|
The David Blaine Project
Our client commissioned this project for a promotion
for the introduction of the LG Shine cell phone at a London
press event. David Blaine, the illusionist was their
spokesperson. The client wanted a full body cast, with David
holding the LG Shine cell phone, but had a limited budget. To keep within
the confines of the client's budget we just made a frontal
face mold of the talent's face
at his hotel in New York City. Then at our studio in Summit,
NJ, we added
ears, the back of the head, hair and sculpted open the eyes. This
created a full head and shoulders of David Blaine's likeness.
The next step was to make a secondary mold so that we
could cast the head in resin. We also cast other
body parts at the studio using an additional model and integrated
those parts into the final statue. For example, one hand was cast holding the cell
phone. The other hand was holding a fanned deck of cards --
David's signature.
We used MoldGel for all of the initial mold making. The wonderful characteristic about MoldGel is
its ability
to cast very delicate materials that are normally affected by
dampness. MoldGel binds most of the water within the gelled
material. That is why fast set resin can be cast in it without
ill effects since water and resin do not normally work well together.
The finished piece required a silver metallic
look. This was achieved by using several coats of high quality
metallic silver automobile paint which was then dried and
hardened under infra red lights and clear coated. As you can
see, the effect is that of a metallic statue. Yet the piece
weighs only 40-lbs. A crate was built from plywood about
7-ft. tall and 3-ft. square. The statue was wrapped in bubble
wrap and foam pillows for protection and the crate was filled
will polyurethane foam pop corn to protect it on it trans
Atlantic flight. FedEx delivered it just one half hour before
the event opening. That was as close as it gets.
|
