•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  

prosthetic merino rams head for icebreaker

2009 summer catalogue

When discussing the requirements for an advertising campaign with icebreaker for their 2009 summer catalogue, Rob Achten mentioned ‘The Vollard Suite’ by Pablo Picasso, a series of drawings depicting mythical creatures, as one of the inspirations behind their latest campaign.

We wanted the scale of the rams head to relate to the human body, but it also had to be larger than life size and make a smooth transition from ram to human around the shoulder region.

We cast a fibreglass skull of a sheep that was then adapted to fit on an actors head. This became the base upon which the rest of the ram was constructed.

We took a mould of some merino horns and cast them in a lightweight urethane because merino horns are very heavy, which explains why merinos need strong neck muscles. With a paint effect, the fake horns are indistinguishable from the real ones. The eyes are cast glass as used in traditional taxidermy. The lower jaw is on a hinged mechanism that enables articulation of the mouth, and the teeth and tongue we cast in urethane.

The wool we carefully picked and stitched together from a pattern we developed.

With the prosthetic completely assembled, we added some final airbrush paint effects to achieve our finished look before going off to the photo shoot.

Email from Rob Achten, Creative Director - Icebreaker NZ Ltd

“We are very pleased with the result – a very successful project – we have received a great reaction from our retailers and customers. You guys were great to work with, thanks for all the energy and craftsmanship that you put into creating the beast!”