Ossuary — prosthetics for the screen

Walker
the dead, three days in

OS-001

Platinum silicone over a lifecast, painted in the flesh. Sunken orbits, a split lip that shows the dentition, skin lifting at the jaw where the tissue has started to let go. Cast in eight pieces; goes on in ninety minutes.

Walker — the dead, three days in

Nocturne
old blood

OS-002

A cold, bloodless face with the veins brought up under translucent silicone. Sculpted brow and cheek, extended upper canines set in a custom dental veneer, sclera lenses supplied. The only piece we do that looks better in candlelight.

Nocturne — old blood

Ember
third-degree, healed wrong

OS-003

Contracture scarring across one side of the face, built from medical reference. Keloid ridges, a fused ear, an eyelid pulled short. Encapsulated gelatin edges melt into the actor’s own skin so there is no line to hide.

Ember — third-degree, healed wrong

Sutured
put back together

OS-004

Reassembled from more than one donor. Coarse cotton sutures through a flayed cheek, exposed muscle in painted silicone, a jaw hinge in cast resin. The stitching is real thread, set into the appliance while it cures.

Sutured — put back together

Seraph
the other direction

OS-005

Proof that the same craft goes the other way. Porcelain-smooth silicone with pearl flake in the paint, cheek and temple ridges leafed in gold, lashes of white horsehair. Worn at the closing of a film about mercy.

Seraph — the other direction

Marguerite Achterberg
nineteen years
one bench

Ossuary is one sculptor and two painters in a converted cold store. Every piece starts as a lifecast of the actor, is sculpted in oil clay on that cast, moulded, run in platinum silicone and painted by hand. Nothing is bought in and nothing is reused on another face.

Ossuary is a prosthetics agency for film and television. One lifecast, one sculpt, one actor. Every face is made for the person who wears it and never remoulded.

Catalogue · 31 styles

Pick the kind of dead you need.

Walker, three days — Walkers
01Walker, three daysFresh turn. Sunken orbits, split lip, skin just starting to let go at the jaw.

The slow dead. Decay you can date by the week.

Process · six steps

From a face to a monster.

  1. AlginatePlaster bandagePositive bust

    Alginate over the face and shoulders. The actor breathes through two straws for eleven minutes.

Lifecast
Sculpt
Mould
Paint
Teeth
Apply

Gallery · the bench and the set

How it is actually done.

Ossuary is the bench you build the monster with

Marguerite has run the bench for nineteen years. Every lifecast goes through her hands first, and the final sculpt never leaves without her fingerprints somewhere in the clay.

Marguerite AchterbergHead of studio, sculptorOn the bench since 2007Book the bench

Shop · pieces in stock sizes

Skins, ready to wear. Painted or blank.

Off-the-bench appliances for productions that do not have time for a lifecast. Stock small, medium and large faces. Every piece ships with an edge guide and the paint recipe.