Hand Prosthetic
Estimating the amount of platsil gel 10 A and B was probably the difficult task I was going to face. I looked into ways of being able to pour the silicone in, whether I needed to inject it, or to pour it it, fit the hand in, and then clamp it together without getting all the silicone everywhere.
The difficulty I knew I was going to face was actually being able to demold it when the silicone had cured, it was diffucult enough to get the plaster out of the alginate mold, knowing that silicone is a lot firmer and stronger, I was worried the fingers were going to snap and get stuck in the silicone, leaving me with the prohlem of not being able to remove them.
Without a doubt I knew something would go wrong ( as pessimestic as that sounds , but artists are always faced with problems during practical, but I thought I would cross that bridge when i came to it as it may not of been the case.
Knowing I hadn't actually made a 2-part mold before, I was more worried about pouring the silicone in and clamping it shut, it felt like an under pressure moment, which was daunting. I didn't like the idea of it possibly spilling out of the mold and all the silicone going everywhere, im not a big fan of silicone before its cured, as it is such an oiley material, and you cannot wash it off until it's cured, it is literally impossible to get it off of your hands
The fibreglass molds , both parts all cleaned up and ready to be filled. The hard part was to ensure the plaster hand was able to fit back inside the two parts, and they clamped together without no gaps for the silicone to pour out.
Without a doubt, during the de-molding process, the fingers did actually snap when I was chiselling the mold apart, I believe the vibrations during the knocking of the chisel created it to shatter. Although this happened, I thought it could most likely just be glued back together in some way considering I didnt want to end up having to create another hand mold. I ended up having to apply some clay around the fingers ( where the cracks were ) just to be extra careful that the fingers didnt come apart from the weight of the silicone pushing against it.
The clay was carefully applied around the cracks on the joints, and was smoothed out as much as possible so there were no abnormal lumps and bumps that would create a problem when the model was wearing the prosthetic.
I also filled in any gaps that the plaster didn't fill in,in the alginate mold, so the clay filled out what should of been filled with plaster. This would ensure the silicone mold would mold perfectly.
I applied a layer of vaseline to the mold to prevent the silicone from sticking .
Close up of the vaseline being applied.
100g of A and 100g of B was mixed together ( 200g in total ) with a mixing stick, and s bit of red flcoking was added, to create the fleshy tone.
A few drops of Flesh silicone pigment was added, to inhance the flesh tone to the platsil gel.
When I applied the bolts, I found it hard to see where the silicone was being poured, so I decided to pour the silicone in either side of the mold, and then clamp it together.
I found it a struggle to put the bolts in beforehand, as the silicone's force was pushing against me pushing it in. I believe they are meant to be put it beforehand.
So it turned out 200g of platsil wasn't enough to fill the entire mold which was a shame.
The only thing that I found tht was wrong with the prosthetic, was that the top bit of the prosthetic was missing, and the little finger bit was hollow, so another 60g may of done it.
View of the inside of the prosthetic, where the finger slots would be, you can see how hollow it is at the end, and you could see the fingers when they were in.
So, not only did I mess up the first mold, I also forgot to lay on the super baldiez!! , this was the most important part to make sure it blended, so I am glad it went wrong so I had time to correct myself.
So this time, I layed the silicone until either side of the mold was completely full, I placed the plaster hand inside the mold, and clamped it together and bolted it. This time I used 400g of Silicone
I knew it had worked out better this time because silicone did overflow slightly at the top, so I knew it had filled the part that hadn't filled before. This was the demolding stage.
I began to pull away the fibreglass mold, which then started revealing the silicone mold, I powdered each part as more was revealed. I was really chuffed that it completely filled this time.
So, it filled the entire mold and also added extra flashing around the edges which I could work with, the only part I was concerned with, was the edges around where it was meant to blend.
The entire silicone mold was covered in powder to get rid of the stickiness to the silicone so it didn't stick to itself. It was then ready to be pulled from the back part of the mold.
The only issue I could see here, was that you could see the plaster fingers through the silicone slightly here, which to me suggested the silicone was too thin.
I began to pull the back part of the silicone away from the fibreglass mold, anxious to see if the silicone had filled the entire back part.
Close up of the mold being peeled away from the silcione, so far so good!
Hooray!! the back finally worked, and all of it was filled, that was the main thing, only problem I had to face was trying to get the silicone off the plaster mold without tearing it.
close up of the hooves at the top of the mold, I was really happy with the outcome of these so far.
So once the entire silicone piece was demolded, I powdered the entire silicone prosthetic to ensure it was completely sticky free.
I then started to tear away the flashing from the mold, as it was not needed. I used a sharp sculpting tool to piece the holes so I could tear it.
I tried to tear it as close to the actual prosthetic itself so you couldnt see a prominent seam line.
Despite me being extremely careful and cautious when cutting the flashing very close to the mold, a seam line did infact appear visible.
Side view of the prosthetic once all the flashing ws cut off, in some places near the palm of the hand, there were a few thin edges which did tear slightly.
The edges did appear very thick where they were mean't to be blended out, something for me to consider when I was going to apply.
Close up of the hooves, I was very proud of the top of the prosthetic, and I am really happy that it picked up all the fine detail .
This is the finished piece before the colour would be added. You can clearly see how much texture the silicone had picked up from the mold, which surprised me. But I was very happy with my first ever hand mold.
Back view of the silicone prosthetic, the creases did in fact turn out a lot better than expected, considering the clay sculpt didnt make it appear like creases.
A close up view of the textures and fine detail on the prosthetic, I love the natural lines and wrinkles that I managed to create using my sculpting tools.
A close up view of the back of the prosthetic, detail couldnt really be seen very well because of the lighting in my lounge, but you can make out the shape of the hoof.
This photo has to be my favourite photo of the entire gallery. Only because the lighting picks up every bit of detail possible, it focuses on the main centre point of the prosthetic, and I love the dim red colour of the background.
This is again another one of my favourite photos, a great beam of light shines directly on where all the detail and textures are picked up, and the lovely dark rouge background makes the prosthetic stand out.
What did you like/Dislike?
How would you improve?
where to start, the hand prosthetic was by far the most difficult prosthetic I have ever had to face. The fact I couldn't figure out how to pour the silicone into the mold without it overspilling out, I didn''t like the idea of injecting it in because I wouldn't of known where the silicone was pouring, and whether it was getting into all the gaps and crevices.
I experienced a massive hiccup during the first hand prosthetic, as at first when I demolded it, the top of the hoof hadn't formed properly, and then I realised that I hadn't used super baldiez beforehand to ensure it blended in well, so I think it played into my favour in the end, as I was going to repeat the process again, so I had to ensure it all went accurate this time around. I attempted to apply the super baldiex to the fibreglass mold, but to me, it just didn't seem to be working, which worried me slightly. When I repeated the process, using the superbaldiez this time, It didn;t seem like, no matter how many layers of baldiez I applied, it didn't seem to come out onto the silicone which was disappointing, so that is something for me to look into next time.
The second hoof hand I couldn't fault bar the nasty edges. The flashing was thick, and it was unavoidable. I loved all the textures it picked up, and the detail, for my first hand prosthetic, it was amazing.
The one improvement I would make is, Id research into hand prosthetics more thoroughly, I felt there was limited research material out there for me which I couldn't get hold of. Despite speaking to artists within the industry, I think I would benefit more out of making an entire hand prosthetic that is full silicone, rather than a glove-like prosthetic that has to be applied.
I would also ensure that the clay wall had a bigger surface area to work with, so I had extra room for the flashing to pour out and become thinner.