Leah Barrett Magdanz

01 · Bog body

Cailín naDorín na Trá

Watercolour concept art

This is a life size bog body of a little girl that I created for my final project. First I made a large scale clay sculpture and then moulded it in fibre glass. I then cast it in dyed latex and filled it with foam. I did a similar process to make the pig figurine she is holding and cold casted that in polyester resin.

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Side profile

Close-up of the face and hand with carved turf — Face and hand

Shoulder and fingers, close-up — Shoulder

Arm and hand, close-up under red light — Arm

Figure unwrapped from black plastic after casting — Out of the mould

02 · Clay sculpture

Claysculpture

This is my original sculpture of the bog body before I moulded it with fibreglass. I sculpted it in WED clay and used terracotta clay for the bog. I also made latex stamps from a real piece of 300 year old turf I removed from the wall of my old town home, to create the texture of the bog she is still partially encased in.

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Clay foot resting on the turf edge — Feet

Clay head and hand on the bed — Head and hand

The sculpt from the side, on the workshop bench — On the bench

The sculpt over the shoulder — Over the shoulder

The sculpt from behind, workshop — From behind

03 · Parasite

Parasite

We were given the brief to create a parasite on human skin. I sculpted both the parasite and skin piece out of chavant and made a fibre glass mould with a core for the parasite and a plaster mould for the skin piece. I casted them both in silicone and painted them using silicone psycho paints. The hollowed out core allowed me to fit it with a mech so I could make the parasite look as if it was breathing.

Colourway 02

Second colourway

Second colourway, from above — From above

04 · Pandora prosthetics

Pandoraprosthetics

Pandora: cracking porcelain prosthetic, 1920s hair and makeup

For this project I was tasked with doing the hair, makeup and prosthetics. I did 1920s inspired hair and makeup and created a cracking porcelain prosthetic for the face. I did this by sculpting the pieces of a flat bed out of chavant, moulding them in silicone and casting them in gelatine specifically for prosthetics. I matched the gelatine to the models skin tone using pigments and coloured flock. I wanted a piece of the “porcelain” to be removed and reveal bloody flesh. I did this by pouring resin into the same mould and cutting out the piece I think used a heat gun to mould it to the curvature of cheek and colour matched it for the shot.

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In the makeup chair, base and lips done — In the chair

Holding the silicone crack piece up to the cheek — The piece

Applying the piece in the mirror — Application

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05 · Latex mask

LatexMask

While on Erasmus in Hungary I created this mask for our mask module. First we made head casts of all the students. Once we had our plaster faces we could sculpt any character. I sculpted this old man face using clay. I then created plaster mould and cast it using an old school technique of using cloth and latex. I painted it using acrylics and hair laid some facial hair, using really human hair.

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The clay sculpt on the plaster head cast — Clay sculpt

The latex cast out of the mould — Latex cast

The painted mask with hair laid — Painted and haired

06 · Blades & Grenades

Blades &Grenades

Three blades: original, EasyFlow 60 and rubber

Original · EasyFlow 60 · Rubber

This series shows my skills of hard edge prop creation. A series of blades and grenades were all made to match made of our different materials: the hero prop, resin recreation, fully rubber recreation and gun foam recreation. I also made one larger scale grenade to my design and some bonus blades for fun.

Part 01

Blades

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Black blade with its lights on — Alternative Blade Head Lit I

Black blade lit in the dark — Alternative Blade Head Lit II

Alternative blade head, close — Alternative Blade Head

Gold blades — Polyester & EasyFlow 60 · cold cast

The hero blade in ivy — Hero Blade on Location I

The hero blade on location — Hero Blade on Location II

Part 02

Grenades

The larger grenade with its lights off — Lights off

The larger grenade with its lights on — Lights on

07 · Periscope

Periscope

To scale replication of the periscope on the the Uboat that sunk the luisitania off the coast of Cobh. This was for a project where we created “archive” footage of the Luisitania being sunk. I was tasked with creating the periscope to scale and making it functional, it twists, it has moving knobs and foldable handles.

The periscope with handles folded out — Handles out

The periscope in the U-boat set — In the set

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08 · Robo bunny puppet

Robo bunnypuppet

Our brief was the create puppets for a children’s TV show. Our show was set in Epoch Hotel which travels through space and time. I was given the design of a robot bunny and I had to translate that into a functional puppet in 3 weeks. I made it using cardboard and homemade paper mache clay.