1We can't all rub shoulders with political greats and movie stars,
2but for the price of admission to a wax attraction, anyone can mingle with their wax replicas.
3These look-alikes aren't much for conversation,
4but the likeness can be startling, thanks to a process honed over centuries.
5Famous faces come to life in beeswax,
6so it's almost like seeing them in the flesh.
7But how do they do it?
8It often starts with a face-to-face meeting with the subject,
9during which they take more than 200 measurements of the face alone,
10and still more of the body.
11Drawing on those measurements and using photos and additional research,
12an artist sculpts a clay body onto a metal skeleton.
13This clay sculpture will be used to make a mold.
14The head, of course, receives special attention.
15They sculpt it in stages, and this takes about six weeks.
16To check the symmetry of the sculptured face,
17the artist stretches a wire from the temple to the chin.
18She measures it from all angles and compares the numbers to measurements of the actual subject.
19Every single aspect of the clay face must mirror that of the subject's precisely,
20so if it's even slightly off, she makes adjustments.
21Here, she redefines the teeth a bit more,
22and then she tweaks the hairline.
23They're now ready for the next step, the making of the head mold.
24The worker paints plaster onto the sculpture in 14 different sections.
25This multi-part mold can be easily removed from the clay head once the plaster dries.
26After the clay head has been discarded,
27they give the reassembled mold a quick rinse.
28The wax artist turns the plaster head mold upside down and slots it into the wax bench,
29so named because it secures the mold during the wax casting.
30They melt blocks of Japanese beeswax and funnel the liquid wax into the neck of the plaster cast.
31They let it set for an hour, just long enough for the wax to solidify
32and form a thick crust around the inside of the cast.
33The artist removes crust at the neck
34and pours out the rest of the wax, leaving a hollow wax face inside.
35They set it aside for another hour to further solidify.
36The wax artist removes a plaster mold and comes face to face with the wax creation.
37She examines it thoroughly,
38confirming that the detail from the mold has been effectively transferred to the wax
39and that the wax face is a dead ringer for the human subject.
40The team then casts the wax figure's hands,
41and an artist matches the subject's skin tone against a chart.
42She mixes paint and dabs the brush in it.
43She then strikes her brush with another one, so the paint splatters across the hand.
44She blots up the paint to blend it in.
45This technique gives the wax a speckled look that mimics human pores.
46She paints on knuckles, veins, and distinctive markings to mimic those on the subject's hands.
47She gives the nails a manicure to make the hands look identical to the subject's.
48In the hands of a skilled artist, these wax hands have come to life.
49As a medical glass eye spins,
50the artist blots on a very wide pupil first
51and then paints the periphery to mimic the person's iris.
52Iris color and pattern are unique to the individual,
53and the artist replicates those qualities as closely as possible.
54She glues red silk threads onto the whites of the eyes to simulate broken blood vessels.
55It's another touch of realism.
56They slot the eyes into sockets in the wax head.
57Then, the wax figure is ready for its hair,
58actual human hair matched to the subject's.
59They pierce the wax with a hot needle to insert each hair individually.
60The wax melts and closes around the hair.
61This process can take four weeks.
62They also plug in brows and lashes
63and then brush on paint like makeup.
64With his face on, the wax figure now looks true to life.
65Once completed, wax figures get movie-star treatment.
66Their hair is washed and styled regularly,
67and their clothing is routinely dry cleaned.
68After all, even wax versions of famous people have to keep up appearances.