Image One - Trial and Errors

One of the prosthetic appliances for Image One is a mask of the model's face. The aim is to have the model holding this mask in front of their face so it needs to be quite rigid to keep its shape. As it also needs to be 3D, creating a flat mould would not work and a squash mould is needed.

As a master mould had been made, this was trialled first as creating a squash mould is a very lengthy process and would involve sculpting the model's face in order to mould it again. Squash moulds are made so that when the two parts are squashed together, only certain areas would retain the silicone with the rest being pushed out of the way, whereas the master mould is an exact fit. The life cast that would be used fits perfectly into the mould, meaning there would be no space for the silicone to sit. This method is still worth experimenting with as it would save a lot of time and resources.

Trial One

The first trial was to test whether or not this method would work. It was run as a normal prosthetic, using silicone and deadner (despite the fact this would not keep it as rigid as desired) with a life cast being used to squash into the mould.

Figure 1 - Trial One (Brown, J. 2021)

This trial was a success. It showed that the master mould could be used to create the face prosthetic, it just required a little experimentation to achieve the desired result.

Trial Two

For trial two, there was no deadner used. Adding deadner makes the silicone softer and more flexible. PlatSil Gel 25 was being used for this prosthetic, and that requires a minimum of 100% deadner, so lowering that percentage would not have made much of a difference.

Figure 2 - Second Trial Figure 3 - Second Trial Figure 4 - Second Trial

(Brown, J. 2021). (Brown, J. 2021). (Brown, J. 2021).

This trial also turned out successful, however it was still on the flexible side due to how thin the piece was. Some areas did not pick up such as the sides of the nose and the crease in the eyes. This could be due to the life cast being pushed too far into the mould. This is something that will be kept in mind for the next trial.

Trial Three

For trial three, to increase the rigidity of the silicone, a PlatSil gel hardener was used. To avoid squashing the life cast too much, the cast was imply placed in, utilising gravity to squash it as the cast was quite heavy. Cap plastic was only applied to the inside of the mould, as only the outside of the face will be painted, and it had peeled off the back of the prosthetic piece in trial two. As there is no deadner, the silicone does not cure sticky so this does not create an issue.

Figure 5 - Third Trial Figure 6 - Third Trial Figure 7 - Third Trial

(Brown, J. 2021). (Brown, J. 2021). (Brown, J. 2021).

As seen in figure 7, adding this hardener gave the silicone the rigidity that was desired. Areas around the nose were still a little thin, however it had picked up as opposed to trial two, where it did not pick up at all. This will be the method used to create the piece for the final image, with added hair punched details such as eyebrows and eyelashes.

-Jess

Figures:

Figure 1, 2 - Brown, J. (2021) York College.

Figure 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 - Brown, J. (2021) Leeds.