Health & Safety

Here are some very important health and safety rules and procedures  that must be completed and followed when creating and applying special effects and prosthetics make-up.

•  Keep hair tied up at all times.

•  Always use latex gloves and make sure to take them off, throw them away and put on a clean pair when changing products.
• When spraying aerosol cans (fixing spray and petrolease) make sure you do it by an open window so there is fresh air flowing through as these are harmful if breathed in.
• Mark wooden sticks 'A' and 'B' and only use sticks marked 'A' for silicone A, and vice versa.
• Silicone A & B must never be contaminated before mixing as they will set together and the product will become unusable (silicones expencive!).
•  SFX make-up is very messy so wear clothes you don't mind getting ruined, buy clothes specially to be worn when applying make-up. Black is most professional.
• No Jewellery.
• Keep a clean, tidy and organised kit. This will help to ensure no products get contaminated, it is also very unprofessional to have a dirty kit! Tidy kit, tidy mind.
• With SFX products in particular it can be hard to keep tidy, make sure you always double check lids are on tightly, you keep everything up right and store in a dry and cool place. Due to leaky silicone tubs I took to wrapping mine tightly in cling film individually after use to stop them leaking and ruining the rest of my kit.
• Aloe vera products don't react well with our SFX kit.

Wound assessment evaluation

I found the first few weeks of this unit really useful as we learnt how to use clay to sculpt in order to be able to make a basic mould for any prosthetic piece that we needed to create, this is unlike anything I have ever done before. I didn't realise how scientific prosthetic make-up could be! I have only ever used wax and liquid latex when creating special effects make-up before so this is a very specific skill that I would never have learnt otherwise. It was also very challenging as it was so intricate and important to mak sure we used the most accurate amount of all ingredients in order for the pieces to set properly. I enjoyed researching about my specific wound as I wanted it to be as accurate for my character and story as it could be, I really had to look into guns and gunshot wounds to find out how the bullet would damage and puncture the victims skin in order  to make it believable.
When I removed my bullet wound from the mould I was very worried as the baldies layer was beginning to tear very closely to the silicone piece which was going to make it harder to blend onto the skin, I realised this was because my actual wound was quite thick so I should have made sure to apply an extra layer of baldies in order to make it more sturdy and resilient, from now on I am always going to make sure I pay extra attention when I reach the stage of applying layers of baldies and take into consideration the size and thickness my actual prosthetic piece will be.
When I first applied it to the skin I was a little disappointed with the application as I feel like it didn't blend very well onto the skin, I think the weak baldies layer was a big reason why this didn't blend, but also as it was my first time applying a prosthetic piece to the skin so my technique of dissolving the edges with alcohol wasn't as successful as it will be next time.

Once I began colouring the wound, immitating soot, gunpowder tattooing, bruising etc. it disguised the fact that the edges were not as seamless as they could have been and really gave the wound some depth and pulled it together. I was really pleased with the way I recreated the appearance of powder tattooing and soot as thought it looked really similar to some of the wounds I saw in the book I used for my research.

In the final images I was also really pleased with the final look, I think the pale make-up and darkened eyes made my model look really lifeless and as if she was really dead. I asked my model to close her eyes in the image as well to make her appear as if these images were taken hours after her death.

Overall I really enjoyed this assessment and found the whole process from research, learning to create the moulds and prosthetic pieces to the actual creating really interesting and enjoyable and was pleased with the end result, especially as it was my first attempt at anything like this before.

 

Wound assessment images - final photographs

Wound assessment images - application

Application images:

Making the wound using your mould

Tools:
-Mould
-Wooden sticks
-Gloves
- Plastic measuring cups
-Fixing spray
-Petrolease
-Silicone A
-Silicone B
- Deadener
-Baldies
- Scales
-Pigment
- Metal scraper  

Making the pieces using your mould: 
1) Clean the mould with alcohol on a cotton pad/tissue, to get into any cracks or small spaces you can use alcohol on a cotton bud. Powder/talc this well.
2) Make a mixture of baldies and alcohol, ratio = 1 baldies: 2 alcohol
3) Once clean, give the mould a good spray with petrolease
4)  Apply three layers of the baldies mix. Make sure the layers aren't too heavy and let each one dry completely before applying the next. You can use a hair dryer on a cool setting to assist with the drying.
5) To make my bullet would I will be using 8 grams of silicone A, 8 grams of silicone B and 12 grams of deadener.
6) Using the same set up and process as I used to make the mould with the silicone, I will use the same to make he flat piece mixture. Placing a clean cup, with clean gloves onto the scales covered in cling film, measure out 8g of A and then 8g of B (Make sure you use a clean wooden stick for each silicone remember). Then taking another clean stick measure in 12g of deadener.
7) Once you have the correct measurements of all the ingredients you can add a pigment to colour the piece in any colour of your choice. I added a pale fleshy tone to match the skin of my model I will be applying the piece to.
8) Once the mixture is complete you can now pour this into your mould
9) Use something completely flat and with a sharp edge (a ruler will do) to smooth out the mixture and flatten out the edges for a more seamless piece.
10) Wait to set
11) Once set powder the mould well, use something like a spatula to pick up the edges of the piece. Once you have the edges up use a cotton bud covered in powder/talc to carefully and slowly remove the piece from the mould.

