Foam ear experiment

Whilst sculpting the clay ears I was realising more and more how heavy they were getting. The thickness around the bottoms of the ears was also building up, so it would be impossible to stick the ears to the mask while still being about to see through it. Even though I've spent a lot of time sculpting and figuring out techniques and materials, I feel like I may have to give up on that process. Instead I've started looking at a lighter, quicker and more flexible method. Above shows the experimentation using scrap foam sheets; here I was figuring out the pattern and shape that I wanted the ear to be. 

Mask Fabrication: Sanding and filling

1) The covered ear beginning to be sanded smooth.
2) The difference between a sanded and un-sanded surface. The light and dark patches show where the dips and lumps are, so can guide you were needs filling.
3) Stage one of sanding complete! One of the ears was more cracked than the other so needed extra support on the inside.

Mask Fabrication: Ears

After sculpting an ear out using air dry clay and chicken wire for support, I decided to attempt using these as the final things. Speaking to a technician, Emma suggested that I use the milliput to coat the ears in, in order to stop them from cracking, meaning I wouldn't have to re-sculpt something I was already happy with too.

I began this process by mixing up equal amounts of the two part epoxy putty, then squishing small, thin circles together, blending them together to create a thin layer about a millimeter thick over the whole sculpt.

Mask priming: sanding and filling

1) Spraying the first layer of primer onto the mask. This highlights the bumps and where needs to be sanded down, or built up a little bit more.
2) Close up of the detailing. The bumps are where I've applied the milliput and it still needs to be smoothed down.
3) After a few layers of sanding and filling: The grey paint mattifies after being sanded and more milliput has been built up in the areas that have dips.
4) After another layer or so of sanding, filling then spray painting, I circled the areas that needed filling to assist myself in remembering what areas needed attention.

Mask Fabrication: Progress

I've now re-sculpted in the details that were lost in the process of vac-forming. Once these have dried, I'll sand them smooth, then prime the whole thing. Several coats of primer paint and a few sessions of sanding and filling may be necessary to get the mask flush and smooth at every 'seam'.

The edges of the mask were hand sanded, and the eyes cut out with a sharp pair of tin snips, then hand sanded and filed back. They still need some re-shaping done at this point though so ensure safety of the wearer, good vision and clean edges.

Mask Fabrication: Repair work, sanding and filling.

I began by marking out the areas that needed defining. These were the brow, cheek, nose, muzzle and chin areas. 'Milliput' is a two part epoxy putty that goes rock hard after being left for a few hours, and is sandable, mouldable, sculptable, and smoothable with water. It was a quick and easy way of sanding and filling, and was everything I needed it to be in terms of drying time and flexibility. The second image shows the beginnings of cutting out one of the eyes, as well as progress showing a more fleshed out mask.

Mask Fabrication: Post-vac-forming

At first, one of the technicians attempted cutting the sculpt out of the plastic, but when I realised that the clay would have dried and cracked, it also meant that this 'cast' was going to be the only shot without having to sculpt it all over again. This is why the plastic was in a bit of a state.

The air-dry clay crumbled very easily out of the plastic, so it would've been impossible to cast from this sculpt again. After cutting it out of the leftover plastic, the edges were a bit chewed up. I'll be able to fix this with some simple re-shaping and sanding though. I could either do this using a course sandpaper and do it by hand, or possibly use a dremel. A belt-sander would be way too aggressive for this though. The last image shows the current sizing and overall shape of the mask. I can't say I'm not disappointed with how the mask turned out, as I was really happy with the sculpt, so for it to mess up at the final stage is a little annoying to say the least. It also means I have to put a lot of restorative work into it now, whereas if it had taken properly then I could be onto the painting stages by now. 

Vac-forming process

Vac-forming process from Lily Greenhalgh on Vimeo.


Unfortunately something went wrong with the vac-forming process! You can see at about 00:10 the details start to come through, but at 00:11 there's a small pop and the details are lost. Seeing as the heat from the vac-former will have dried the clay, we only really had one shot at vac-forming the mask. This means a little extra work, and some problem solving.
My current options are:
1) Sculpt and vac-form the mask all over again.
2) Add details to this vac-formed version.
3) Try and get the clay out and attempting to vac form it again.
The most time, material and cost efficient option was 2); Essentially I have to use some epoxy putty to sculpt the missing features onto the mask. This does mean quite a bit more time will be spent on this mask than I had initially planned, throwing my time schedule out slightly, so I'll have to compensate by putting more hours into the mask, staying later or working faster to keep up to date. These things are sent to try us!

Mask Fabrication: Vac-forming

The mask had to sit lifted from resting on the vac-former, as air had to get underneath it in order for the process to work; we used two little pieces of wood to lift it up. The mask had to have a few little repairs again before it was vac-formed, but the whole thing was dry enough to be used.

Mask Fabrication: Ears

After prototyping a quick ear sculpted in air dry clay (for sizing and shape reference) I decided to experiment making the ears with the same material, only this time I gave it an inner-structure of chicken wire to support it and potentially help with the inevitable crumbling. This was simply to experiment with the material and different ways of working with it further.
In the first image you can see me checking the wire against the mask sculpt to make sure it wasn't too big or small.
The second image shows beginning to pad the clay around the wire, beginning to see the shape.
The third image shows the rough sculpt with details. It was hard to hide the wire without the sculpt becoming too thick, but I liked the overall look of it.

Mask Fabrication: Small repairs

Before vac-forming, there were a few minor repairs I had to make simply by blending some clay into the cracks that had appeared. This tends to happen naturally as the clay dries and the water evaporates out of it, so unfortunately it can't really be avoided. This is why I prefer sculpting in other materials if air-dry clay can be avoided, but seeing as I wanted to vac-form this mask due to time restraints and budget, air dry clay was the way to go! A small hurdle, but very easily fixed.
The cracks can be seen around the eyes and the top of the forehead; this also indicates where weaker points may be, so are often in corners or detailed areas.

Mask Fabrication: Refining and detailing

At this point I've used water and brushes to begin smoothing out the sculpt. The features are how I want them (seen in the second image). As this kind of clay is air dry I covered the sculpt in cling film to make it air tight to it wouldn't dry out before vac-forming it later.

The reason I chose air dry clay over chavant is because chavant would melt in the vac former!

Mask Fabrication: Shaping and Smoothing

Now we can see the features of the mask beginning to show! Definition in the eyebrows, pointed cheeks and nose can also be seen. I also had to pay special attention to the edges of the mask; if too thin these will be the first bits to crumble, so made sure they were padded out nicely. I also made sure that the edges of the mask would extend enough to cover the sides of someones face too, instead of not being tall/ wide enough.