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The Preliminary Design Procedure started from a concept sketch presented to us from Marla Weinhoff Studios. After discussing the details of what the ad for "Evian" was going to represent, we were enthused about this project. Since MSVB was involved with this project, we knew this was going to be a high caliber design involving our most innovative procedures and expertise.
As you can see, the essence of what is depicted in the sketch is a Mermaid that is striking a pose in a very stylish manner. This wouldn't have been too much of a problem if the pose was more natural of a fish or human. Real fish cannot bend in such an extreme manner. In order to be a little more realistic, there was a little artistic license involved. The length of the tail became a crucial aspect of the project. To keep an aquatic Mermaid look rather than a serpentine tail, the length had to be shortened. The photographer was going to shoot it forced perspective (Cool!) so that the length of the tail would display realism and true functional aquatic abilities.
When all of the major design obstacles were solved, we immediately proceeded with the preliminary sculpting and body casting phase.
Since we were not able to take a body impression of "Gosha", we found a model with the same body measurements (a body double) to make a body cast. Lovelet was a real trooper and she enjoyed watching and participating in the lower body impression procedure. Another design problem reared its ugly head during the sculpting phase. The tail had to curl up in such a manner as to bend in the back and curve a little towards the front. Human anatomy would prevent the model "Gosha" from keeping such an extreme pose for any length of time underwater, "holding her breath etc.". I came up with the solution of exposing her real legs in the back and concealing them with the tail and hips of her body. This was the key to giving her the ability to strike a repeatable pose under water every time a photo was taken. We continued with the fabrication procedure and added reinforcements to the proposed silicone body prosthetic so that any added pulling, stretching and fitting of the tail would prevent damage to the prosthetic.
After the sculpture was OK'd by Marla Weinhoff, we created a mold so we could cast a silicone version of the body prosthetic. An inner and outer mold was constructed to facilitate the fabrication of the silicone body prosthetic to custom fit the model's body. The multipiece mold fit together with precision due to the quality of the molding technique.
The next procedure was to mix the correct color pigmentation and inject the silicone with minimal air bubble entrapment for a quality cast. It took over 65 lbs of silicone and was a rather arduous chore in mixing, coloring and injecting the silicone into the mold before it kicked.
The molds, which consisted of three sections, had to be sealed off and clamped down as silicone has a tendency to migrate out of the tinniest microscopic holes or crevices. After the the silicone was administered to the molds, careful vigilance was at hand as to plug up any drips or errors that might occur during the curing procedure. Only two spots occurred but they were addressed immediately.
The fully cured body prosthetic pulled from the molds and isn't she a beaut!?? I forgot to mention that wires were imbedded into the tail section and predunkle area for reinforcement and posing ability for the static shoot. The next procedure was the trimming, cleanup and touchup of the seams. The quality of the molding procedures resulted in a very good cast with very minimal cleanup and seam touchup.
The next procedure was the painting. The colors chosen were of a clean silvery blue and aqua blue hues in various dimensions. We wanted to give the colors more of a better coloring than any fish because of the beauty and sharp clean look of that fish. Here in the photo you can see the translucent look of the fins held up by Marla.
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