Students learn the ins and outs of looking like a zombie
“Once you leave this class, I take no responsibility for how much trouble you get into, “ Fab Lab resin casting instructor Michael Bianco tells Zombie mask class participants.
Thirteen year old Ava Conolly begins the process of gluing special effects to her face using a two component glue designed especially for this use.
A bloodied gash already affixed to her hand, Moravian Academy senior Annie Direnzo works at feathering a special effects piece onto her forehead.
Annie Direnzo adds the finishing touch of blood to the special effects gash on her hand.
Minus one eye covered with a special effect, Moravian Academy senior Hugh Brolly is happy with the end result of his Zombie make-up experience.
Bethlehem resident Liam Brolly displays his ghoulish handiwork with a screw penetrating his hand. Attending the class “sounded like fun,” said Brolly who attended with his brother and father.
Ava Conolly peals the mold off of a casting of her right hand.
Satisfied with the results, Ava Conolly displays her Zombie mask efforts and prosthetic hand. An eighth grader at Penn Ridge North Middle School she took painstaking care in crafting her facial mask.
Instructor Michael Bianco poses with his Zombie mask class participants, James Conolly, Ava Conolly, Annie Direnzo, Michael Brolly, Liam Brolly and Hugh Brolly. Another student, Missy Hartney had left earlier.
Northampton Community College’s Fowler Center Fab Lab was the scene of some zombie mask creativity recently, just in time for Halloween.
The small group of students learned from resin casting instructor Michael Bianco how to mold, adhere, feather and bloody a number of mask special effects and how to make a prosthetic hand casting.
“It sounded like fun,” Moravian Academy student Liam Brolly said. “I had done this kind of make-up for a movie my cousin made.”
Brolly’s father, Michael, and brother, Hugh, also participated.
James Conolly also made it a family affair, bringing his 13-year-old daughter, Ava, along to join in the experience. Conolly, a STEM teacher at Penn Ridge North Middle School, said he wanted to learn the special effects medium.
Each participant learned to how to glue the wounds, decay, lacerations, bullet holes, bite marks, and even a puncturing screw onto their faces, necks, hands and arms using a two-component glue that could hold the special effects in place for up to a week.
Instruction on feathering the effects to blend them into varying skin tones was given, as well as adding the blood to create the complete zombie look.
Full casting of a prosthetic hand was also taught. First, a mold using polymers was made. Then a hand cast was made by pouring polyurethane plastic into the mold. Five minutes later the mold was peeled off revealing each hand cast.
“You get to use your creative juices,” said Bianco, who noted that this was the first year the NCC Fab Lab had offered the course.
