ARTS AND CRAFTS with Josh Tate

Last night a raccoon lumbered across some soft, wet sand at a construction site here at Camp Maranatha. My friend, Keith, told me about them this morning and I decided to make a plaster cast of the tracks to add to the camp's collection. I hope someday to put them together into a display for the camp. All of the tracks are from the camp's property, which is kind of neat.

The first thing you need to do is make a rough form, like so.

You'll also need some plaster of paris, cooking spray, a bucket and a stirring stick.

Place the form around the track. Press it down into the sand so that the liquid plaster can't escape under the form.

Spray a light film of cooking spray over the track.

Mix the plaster (two parts plaster to one part water). The plaster will set pretty quickly so you'll have to move quickly to pour it into the form. If the plaster is too watery it'll wash away portions of the track, and if it is too thick the result won't be very well defined.

Wait about an hour for the plaster to set before picking it up. This will allow it to cure and harden.

At first it will look like this. As it dries much of the sand will fall off and the tracks will be clearer.

I keep my tracks in this locker down in my office.

Mountain Lion.

Squirrel.

Bobcat.

Mule deer.

Hopefully soon I'll have all of the tracks I need for the display. I'm still trying to get a good coyote and California quail sample.