Make-Up Exploration
Georgie Kennett
Creating the 'Perfect Body'
Some areas of the alginate were quite thin this is a result of the alginate curing quickly in a warm room and not having enough time to build up certain areas however this is the first time I had made a breast cast sp I was relitively satisfied with the results. The second stage was to add wet plaster bandage in strips over the set alginate to hold the shape and create an outer shell around the cast to strengthen it.
The alginate has to be applied quickly before it cures, I found it difficult to keep the alginate around the top of the breasts because the weight of the alginate meant it was falling from the breasts quite rapidly however I managed to push most of the falling alginate back onto the areas that needed thickening.
To be able to create the makeup I envisioned it was nessesary to do a body cast of my models breasts and bum in order to make prosthetics that fit her body, I mixed up a batch of alginate using three cups of alginate to three cups of water. Mixing continuously is vital to remove any lumps of powder and to keep the mixture smooth before it cures,
Usually this cast would be done standing up to get the true shape of the bum however the model was more comfortabe to lie down while I cast her. The same process as before was repeated until I had filled both negative moulds with a positive plaster copy.
The alginate could have been applied to a larger area around the breasts so that a deeper cast could have been created which would have prevented a problem I later had with the breast cast. However I quickly mixed up a batch of plaster of paris to fill the mould to waste no time as the alginate gradually shrinks.
The plaster bandage was applied successfully to coat the alginate. It is important to make the model aware of the weight of the plaster as the area beggins to feel heavy once the plaster begins to set.
Life Casting
Cleaning Up the Casts
I put the two casts on seperate wooden boards to fill in the undercuts and also to pacth up the breast cast in order to vac form the casts and later fiberglass. I mixed up some thick plaster and filled the underneath of both casts to create a clean edge preventing the vac form from trapping the cast in it.
The breast cast however split completely in half once removed from the mould. This is due to the area of the cast not being large enough therefore when I filled the mould the depth of the plaster was not enough and the thin area in the middle of the breasts could not support the surrounding plaster. The breasts did slot together and I could tell it was possible to patch them back together insead of repeating the whole life casting again.
I was sceptical about removing the plaster copy from the alginate because I knew that the plaster was thin however there was not enough room in the mould to fill up with any more plaster. I decided to demould as carefully as I could, The bum plaster copy although extremely thin around the edges did come out of the mould successfully.
The vac form of this cast wasn't completely hot enough therefore failing to dip right into the crease however I did not need that section to sculpt on anyway so the vac form was successful for what I needed it for.
Above are the two casts once the holes have been drilled with the rod, the holes must be completely clear so it is important to re drill into them several times to free any remaining bits of plaster.
I used a rasp to clean up the edges and remove any unwanted parts of plaster, creating a neat finish allows the moulding process to be much more successful. In order to vac form successfully the low points of the casts must be drilled with a metal rod to allow the suction to pull the plastic down into these points.
Sculpting
To create the nipples I rolled a small amount of the sculpting clay in my ffingers to create a ball, I placed this on top of the breast shape and blended the edges onto the rest of the clay.
My models breasts are naturally a cup C, I wanted to create breasts that were around one or two cup sizes bigger. I began sculpting the intial shape of the breasts onto the vac form with le beau touche clay Suprisingly the sculpted breasts were much bigger than the natural breast however it is difficult to determine through pictures. The breasts were definitely verging on double D's.
The breast vac form worked really well as the plastic was heated up for slightly longer allowing it to mould right into the dips of the cast.
Here are the sculpted breasts and bum after they have been grounded up in preperation for fiberglassing. The cheeck implants on the buttox are also quite large with focus surrounding the upper areas to create a shape popular in the media at the moment through squats and exercise.
I did however apply some texture to the area surrounding the nipple with a wrinkle tool. Since the breasts are supposed to represent the perfect body the nipples were placed quite central to give the appearance of perky breasts.
I did not sculpt any raised areas around the nipple as naturally a nipple is only coloured not raised around the middle part so I decided to leave this until I painted the prosthetics once applied.
Fiberglassing
The picture above shows the moulds once the clay has been removed and cleaned out before they could be run with material.
I found it difficult to fiberglass both the large moulds at the same time because it seemed to take a long time to build up the right amount of layers. After the fiberglassing was complete and dry I drilled holes into the ground up holes before trimming the edges down with a vibrosaw.
I fiberglassed the breasts and bum, I used the lay up resin mixed with talc to fill in any undercuts however this worked more so on the bum mould because the mixture was slightly thicker. The moulds took several layers to build up a consistant thickness.
I decided to try geletine instead because the cost of running the silicone in the moulds was too much as an awful lot of silicone was being used.
The geletine process was much quicker and easier and the edges of the pieces were much thinner. I do not normally prefer geletine because it is so difficult to blend into the skin however it seemed much more appropriate to use than the silicone.
The picture above shows the attempt at a silicone breast prosthetic from the fiberglass mould. Not only did just one breast take 600g of silicone the mould was not tight enough and silicone managed to go into all the flashing leaving a thick silicone edge incapable of blending into the skin.