward pressure of the foam, or stiff enough to maintain the shape despite being pushed up out of the foam. It wasn't either, and I don't see an easier way to make it stiffer and/or lighter.

Lessons-learnt:

• 0.5l of water/1kg plaster was enough to soak one pillow case
• Because the fabric is dry, the plaster begins to harden prematurely when the fabric is throw into it - this makes the plaster more brittle and prevents it from soaking into the fabric. I could try wetting the fabric before adding it, which might make for a stiffer end result, but probably not enough-so to prevent problems
• Lying still for 30 mins was actually pleasant enough, despite the cat sneezing on me, and was long enough for the fabric to harden significantly - it probably wouldn't harden much more if I increased the time incrementally
• The polythene probably reduced the amount of hardening by preventing water escaping, but it didn't seem to inhibit things significantly
• The polythene did a good job of stopping the plaster sticking to anything, but unfortunately didn't come off cleanly at the end (it stuck to the plaster in places, probably where it was pinched)
• Despite horror stories about people getting burns from plaster (it can get very hot as it initially hardens), the large surface area meant that while it became noticeably warm, it didn't become unpleasantly hot
• Mixing the plaster with my hands removed a lot of lumps but left me with hugely cakes of plaster on my hands that slowly hardened and crumbled off as I lay there!

I've left the pillow case to further harden to see what happens, but I can't see this working. The damp plaster is too crumbly and too heavy to support itself. It could also be a problem if I choose to make a cast over the top of my body like a shroud - it would probably support itself better, but I'm not sure how I would get out of it as it would be impossible to move it. 

I'm wracking my brains for where I go next with this... Some ideas:

• Carve the shape of my body directly into the foam (using my non-existent sculpture skills, or more likely using data from a 3d scan to know how deep to carve at various reference points)
• A hybrid approach where I cut the shape of my body into the foam to reduce the upward pressure on the fabric then cast fabric over the top (i.e. lie in the 'hole' I've carved into the foam)
• Try something like sculpting mesh instead of fabric
• Find something other than foam that doesn't 'spring back' when I get off (e.g. sand or beanbag filling)
• Try some other sort of potion to make the fabric stiffen (e.g. resin... yuk)
• Use data from a 3d scan to cut profiles into cardboard and then stack them up like contour lines

At the moment, the first option looks attractive - probably because I haven't tried it... But it would have the advantage of avoiding plaster completely (I'd probably cover the foam in paper mache) and therefore being quite light, plus it would give me more control. I'm not sure what to try next... I need to lick my wounds first (and wipe the cat snot off)