Firstly, I needed to remove the hair from the dolls, so that the object was completely smooth to allow the latex moulds to peel off from the dolls. I photographed this stage, and continued to do so throughout the process, because at each stage they created an interesting new piece and I wanted to capture the development.
I also began the first few layers of wax, which as can be seen it required many in order to have a more solid and less recognisable figure. By dripping the hot wax from the head down it created the sense of the doll melting and it obscured any noticeable features of a human other than the face, linking to Plato's Cave theory of people like slaves only able to see shadows of the pure object- the doll is manipulated, so the object is recognisable but not in it's pure form. Furthermore, the lack of identifying features gives the dolls the appearance of slaves, further linking to the theme I have explored of Plato's theory.
At this stage I decided to leave one of the three dolls in it's wax form, rather than covering it in latex to create moulds, because I found the wax sculptures interesting in their own right. The contrast of the skin colour and facial features which can still be seen through the thin layer of wax on the head against the opaque layer of wax over the body that distorts all sense of what is beneath it.
