Review: Fake-Up Prosthetic Workshop at The Malt Cross

I have to admit - I’m not the biggest fan of gore. When a particularly bloody scene of a film plays out, I usually shield my eyes from the telly and shriek a little bit, so I’m not sure why I believed I was cut out for a workshop centred around blood and guts. However, having grown up watching the likes of Harry Potter and other fantasy films that used prosthetics to transform people into all manner of mythical creatures, I was definitely intrigued.

The session began with Fake-Up’s Steve running through the basics of producing prosthetics using silicone. The long list of products used to make the prosthetics no doubt left people wondering whether they could take this method of prosthetics up as a relatively inexpensive hobby, but it was both surprising and encouraging to hear that most of the supplies can be picked up for cheap and on occasion, even from poundland. After giving up a quick demo of the process, it was over to us.  

For this session, we were using premade moulds that Steve had knocked up earlier to speed up the process. There was plenty of wounds to choose from; broken bones, deep gashes and a particularly nasty-looking zombie bite. I decided to play it safe with a bullet hole wound, which was pretty tame compared to the rest.

To make up the silicone piece, we used a Platsil A and B, a solution which is predominantly used for this sort of prosthetic work. To turn it from it’s natural white colour to something a bit more skin-like, we added a pigment colour and red, yellow and blue fibres called flocking, which help mimic the veins and other colour spots you might find when you look at your skin. After mixing, it was poured into the mould and left to set. If you are interested in any of the materials that Fake-Up use to create their prosthetics, they have a complete list of their preferred suppliers on their website.  

The workshop sizes are small, with only ten people attending on this particular day. However, this intimacy allowed Steve to give us all equal help and attention, and answer any of the questions we had along the way. He also spilled some beans about working in the film and television industry, and how he’d recently been commissioned to make a bunch of silver ears for an upcoming music video by a very popular band…

Once set, the pieces were given a layer of cap plastic to make sure they would survive the test of time and to prepare them for application. One thing that surprised me was the ways in which items from an everyday makeup bag could be used in this process: matte face powder was used to smooth out the texture of the piece, and the glue used to adhere it to our skin was very similar to the glue used for false eyelashes.

Then comes the painting. Using alcohol activated paints, we were instructed to ‘wash’ instead of paint the pieces, using colour to slowly transform it into a realistic looking wound. It’s important to consider how one would have sustained that particular injury and how this might affect the colours you use; a bullet ripping through skin would no doubt cause bruising and a whole lot of splattered blood. I started out by coloring the deepest section of the hole in black, and then slowly added yellow, blue and red to create the ugliest looking gunshot wound I could manage. The finishing touch was a dollop of Steve’s homemade gelatin ‘clotted’ blood. Gross.

The other folk, who were a bit more adventurous - and less of a wuss - than me, created some brilliant and very realistic injuries too, and couldn’t wait to show ‘em off to the unsuspecting public. What a great, but gruesome way to spend a Sunday.

The Fake-Up prosthetic workshop took place on Sunday 11 March at the Malt Cross. Their next workshop takes place on Sunday 29 April and will focus on sculpting and modelling.

Fake-Up Website