Sculptor makes art for human prosthetics

Kate Browse, a sculpture junior, dove headfirst into pursuing her goal of discovering the process of making human prosthetics by constructing a mold of her face.

To do this, she and two other assisting sculpture majors mixed a skin-safe alginate with water to make a plaster-like substance. Her assistants then painted this mixture over her face, neck and ears. 

Photo: Alexa Voss

Kate Browse displays a facial mold she says she hopes to use in pursuit of a medical facial prosthetic art project.

As a self-described claustrophobic, Browse said she first felt intimidated that she would have to breathe through two small plastic straws placed in her nostrils while the plaster dried on her face.

However, she sat still during the 15 to 20 minutes it took for the alginate mixture to harden, breathing successfully through the straws.

Browse's two assistants dipped strips of plaster-coated cloth rolls into water. The damp strips were then placed on top of the firm alginate mold in order to make a hardened shell for the mold to rest inside when removed from Browse's face.

The total process took a few hours. Once the mold was successfully peeled off of its subject, Browse said she was pleased with the result.

She said she hopes to create a series of body part molds in the future to showcase in an end-of-the-year display focused on medical prosthetics.