Claire Golby
Level 5
Dramatic Contexts
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.