Mould Making

Mould making is the single most important process when making a prosthetic. A mould is 'a hollow container used to give shape to uncured materials'. The process is thousands of years old and can be traced back to the bronze age with steel tip axes. The industrial revolution saw more use of cast iron in sand box moulds with molten iron.

Industrial injection moulds: make things like plastic garden chairs. Can inject foam latex/silicone into fibre glass moulds.

Laminate/to fibre glass: bonding layers of materials together: epoxy resin, carbon fibre matting. Glass reinforced polyester is used for making moulds like specialist suits as well as boats and fairground rides.

Matrix moulding: a situation or surrounding substance within which something else originates, develops or is contained. Its a big deal in industry and can be used for: animatronic cores, making cores, prosthetic conforming, transfer moulds, prosthteics and animatronics.

Practitioner: Brian and Barry Best, James Kernot, the Schnoonrad family. lifecast.co.uk Carl Lyon and Rob Freitas

Bronze age stone mould. (2250-1900 AD) [online image] Available from:http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/s/stone_mould-1.aspx [Accessed: November 4th 2014]

"The dowel-holes and the pour-channels indicate that this was a closed mould. The missing half must have had corresponding holes which would have permitted it to be dowelled tightly against this surface while the metal was poured in and allowed to solidify. Study of objects which were probably cast in similar moulds suggests that the metal used was lead."

The British Museum (2014) Stone Mould. [online]. Available from:http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/s/stone_mould-1.aspx [Accessed: November 4th 2014]

Original Cyberman. (1966) [online image] Available from:http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/doctor-who/20493/doctor-who-the-top-10-cybermen-stories [Accessed: November 4th 2014]

" Matrix moulds are probably the best, most accurate moulds you can make, but they could be overkill for some applications due to the amount of work that goes into making them. The process begins similarly to the way you make a two-piece case mould for a sculpture, with the sculpture lying horizontally on a bed of clay covered in plastic wrap."

Fibreglass moulds

"Working with fibreglass requires various safety precaustions. You must wear a respirator, and there must be adequate ventilation where you work. Fibreglass gel coat and laminating resin contain proprietarypolyester resin and styrene monomer, the vapour of which is quite harmful and flammable. As a casting and mould material, fibreglass is outstanding. You can even use it as a mould material for baking foam latex in an oven in less time than it takes using a stone mould. It is extremely lightweight and very tough. The process is somewhat similar to making a stone mould in that a detail layer is brushed onto the sculpture first and allowed to set before adding laminate reiforced layers. Unlike silicone, latex, or urethane rubber moulds, fiberglass is relatively inflexible; it will not 'give' in the way those other materials will. Another significant difference between making a stone mould and a fiberglass mould is the size of the dividing wall you will need to build. " p152

Laminated glass reinforced polyester was used to make the moulds for the 1st cybermen suits

Injecting foam latex

Industrial Injection Moulds

Injection Filling

To inject silicone into a mould, at least 2 holes must be drilled in the mould positive: one to inject silicone through and the other to allow air to escape as the mould fills.

Musgrove, J. (2002) Makeup and Costume for Television. England: Focal Press. Page 171

I watched a Stan Winstone DVD on sculpture and mould making to try and learn more about different types of moulds. While it was very helpful about the process, it didn't talk specifically about different kinds of moulds, reasons for doing one mould over the other, etc. Bruce said that the moulds for the fingers would be a squish mould and that the hand mould would either be a squish or injection mould. It was helpful in understanding the process more, but not for general information.

Character Makeup, Sculpture Breakdown and Mould-Making Part 2, 2012. [DVD] Bruce Spaulding Fuller, USA: Stan Winston School.

(Above) examples of perfectly neat moulds, what all mould makers should strive for.

image1.jpeg The fingers have an octagonal base with key notches cut at the back.	image3.jpeg Adding the flashing. Using chant clay. Leave a collar of the black stone edge for the cutting edge. The overflow will go just beyond this edge. Create about 4 outlets. Spray wit kryolan krystal clear acrylic as a release. As you don't want this on the cutting edge, make clay worms to temporarily lay over the cutting edge whole spraying, and then remove.	image4.jpeg Make sure the cup is higher than than sculpt. Cut the top off the cup and hot glue the cups to the board.
image5.jpeg Can use cups of water to figure out how much silicone you will need. 1065 RT silicone, which is a mould making silicone, not one for making skins. Add blue catalyst, which is quicker setting than green.	image6.jpeg Can put silicone in a evacuator/vacuum champed for a few minutes which will remove a lot of the air bubbles from the silicone. Can also use the long pour method.	image7.jpeg When silicon is set, chisel the cups off the board and tear them off the silicone.
image8.jpeg To remove the sculpt, you have to slit the silicone up the underside of the fingers using a blade. Find your way to the sculpt, and its fine if you cut the sculpt.	image9.jpeg Put the mould back in a cup which will keep the slit together. Then pour in flexacryl, add the black octagon key to the bottom and leave to set.	image10.jpeg This is a hand appliance, not gloves. Ideally the fingers would be splayed more for a positive piece to sculpt on. Spray on Kryolan krystal clear acrylic spray, again adding the clay worm around the cutting edge. After spraying and removing the worms, cover all visible plaster with Vaseline.
image11.jpeg Then coat the mould in 2 coats of epoxy cal. They only need to be thin layers as the ultra cal and burlap layers are then added to be half an inch thick, with 6 layers of burlap. When laying it down, think about how its going to be pried open with a screwdriver, and how it could be made easier.	image12.jpeg They worked in a pair to go over any mistakes the other may have made.

Claire Golby

Level 5

Dramatic Contexts

Mould Making

image1.jpeg

The fingers have an octagonal base with key notches cut at the back.

image3.jpeg

image4.jpeg

Make sure the cup is higher than than sculpt. Cut the top off the cup and hot glue the cups to the board.

image5.jpeg

Can use cups of water to figure out how much silicone you will need. 1065 RT silicone, which is a mould making silicone, not one for making skins. Add blue catalyst, which is quicker setting than green.

image6.jpeg

Can put silicone in a evacuator/vacuum champed for a few minutes which will remove a lot of the air bubbles from the silicone. Can also use the long pour method.

image7.jpeg

When silicon is set, chisel the cups off the board and tear them off the silicone.

image8.jpeg

To remove the sculpt, you have to slit the silicone up the underside of the fingers using a blade. Find your way to the sculpt, and its fine if you cut the sculpt.

image9.jpeg

Put the mould back in a cup which will keep the slit together. Then pour in flexacryl, add the black octagon key to the bottom and leave to set.

image10.jpeg

This is a hand appliance, not gloves. Ideally the fingers would be splayed more for a positive piece to sculpt on. Spray on Kryolan krystal clear acrylic spray, again adding the clay worm around the cutting edge. After spraying and removing the worms, cover all visible plaster with Vaseline.

image11.jpeg

Then coat the mould in 2 coats of epoxy cal. They only need to be thin layers as the ultra cal and burlap layers are then added to be half an inch thick, with 6 layers of burlap. When laying it down, think about how its going to be pried open with a screwdriver, and how it could be made easier.

image12.jpeg

They worked in a pair to go over any mistakes the other may have made.