Life Casting

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Life Casting

Page 1

Life Casting means exactly what it says - casting life; taking molds of a persons head, limbs, ears, feet or sometimes their entire body. The process forms the starting point for many special effects. This is the process pretty much as I learnt it at university where we were taught by a very nice chap who used to work in Madame Tussards. Here's a video showing the process:

The first step in life casting is to prepare the area being cast. The best results are generally obtained from bare skin. Excessive hair can make removing the finished mold difficult and so a layer of vaseline is often applied to flatten hair and act as a release agent. It is sometimes necessary to shave to make the casting easier, if this is not possible bald caps can be applied. Moisturiser is sometimes applied to the subject as the process can leech moisture from the skin.

Once prepared, a layer of alginate is applied to the subject. Alginate is a moldmaking material commonly used in dentistry as well as lifecasting. There are a variety of rubbers available these days that do the same job as alginate, I've yet to try any of these though.

Alginate is supplied as a white powder and when mixed with water it forms a white paste which is applied by hand. As it's constantly dripping down it needs to be reapplied constantly until it dries. This usually only takes a minute or two.

Alginate is flexible once it has set and so needs to be supported by a rigid case in order to retain it's shape. This is usually done by adding layers of plaster bandages. For larger molds bamboo can be added to the case to give it further mechanical strength.

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