My Failed Wound

This week in my lesson I started creating my character using the second degree burn that I have been working on in my previous lessons this term. I began creating my burn a few weeks ago from clay. In our last lesson we learned the process of making prosthetic wounds using silicone, and we then began the process of making our own wounds.

This week we learned how to take the wounds out of the moulds after they had set and then began to place them on our models. To remove the wound from our mould we had to use powder to gently lift the silicone piece off the silicone mould. At the beginning of the removing process it was clear to me that my wound was different to that of many of the people around me. My wound was very thick in the middle and had very little amounts of products around the edges. It also curled up very quickly after being completely removed, and was not very easily unfolded when powdered. It then became clear to me that in the previous lesson where we were casting our moulds, that I had not applied enough of the Baldiez mixture to the mould. This meant that there was not enough product around the actual wound to be blended into the skin meaning that it was very obviously sitting on top and did not look natural. Before I applied it to the skin I showed my teacher who thought that it could be possible to create the wound and make it look somewhat natural. However unfortunately on application to the skin the lack of Baldiez made it almost impossible to blend and create a realistic looking wound. Therefore I decided to use the time left in the lesson to create a whole new mould and to recreate my character in another session. This time I made sure that I was more careful with the whole process and also was careful to focus on the Baldiez section of  the making process. In the first attempt at making my wound I only used one layer of the Baldiez mixture, however the second time around I used two. Hopefully the extra layer of Baldiez will mean that the wound is more realistically applied to the skin.

This failed mould at the time was annoying; I had brought a model into the lesson and had spent a long time last lesson creating my wound and had also brought in all the products I would need to create my character, and it felt that I had wasted both mine and my model's time. I was also disappointed in myself that it had not worked the first time! However in hindsight it was probably more beneficial for me to have it not work. I was given the opportunity to have another go at the process and could learn from my previous mistakes. It also gave me more chance to practise and get used to working with all the products.