CIMG5001 Prepped for face casting with conditioner and straws

CIMG5001 Prepped for application of alginate.

The end goal of this process was to make a plaster mask of my face, as documented step by step in my blog post.

My friends M and P used to make plaster masks based on real human faces. They would first make a cast of a person’s face from alginate, a gooey material that captures the shape of your facial features to a tiniest detail. On its basis they would make an actual mask out of plaster.

Before getting started, M applied conditioner on my face to keep alginate from sticking to my hair, eyebrows and eyelashes. The straws are in my nose so that I could breathe when M covers my face with alginate and then plaster. This, however, didn’t work very well, because I can’t breathe through my nose. So she also gave me a tube to put in my mouth so I could breathe. This caused the mask to have an odd, gaping facial expression, but what can you do.

February 2007, Austin, Texas