Page 14 - Casting of Angels- Dave Parvin

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“THUD!” The reason was similar, she had eaten very little
all day and had attended an office party where she had
attempted to make up for lack of solid food with liquid
nourishment. Fortunately, other than a bruised pride, she
suffered no ill effects and also returned at a latter date for an
event free casting.
The two examples I have given are not what the doctor
was concerned about. While one could be injured from
collapsing, vomiting with something on one’s face could be
far more serious. I suspect that I have seen someone faint
while having a face casting done only about five or six times
in over twenty years of life casting and with no ill effects. I
can recall only once that someone actually collapsed. The
other times, I realized the the person was becoming
unresponsive and aborted the procedure. I have, however, at
least once seen someone vomit after fainting just as the
doctor warned. I guess the good news is that fainting has
been such a rare occurrence. Usually, the person has fainted
(or started to) just as the mold was almost completed. But
the one who actually collapsed did so just as we applied the
first bit of alginate to her forehead. We caught her or she Photo 2
would have been a limp puddle person on the floor. We
revived her and started over without incident. However, Along the same line as fainting is sleeping. It isn’t hard
something else did happen which I will come back to later. to believe that if someone were lying down while being
But first, I will explain how I try to prevent fainting which is covered with warm goo that he or she might fall asleep.
possibly the reason I have seen it so rarely. Probably the only danger would be to the mold because the
I always try to meet with a castee before the day that we model might wake up with a start and damage the it.
actually spread the goo. Many times the life casting is a However, I have seen a person actually fall asleep standing
parent’s idea and the child is somewhat suspicious. This first up and leaning back on a padded board. In this case, there is
meeting allows me to put the subject at ease by explaining real danger of falling just as in fainting. If someone is so
just what’s going to happen. It also gives me a chance to see tired that he or she can not stay awake standing, then it is
what I have to work with and plan the pose. It also gives me probably smart to reschedule for another day.
a chance to mention safety. Part of the explanation includes Once I had a reporter for a local newspaper come to my
showing a short video of someone being cast, both face and studio to write an article. Her college age daughter had
body. I encourage the model to eat normally and during the volunteered to be the subject. The article was about casting
casting not to lock booth knees. I stress to the model that at her face though we also did a torso casting as well. Again,
anytime he/she feels strange or weak, we will stop at once. both went without a hitch or a stitch. I had requested that the
Every few minutes during the actual casting, I ask how the reporter not explain the process in such detail or make it
model is doing. Communication is not a problem if the sound so simple that someone might attempt it from just the
model’s face isn’t covered since we and just talk to each article without some instruction since one has to cover the
other. For a face, however, my instructions are to respond model’s face and one should know what he/she is doing. I
with a thumbs up for “O.K.” and a thumbs down for “I want had also asked that she let me proof read the finished article
to stop!” I have gotten pretty good at appraising a model’s
status and if anything just doesn’t seem right, even if the
model has not requested to stop, we stop. I recall one face
casting of a young lady during which she seemed to be a
little unresponsive. We were just a few minutes from being
finished when I said that we were stopping. Her mother, who
was a nurse, wanted to finish. I said again that we were
stopping and as I removed the mold, the girl fainted.
In recent articles, I explained how most of the time I
position the model on an almost vertical padded board. If I
decide to abort the casting, the first thing I do, if the face is
covered, is remove the mold. Then my assistant and I lower
the board into a horizontal position. Every time I have done
this, the model has recovered within a few seconds with no
ill effects. My advice is if something just doesn’t seem right,
quit immediately, there is no such thing as being too safe.

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