Anatomy and Art

a blog by Sara Egner

Making an Ear

with 2 comments

Another project I’ve been working on lately has been to sculpt the ear of one of my classmates.

Last year we all took impressions of eachother’s ears using algenate.

The idea is to create a cast of one ear, and then use that cast to create a match for the other side.  In anaplastology, this kind of scenario comes up often as a patient may have one good ear, and wish to receive a matching prosthesis for the other side.

The new ear is sculpted using a combination of base plate wax, clay, and a few crayons for coloring.  I believe in most clinics models like this are made solely in wax.  It is sculpted onto a base plate which is meant to mimic the anatomy of the patient’s head where the prosthesis will be worn.

Then just recently we finished off by pouring a plaster mold around the wax sculpture and boiling the wax out, to leave the plaster mold behind.

In another week or so, we will paint colored silicone into the mold and use it to create silicone versions of our wax sculptures.

It’ll be ears for everyone!

Written by Sara

February 23rd, 2010 at 10:29 pm