Insertion of L.E.D
I wanted to look into ways of making parts of the prosthetics light up to enhance the idea of the cyborg makeup. As it is very difficult to sourece information on this, alternatively I will look inti using UV paints in subtle amounts to give life to the mechanical sculpts I create.
After having a tutorial with Pete, we discussed using an Electroluminescent sheet to light up behing prosthetics as an alternative to inserting LED's.
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EXPERIMENT 1
EXPERIMENT 2
For this first experiment, I prepared my mould with vaseline and cap plastic, I then mixed up my silicone and poured some onto the mould detail. I then put the panel on top and poured more silicone on top and scraped off any excess from the blending edge area.
Once I demoulded, the panel was completely encapsulated as planned, however the panel wasn't flush enough to the moulds surface, meaning that I wouldnt be able to see the light shine thorugh the piece as there was too much silicone covering the detail.
To cirrect this, as this was a successful run, I thought I'd try to cut out the unwanted silicone from the sculpt, enabling the light to shine through.
This second experiment was to find a differnt method, to ensure that the light is able to show through the silicone.
This time, I spread a small amount of silcone over the detailed area, and scraped it until I could see parts of the sculpt sticking up, as these needed to be ultra thing against the panel. I then lay the panel on top and attmpted stippling silicone on top, but as it was sticky, this encouraged the panel to move, risking silicone getting underneth the panel. Instead, I used a stick to spread silicone on top of the panel and the rest of the surrounding sculpt. I kept pushing down on the panel to enusre it was submerged and that no silicone got underneath.
I plugged the panel into the battery, to discover that I had sculpted witht the panel facing the wrong way, meaning the light wont shine through on the correct side.
Once turned around, I realised also that the sculpt was too thin. I wanted the details alone to shine through, not the whole piece.
LO1
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EXPERIMENT 3
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Creating a thicker layer, i pushed the panel into the clay, witht the lit side upwards. I then carved out the detail again and remoulded the sculpt. This time, the sculpt should light up correctly once encapsulated and ran in silicone.
When running this piece, I ran a small amount of silicone into the mould to pick up the detail and to enure there is a skin infront of the panel. This also means that when pouring more silicone on top of the panel, I can push the panel right down against the cured silicone.
However, I put too much silicone in the first layer, meaning that the panel couldnt be pressed into the mould far enough for the wire to sit flat and for the back of the panel to be covered properly witht the second lot of silicone. To encourage the panel to lie as flat as possible I adhered it in place with prosaide before pouring the second batch of silicone on top.
The panel also interfered with me scraping the silicone, so as a result, the blending edges wont be perfect as a very thin amount of silicone was on the edge of the appliance instead of it being cap plastic alone.
Because I tested this piece using caucasian skin tones, the silicone was translucent enough to let the light through the whole piece. To avoid this I need a way of blocking out the light. Perhaps a paper stencil on top of the light panel needs to be embedded within the silicone.
EXPERIMENT 4
I needed to figure out a way to block out the excess light coming theough the silicone appliances. I thought that using some sort of stencil would work, but it would be a matter of creating something very delicate and time consuming. Alternatively, I found that simply colouring the appliance with skin illustrator was an effective way of doing this.
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To sculpt this piece, I rolled out a thin layer of Le BEau Touche onto a tile and roughed out the size and shape I wanted. I then used a fine sculpting tool to carve out details for the light panel to shine through.
The first time I sculpted with the panel facing the wrong way, so the light wasn't visible. This meant I had to re-mould the sculpt to allow for the wire to sit correctly in the prosthetic.