A Future Installment at Madame Tussauds

[Clio the Leo]

"Hello!!!! ...... Is it me you're looking for......." (Sorry, couldn't resist and my apologies to anyone who cant get obscure 80s pop music video references.)





"This image provided by Madame Tussauds shows senior sculptor Colin Jackson working on a clay head mold of first lady Michelle Obama at Merlin Studios in London. The clay molds are a crucial step in the up to six month-long figure creation process. The full wax figure of the new first lady is expected to be unveiled at Madame Tussauds in Washington in March"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDZcqBgCS74

[dbonds]

1. They need to refine that one quite a bit.

Doesn't look right, although it favors her.

[Clio the Leo]

2. See I think it's very well done.....

.... they've softened her overbite just a bit. But otherwise, looks a lot like her.

[Tunkamerica]

5. That looks exactly like her

I think it's an amazing likeness and makes me wonder how much the sculptors get paid. Probably not enough for their talent.

[kirby]

3. LOL...

I remember the Lionel Ritchie video well... Good reference.

I wish I could sculpt like that. Very talented.

[comrade snarky]

4. Nice work

The chin looks a little wide though that could just be the angle. Interesting the way he did the eyes. The irises are inset with the pupils cut even further in. Is it to be inset with a glass? If it were I'd expect the whole eye socket to be empty. Of course that would look mightily creepy in a newspaper photo.

Wait a minute, something doesn't add up here. Why does it have hair? A wax figure gets a wig.

And why is he poking a finished piece with that little stick?

No, no, no... I smell a conspiracy. A shiny waxy conspiracy.

:edited for spleling

[Tunkamerica]

6. it's not wax, it's clay

from the article "clay molds are a crucial step" in the process.

[comrade snarky]

10. Oh, I thought it was for Madamme Tussuad's Clay Museum

Dude...
Yes, I know it's for a mold. Why would that mold have wax hair? It wouldn't. A negative mold would be created using a bald head then a wax positive made from that. Human hair will then be applied one strand at a time to create a wig.

My post was a joke, it's obvious that this model was created for publicity. Look at the hair. See how it's much, much less detailed than the face? That's because they slapped it on an already finished bust for a newspaper photo. A bald Michelle would look wrong.

I thought the guy poking the finely detailed clay with a stick like he's still working on the cheek was funny.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. I think that already has glass eyes in it

you can see the brown iris, and the white around them.

The process:

The actual sculpting process takes about 350 hours and the figure is first built in clay on a metal "skeleton." The finished clay body is then molded and cast into fiberglass.

A plaster piece mold of 12 sections is made from the clay head. A special mixture of beeswax and Japan wax is heated to 75 degrees and is poured into the head mold. Once the wax cools inside the mold and the plaster sections are removed, a hollow wax head is revealed.

Hair samples are actually taken from the celebrity and carefully matched to real human hair. Each strand of hair is inserted individually into the wax head by hand – the hair is then washed, cut and styled.

The eyes of a wax figure take about 14 hours to make. Each iris is hand painted and veining is added to the whites of the eyes with fine silk threads.

http://www.vegas.com/attractions/on_the_strip/tussauds.html

[firedupdem]

7. What's with the wrinkles around the eyes? n/t

[ecstatic]

9. They aged her ten years but hopefully the final product

will be more accurate!

[AtomicKitten]

8. It's got a little of Akasha Queen of the Damned thing going on.