Casting

On Thursday the 13th I was booked into a morning face casting session so I can be ready to start moulding for my prosthetic piece. I brought in my brother to model for the casting and told him previously what the casting session would entail. As the cast would be designed for by brother's face, he will also need to be present in the assessment when I apply the face piece. In preparation to the casting I had watched and taken notes on classroom demonstrations of previous face castings and I have also had my face cast. I found it a pretty frightening experience and I have to admit, I panicked a little bit inside the cast. However, I was really pleased with the outcome and it's scary how much detail the cast picks up.


Required Materials:

- Model
- Plaster bandages
- Bald cap
- Vaseline
- Water
- Alginate
- Gown or plastic bags
- Strong industry tape
- Plastic containers
- Spatulas
- Chisel


 This is my brother before the casting:

Before starting I made sure my workspace was prepared with all the correct materials so I could quickly start the casting process. I made sure my brother was all right before I started and began using plastic sheets to cover the floor and more importantly his clothes. I then applied a bald cap to his head and made sure there wasn't any visible hair sticking out of the cap. I then applied pros-aid to the bald cap so it was securely stuck to the forehead and neck. I then applied Vaseline to the eyebrows, upper lips and to any other noticeable hair. This means that the face cast can be easily removed without pulling out any hairs!

For the next step I applied half a bag of powder alginate into a mixing bucket and then filled the bucket with water (I was careful not to put too much in!). Mix the alginate and water together to create a thick blue paste making sure to get all the powder from the bottom and sides.
Before applying to my models head I constantly reassured my model and made sure he was alright.

I then applied the alginate on top of the head using my hands and let it run down down the face. Making sure that my model's eyes and mouth were closed at this point! I kept doing this until the alginate reached his eyes and then quickly and carefully worked it into the eyes. This will then pick up the details later.

I now started spreading the alginate down the face and across the mouth. *I made sure that I checked my models nose at all times to check if there was any obstruction. If there had of been, I would of asked my model to blow their nose and remove any excess alginate with a spatula so that they could breathe properly. I Then carefully apply the alginate underneath and around the nose area, making sure I did not to cover it. I then waited till the alginate set and cut strips of plaster in preparation for the next part.

Using plaster strips dipped in to warm water (making sure to ring out excess water) and layered on top of the alginate, smoothing the pieces over the alginate. This creates support (almost like a jacket) for the alginate so it keeps the facial features intact. I then cut thinner sections of the plaster which I then dipped in water again and placed underneath the nose. I made sure to use 2-3 layers of plaster bandages.

I then left the plaster to set for a five minutes. After it had set I asked my model to move his face which will ease the cast off, and allow air to get underneath the cast allowing my model to breath through his mouth. The sides became free slightly and the cast was slowly and carefully removed from the models face.

I then chiselled off any rough lumps off the face cast. This made it smoother for when I am moulding and sculpting later on.

I'm really pleased with how the face cast turned out as my models features are clearly visible and this will help me help me a great deal when sculpting my prosthetic piece!

Head over to 'Moulding Part 1' for the next stage!