26
Feb
Realistic Wax Museum Style Head Gift
We sculpted this life-sized wax museum style head of one of our clients as a surprise gift from his wife!
This wax museum style figure was commissioned by one of our clients looking for a one of a kind birthday gift for her husband. She wanted to create a unique way to display the suit that he wore on their wedding day and envisioned a life-sized wax museum style figure of him as a way to do that.
Many people assume that these types of hyper-realistic figures are made out of wax, however we primarily work in a silicone or translucent resin. These are more modern and durable materials that can achieve the same translucency (which is key for realism) that wax does. To determine material we discuss with each client the needs of the piece, level of realism, and budget. In this case, the client chose hand glued hair rather than indivudally punched, which meant a hard resin head would work.
To create this wax museum style figure we started as we do with all of our likeness sculptures. We get as many photos of the subject from as many different angles as we can. When the projects are surprises like this one or memorial busts it can be a challenge to get photos, so sometimes we have to get creative so that we can ensure the sculpture looks just like the subject.
Sculptor Steven Richter used these photos to start the sculpture in clay, and through out the process, we shared photos with the client to get feed back and make sure it looked like her husband. Once we were happy with the sculpture we created a silicone mold and then cast a copy in Smooth-On‘s fantastic translucent resin.
We commissioned a pair of custom acrylic eyes to match the subject’s look, and these were mounted into the sculpture after painting. Tom then painted the head and hands using layers of paint to create a realistic skin finish. We then hand laid (glueing little bits at a time) the hair for the head, eyebrows and even added eyelashes. The end result is a very realistic piece and we hear he was VERY surprised by this unique gift!
Need a crazy gift, or custom statue for your themed attraction, museum or man cave?
Email or call today and let’s discuss your project!
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