New Elf Ears

As part of Christmas madness I decided to get my inner-elf on before a friend's Christmas dinner. Partly this was also a good excuse to play with a new adhesion technique for prosthetics for long lasting wear on set. I've been exploring options after some previous adhesion issues. This pair of silicone ears were absolutely locked on for 6-7 hours, while I ate a full Christmas dinner in warm weather. I could have left them on longer, except I wanted to go to bed without them! I did the application on myself, so I'd expect to achieve a bit better result applying this sort of thing on another person.

Fawn ears in silicone

After Alana and I crewed on a short film today I came back and painted the fawn ears that I had cast in silicone (Ecoflex 00-50). I hand painted the ears using Fuse FX's line of silicone paints. I'm pleased with how they came up after adding some veins and freckles.

Fawn 'ear extensions' painted by hand (click image to enlarge):

Previously I had sculpted the ears onto an Ultracal 30 positive using Klean clay. Rows of Ultracal ears:

I then fashioned a simple pour mould and made two negative moulds of the sculpted fawn ears. The basic idea was to make a mould that I could use the original positive of Alana's ear to get a near perfect fit with her real ear and the prosthetic appliance. Sculpted fawn 'ear extensions' about to be cast:

I ended up with two pinkysil moulds into which I poured the Ecoflex 00-50 tinted with Fuse FX S-304 (Med. Olive Flesh) after applying a homemade release agent. Ecoflex 00-50 sets relatively quickly in about 4 hours. I was then able to pull two sets of fawn ears. Fawn ears fresh out of the mould:
The closer ones I have washed, cleaned up lines and patched a bit with some tinted ecoflex. The edges aren't perfect at the back but do provide a good fit to Alana's ears. Hopefully I'll be able to blend the edges in the finished effect.

Demon - Fawn ears sculpted

Demonic fawn 'ear extensions' sculpted onto a positive cast of Alana's ears:



The ears were cast in Ultracal 30 using a master silicone mould we made for Alana's ears. I then cleaned up the ears, filled in some minor holes with a little Ultracal and filed off some rough edges. Before I sculpted the clay 'ear extensions' I brushed on a homemade release agent of 1 part detergent to 2 parts 70% alcohol. This is in the hope of floating off the Klean clay after I've made a mould of the whole piece. Hopefully make a silicone mould for them tomorrow then make two ear prosthetic appliances. I've decided to finish ears before I attach the fawn horns that I worked on earlier as I reckon the overall effect will look better.

We're all ears...