How to make a mould using your clay sculpture:

(My notes, step-by-step)

 Equipment:
-Clay sculpture completed and attached to the plastic base
-Wooden sticks
-Gloves
- Plastic measuring cups
-Fixing spray
-Petrolease
-Silicone A
-Silicone B
-Glue gun
-Scissors
-Scales
- Cotton buds 
-Baby wipes

- Make sure you are wearing gloves and change them frequently to avoid contaminating products
- Mark wooden sticks with 'A's' and 'B's' to make sure you don't mix an A stick in with the Silicon B, and vice versa.

Prep:
 1)  Take fixing spray (shake well) and spray over your clay mould near an open window (approx. 20cm away from the sculpture).
2) Then repeat first step but instead of using fixing spray, use petrolease.
3) Once the petrolease is dry, cut a plastic measuring cup in half (throw away the closed bottom half) and place the open topped half of the cup over your clay mould. 
4) Take a pre heated glue gun and apply a generous layer around the outside of the plastic cup, placed firmly over the mould. This will block any silicon excaping under the cup. Once you have made sure there is no gaps for silicon to leak out and that a sufficient amount of glue has been applied you should wait for this to dry. This process requires a lot of patience inbetween each step. Now the clay sculpture is prepared and ready to be filled with the silicon mix to make the mould.

Making the mould using silicone:
5) Take a fresh cup, we will start measuring the correct and exact amounts of silicone A & B. 30 grams of each.
6) Make sure you replace your gloves and cover the scales and surface with clingfilm to avoid any contamination
7) Use the wooden sticks (Marked clearly 'A' and 'B') to transfer silicone from the tub into the cup
8) Change gloves when changing between silicones
9) Once you have an equal amount of both silicones use a wooden stick to stir well and remove bubbles
10) Once pleased with your mixture, pour into the mould and use the wooden stick to make sure it all goes in. Once the mixture is all in the mould and ready to set, throw away the used cup.
11) Wait for the mould to set  

Silicone over the sculpture, ready to set as the mould

Mould ready to be used to create flat pieces

     


 

Finished sculpture ready to mould

Following on from my post about my experience moulding the clay into a replica of the bullet wound I want to create, I spent some more time as home just making sure it was perfectly smooth on top as I didn't want it to have any unwanted textures and I wanted to make sure the edges were as seamless as possible before turning the clay sculpture into an actual mould for my wound. Here are images of it just before we began moulding in class, this was when I was completely happy with it.

Story

Who?
My victim is going to be long suffering female who was in an abusive relationship who died at the hands of her aggressive drug-dealer boyfriend. She will have some signs of abuse  to her face (healing bruises) and maybe some hand marks around her throat. 

Why?
She finally got the courage together to leave him and thought she was free, but he came back to hers after a few days long alcohol/drugs binge feeling angry and wanting to seek revenge for her standing up to him.

When?
When the photos are taken will be taken a few hours after her death. She will be pale and cold looking, the wound will still be bloody and fresh. As the gun was shot at near-intermediate contact range there will be powder tattooing around the bullet hole.

Where?
I am going to make the bullet hole in the models chest as if he came barging in to her house causing conflict, then took the gun out in the heat of the moment and pointing it towards her chest. As this man is so cruel and aggressive I decided it would be between near and intermediate range.  

Contact or distant?

Gunshot wound types are divided into four main categories; contact wounds, near contact, intermediate and distant. 

Contact wounds:
A contact wound is when the gun is held against the body at the time of shooting. There are different categories of contact wounds as well;  hard contact, loose contact, angled contact and incomplete contact.

Near contact wounds:
The inbetween contact and intermediate range gunshot wounds, these can sometimes be mistaken for loose contact wounds. Powder tattooing is seen on near contact wounds, aswell as blackening of the skin from where the skin has been burnt and seared.

Intermediate range contact wounds:
The gun is held away from the body at the time of the shooting but is close enough that the gunpowder leaves "powder tattooing" around the skin. These markings are a key clue found with intermediate range contact wounds.

Distant wounds:
When the gun is shot from a long distance the only mark left upon entering is the hole from the bullet itself. 


I am going to do a near-intermediate range contact wound on my model to follow the story I have created of how she came to be killed. After researching entrance wounds and how the injury differs depending on the distance the gun was shot from, I feel confidence with how I think my wound should look. 

Near contact wound and intermediate range powder tattooing:

http://www.tdcaa.com/sites/default/files/page/5%20FRI%20INV%20Molina%20Gunshot%20Wounds.pdf