PRODUCTION |

Creating a wax model is a hard and scrupulous process, requiring a great deal of time (it takes from three months to a year or more to develop a model). The work starts from a selection of a character and a thorough data research for any art materials related to him or her. At this stage the most important issue is to carefully choose the posture and emotional condition that are truly indicative of the person. When the process is over, the sculptors go in to design the mock-up of the future model. Right from the start of the Wax Museum existence, we are working with respected masters, the members of Saint Petersburg Artists Alliance and the awardees of international contests. When every nuance is discussed and confirmed, the model is created in natural size in clay or putty.

After that stage is finished, the formation masters proceed to take off the gypsum forms from the model. Some forms go for the wax founding (these typically include head and hands) and some go for gluing the model’s carcass. The dry forms are processed and varnished over. Then the forms are filled with a wax mixture, a “secret weapon” of the Museum, capable of enduring the temperature from -40° to + 40° С without any change to its physicals. The remaining forms are glued with carcasses of solid, light and nontoxic plastic.

The next stage is the assembly of the wax figures, and this one has its own complexity, for one needs to re-create completely the same clay prototype one started with from the forms separated at the previous stage.

In order to create eyes and teeth we use genuine ocular and teeth prostheses. The data research we carried out determines the eye color or the teeth form our characters had in reality. We use this data to make them look alive.

The preliminary wax molding is rather unpolished, unrecognizable at times. At this stage the detail workers and make-up men take up the ball. Using the portrait data, they make the surface of face and hands extremely detailed, making it look believable.

The next stage is to create haircuts, moustache, beards and eyebrows. As we do not use wigs, our pastigeurs (the professionals of the work with natural human hair) fuse each hair into the wax with a special tool. In the end we have a hair mass, from which our hairdressers could make a haircut. That’s a difficult, lengthy and laborious process, for a head of a figure carries usually up to forty thousands hair.

The costumes of our characters are handled by a large tailoring workshop headed by a dress designer.

In requires more than fifteen person to create a single model.

Each model is unique and requires a great individuality in approach. In the process of creating a wax model there are no stages that are not important. Our work is all about details, so every detail is crucial. Only by this work approach we could have created the charming smile of G?rard Depardieu, the enigmatic face of Marlene Dietrich, the gimlet-eye of Rasputin or the majestic posture of Empress Catherine the Great.