Head Casting Day!!

AAHHH! What an exciting morning!! I was so so nervous while I was driving to Uni with all my bits and bobs, but some Chris Moyles Breakfast Show kept me calm enough to drive. Love Dave's Tedious Link!

Wrapping Charlie's Head

Once I got to Uni I took everything in and Richard (head casting extraordinaire) had already begun setting up the room. Basically the reason I'm doing this head cast is so that I can create the Grinch's face by sculpting onto a plaster head with clay. Obviously it needs to be the models head because the prosthetics have to fit her the same way the costume has to. After the clay is sculpted onto the plaster head I'm going to do another cast of that before creating the gelatine face pieces.

So first of all, after preparing all the ingredients on a table
Charlie say down on a cling film covered chair in a stylish poncho-esque bin bag and her head was wrapped completely in cling film - making sure all of the hair was as tight to her head as possible!

Once this was done we put cotton wool in her ears to stop her brain from getting wet and rubbed vaseline into the hair that wasn't covered by the cling film. This was so that when we pulled the cast away it didn't rip her hair off at the same time.

As Richard was feeling nice he said that we could do the back first so that Charlie wasn't sat with plaster all over her face for longer than she needed to be. The ridge that you can see in the picture (left) was built up using strips of ModRoc and this is what the front would be attached to later.

So after a relatively easy and chilled out first 20 minutes or so of covering the back of her head... it was time to start on her face. I covered up her lip piercing with a plaster, rubbed more vaseline into her eyebrows and eyelashes as well as around the edge of the plaster bridge running over her head. This was so we would be able to take the front piece from the back when the plaster was dry. Otherwise she would just be stuck in it forever - and lets face it, no one wants to be stuck in a plaster head for the rest of their life!

Oh, and we gave her a little tube to put in her mouth so she could breathe - bit crucial!

This next bit was the worst bit for me! This blue stuff is called Alginate. Its made from seaweed and basically it mixes into a paste and dries into a rubber in less than 2 minutes. So this bit had to be done quickly. I literally had one minute to mix it all in the bucket then about 90 seconds to slap it on Charlie's face before it started drying - oh my god!!

There wasn't even time for Charlie to see the blue goo before Richard and I were pouring it down her face. She just shut her eyes, had a tube in her mouth to breathe and was going to be like this for another 20 minutes at least. There is NO WAY I could have had a head cast done!! Claustrophobic much!??! I imagine it's what being in a coffin would be like!

So after all the skin on her face and neck was covered in Alginate she looked a little bit like this! I then had to put about 15, inch square sponges all over her face -  I didn't quite understand why at the time but it did become clear later.

When she was covered in the tiny sponges and the Alginate was dry we basically did what we had already done to the back of her head and covered her blue, rubbery face in ModRoc. Key thing here was to build another bridge against the bridge that was already there but NOT to overlap it - again, danger of the plaster not coming apart and Charlie being stuck in it which would have been a bit of a bummer!

Then we just let her chill out for a bit. Me and Rich grabbed a coffee, bacon roll, had a bit of a chat... KIDDING! The ModRoc sets really quick so she didn't have to be sat in the cast for ages!!

We took the back off first to give the front a bit of extra time to dry so that it didn't just crumble and all my hard work go to waste. Then, ears first, we prised the front off of Charlie's face. I think the exact term Richard used was "wiggle your face... like a bunny..." - I'm guessing he meant like when they twitch their noses? I suppose we'll never know but luckily enough the cast came off and we were left with a negative of Charlie's face.

OH! And while I think about it, turns out the sponges help hold the Alginate to the plaster - who knew!?

The rest was pretty simple and straight forward really... Once Charlie could see and hear again we had to reattached the two separate head pieces to create the mould that we would pour the paster into. They fit together almost perfectly so we clamped them together with 'G-Clamps' - no idea what they were until today - and sealed the edges together with more ModRoc.

Inside of the Cast

How creepy does that look!?? Nice added touch of the saliva-drenched breathing pipe I feel.

It didn't occur to me but OBVIOUSLY we had to block the pipe she was breathing through otherwise all the plaster we poured in would just come straight back out which wouldn't be exactly ideal, so Richard stuffed some clay in it - good idea I thought.

I was in charge of mixing the plaster! Apparently, when you mix plaster you fill a bucket about half full and just keep adding the plaster to it until, and this is a technical term supposedly, you 'see an island of powder'... Right... Then it had to be mixed so it was the consistency of single cream... Can't exactly imagine builders saying this rubbish can you?! I''m sure real builders must use measurements!

With or without measurements we filled the empty head with plaster and now I have to wait, which I am rubbish at doing, until tomorrow when I can take the mould off and see the finished head!! Yet ANOTHER exciting thing to look forward to. Pretty successful morning even if I do say so myself. Who knew making the Grinch could be so much fun!?

So until tomorrow people, take care of yourselves, and each other (said in true Jerry Springer style)

NB. Kids, don't try this at home without the supervision of another kid!