Stage 3 Horns

These horns give me the opportunity to experiment with new materials. Like the stag 2 horns, they will be seperate prosthetics, but the skin area and the horn area will also be made seperately. As these horns are bigger, they need to be rigid but light, so that in acting context they wouldn't wobble, and they could be worn for long periods of time.

These slides show the practical up until the method of moulding the silicone, which is where my experimentation with different methods is illustrated.

The Fibreglassing Method

These slides illustrate the method and results I had from moulding the silicone with fibreglass, creating a 2-part mould around the silicone to help it retain its shape for when the expanding foam is poured in.

The Base for the Horns

As I have created the horns as seperate, individual pieces, I then had to create an appliance for them to be attatched to when they were applied to someone. I sculpted these as flatpieces, using the base of the horns as a measurement to ensure that they'd fit. I sculpted in a few horizontal, textural lines to make the surrounding skin slightly more cohesive with the knarled look of the horns. I moulded these in silicone and will run them in silicone.

- I ran the pieces in silicone with 50% deadener, (after applying 4 layers of ecapsulator) as i wanted them to be able to hold the horns well without being too floppy.

- The pieces came out of the moulds very easily, although the encapsulator wasn't sticking very well to the bottom of the piece. It will work fine, it was just when I was pulling it out of the mould that it was an apparant problem.

- As advised by my research, I painted them with skin illustrator, which I think created a realistic look. I wnated them to look slightly knarled, like the horns, like the surrounding skin was congrous with the horns. so I painted the indents in the pieces a darker skin shade with a hint of purple.

- Unfortunately, as you can see in the picture, the appliances are slightly loose fitting around the horns. I really thought I'd sculpted them to fit well, as I was worried this might happen. I think i'll be able to stick the sides onto the horns a little but it might cause the shpae of the silicone to look distorted.

Obviously for film context, this is unacceptable. I would re-sculpt, re-mould and re-run the pieces until they fit the horns perfectly. I don't have time to do that for these pieces for this project, but for industry and contextural purposes, thats what I would do.

I will still apply them and take a photo, as they will look ok, but as far as acting in them and moveability, the fit might prevent them from being as stable.

The Plastering Method

These slides illustrate the method and results I had from moulding the silicone with modrock, creating a 2-part mould around the silicone to help it retain its shape for when the expanding foam is poured in.