How We Made It Ear Casting

Spanned over two days in two different locations, watch along as The Zelda Project's cast and crew get together to create molds unique to their own ears for custom prosthetics.


Below is the full "Ear Casting" video on vimeo, but you can also find it on YouTube here: LINK

The reasoning behind why we decided to do this, came from our desire to create ears that resembled those of the Ocarina of Time characters, but were custom fit to our own ears, making them appear life-like.  We are in no way professionals at doing this, so to attempt at following our example is to do so at your own risk!  This is merely an account of how we did what we did.  We are always learning, and improving.

This "making of" article is in progress!

We begin with our supplies for Stage 1 (The Casting Process):

We followed the tutorial from alleycatscratch.com/lotr but changed a few details.

• Mold Gel (Or dental alginate will also do)
• Wax Ear Plugs
• Styrofoam Bowls
• Plastic Cups
• Plastic Ziplock Sandwich Baggies
• A Plastic Painters Tarp (So you don't get any spills on the floor)

Supplies for Stage 2 (Sculpting the Ear)

• Plaster of Paris
• Wire
• Super Glue
• Sculpey
• Smooth-On Dragonskin Rubber
• Mold Release Agent

STAGE 1 - The Casting!

We have never created anything like this before, so this was our first time trying to work with any sort of special effects mold making.  None of us are professionals of this trade, so the closest person in charge of any sort of chemical mixing was Ben, who is our Jack-Of-All-Trades Engineer!

The mold gel is a chemical compound that requires water.  Follow your instructions on the mold gel or alginate that you purchase for mixing and curing time.

Instead of swim caps, we experimented first with plastic wrap, but that did not yield the best results.  Instead, we cut holes in plastic baggies, then slipped our ears inside of them.  The plastic baggie blocked the mold gel from getting in our hair, which was the original purpose of the swim cap, with far less fussing.

The other tutorial suggested lining the base of the cups with vaseline to prevent leakage, but we decided instead to use the extra wax earplugs that were left over to form a wax barrier that we could mold to the shapes of our heads while the cup was against our ear.

While pouring the mold gel, we made sure to tap the cup while the mold gel was curing, so that any bubbles that might have been in there would float to the surface and offer a better mold of our ears.

After about 7 or so minutes, our molds were cured, and our partner removed them carefully from our ears.  Take caution when removing the mold from the ear, so as not to ruin the mold if there are any small pieces attached.  The plastic baggie can be pealed right off, but be sure to do this with equal amount of care.

Finally, something to bear in mind if you are not immediately going to cast your plaster positives of your ears, is that you do not want to wait very long.  Alginate and Mold Gel will warp if left out to dry, thus ruining your mold.  When your dentist takes an impression of your teeth to send to the lab to create models, they do so in a sealed container so that the mold is not warped.  This care you should also take for your molds.

STAGE 2 - The Sculpting & Recasting!

The biggest concern we had was that the ears looked life-like, followed the natural curvature of our ears, but were still long enough to be considered Hylian.  It was said that Hylians had such long ears so they could listen to the Goddesses.  Well, by Din!  We didn't want to short change ourselves any messages from them!

Article In Progress Still!