shoulder piece mock-ups

shoulder piece resting on plaster bust

vacuum formed piece

detailed and sanded milliput piece

markings show where the pattern will be added

Using yellow foam and milliput, I created a test shoulder piece of my more organic design idea. The foam acts as support while I rolled out a layer of milliput in my desired shape. As milliput sets rigid, I felt this to be a suitable material to vacuum form ontop of without the detail becomming destroyed in the process. Before sanding the surface of the basic shape shown above, I punctured small holes into the soft milliput with a toothpick to mark out where the detail will be added. Using wire templates of the pattern, I have matched the detail at the front and back to join along the centre of the shoulder piece. To create clean edges at either end of the shoulder panel, I flattened and removed the excess foam and milliput at either end with the disk sander. Once the milliput had set, I vacuum formed clear styrene over the piece after attaching it to a piece of scrap wood to give a base which would aid with removal of the vacuum formed plastic from the milliput mold.