The first project was very similar to one I had in undergrad, which was to make a plaster cast of my face. In this case, I made a patina that is supposed to resemble oxidized copper, even though the piece itself is cast in gypsum. I had to remodel my nostrils, part of my lower lip, and my eyebrows with metal carving tools and drills, because they were not cast as perfectly as they should have.
The main bulk of this class was to create either a medical model or a prosthetic (my professor for this course is an Anaplastologist in my department). I chose to make a nasal prosthetic, because I was really interested in the process, having never seen it done before. I won't go into much detail, but basically the final prosthesis I made is a modification of my own nose to fit a hypothetical "patient" model who is missing one for one reason or another. The prosthetic is made of several layers of colored, translucent silicone, with extrinsic coloring on top as well to match the skin tone of the "patient". If this were to be for a real person, adhesive would be spread around the paper thin edges and it would fit snugly against the patient's skin so that is was almost imperceptible to a random passerby. I am generally happy with how the prosthetic came out, and have definitely learned a whole bunch from the experience.
