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Making Dipped Latex Ear Tips

== by Shawn G.

The techniques of making a full mold of your ear is a long involved process and takes both time and many resources. Here is a quicker technique that is no more complex that home made dipped candle.

This can be done in a long-ish evening.

You need

Small bottle of liquid latex
Two spoons
- Either tea spoon or table spoon depending on the size of your ear.
String to tie the spoons upside down
Something to hand the strings on.
Plastic wrap (as a drip cloth)
Hair dryer, optional
Baby Powder
Spirt Gum (and remover) or whatever you choose to apply the ears with
Fake skin or scar wax

Dip them

Tie a string at the end of two spoons so you can hang the spoon upside down.
Set up your work area
- Put some newspaper or plastic wrap under the dripping spoons. (I like to use plastic wrap so I can empty the dripped latex back into the container so I don't waste the drippings.)
- Fix up something so the spoons can hang down without giggling or messing anything up.
Dip the spoons (teaspoons or tablespoons depending on the size of your ear) into the liquid latex about halfway down the spoon.
Let it hang and dry.
- As it dries the latex will run to the end of the spoon and make a little point where it drips off.
- You can speed the process with the aide of a blow-dryer.
When the first layer has dried, repeat the process until you have a built up ear tip, but be sure to dip the spoon a little less deep each time so that you have a thin edge where you will have to blend it down.

DON'T TOUCH THE LATEX AS IT DRIES. YOU WILL LEAVE A DENT IN YOUR EAR IF YOU DO. DON'T LET THE TWO SPOONS TOUCH OR THEY WILL STICK TO EACH OTHER.

After it has dried completely, you need to powder the ear with baby powder so that it wont stick to itself.
Carefully peel the edges and powder underneath as you go. Lift the ear from the spoon, and there you go!

To apply the ear

Try it on for size, and trim the ear to best fit over yours.
I like to trim it to fit about halfway onto my own ear and cut out the center to match the natural cuff of my ear.
Use spirit gum or "pros aide" (prosthetic adhesive) to attach the ear.
Next use the fake skin or scar wax to blend the latex ear into the natural ear. You can stipple latex over the entire ear (scar wax and all) to stabilize it and to help give it the same color all over.
If needed, you can make-up the latex ear after it is all dry.

Pointers and Tips

Depending on how thick the latex is, you will have to dip your spoons 5 or 6 times or 15 to 20 times.
Don't trim the back side of the ear to much, that is where most of the adhesive will do its job. If you trim it up too much you may have an ear that wont stay on or is a bit floppy.
If you apply your own make-up to latex and your skin there is a chemical reaction that happens. The color of the make-up "changes" on latex. It won't match your skin entirely. That is why you need to stipple the entire ear with latex, because without the latex the natural skin/latex/and scar wax will all look different colors even if you use the same make-up on all of it. (you can buy a "rubber mask" grease paint for the latex and it solves this problem entirely.)
If you use prosthetic adhesive be sure to apply it to your ear and the ear tip, let it dry on both surfaces completely and then stick them together. Spirit gum can be put on wet and held in place till it dries or you can tap the gum with your finger tip until it becomes sticky before sticking the ear down.
You can reuse the ear tips over and over again, but you will need to re-apply the scar wax each time.
As with ANY make-up application, be sure to give yourself plenty of time to do it. If you THINK it will take an hour to do the application, be sure to give yourself two hours to ACTUALLY apply it. Only after several applications can I start to guess more accurately how long it really takes.
This method is a fast easy method, but you don't want it to look like one...good luck and have fun.

I hope this helps everyone out there who is too timid or lacks the materials to try making the foam latex or gelatin ear tips.