A German designers create life-like body parts from silicone

At first glance, these pictures appear to show a normal hand.
But a closer inspection reveals a clever prosthetic in the place of the thumb.
The silicone digit is the work of a German company, who specialise in individually-tailored prosthetics to meet the unique needs of people who lose fingers, hands, toes, feet or legs.

The work is the brainchild of designers Alex Stamos and Christoph Braun, of Stamos and Braun Prosthesenwerk.

Mr Braun said the ethos behind their designs is creating silicone prosthetic works of art.
He said his partner started working with silicone 14 years ago, while he joined five years ago.
Mr Braun, who has 18 years experience creating traditional prosthetics, told MailOnline: 'Individuality comes first. For every person and his or her needs are unique, and so are the restorations.
'Here each restoration is a small work of art.
'Alex does more of the individual silicone work while I build the prosthetic under the glove.

'We started our own business six months ago in Dresden, Germany with our special image and special prosthetics.
'We thought we need to make something special. We like to show people that a prosthetic doesn't need to look old and ugly.
'We like to give a good feeling to the patients. It is bad enough that they have lost something.
'So if we are able to make them happy with something cool, it feels good to everybody.'

He said each prosthetic is individually designed and tailored to ensure the right skin colour is match and the prosthetic is as comfortable as possible.
As a result the time it takes to create each prosthetic varies, case by case.
'If we only have a little thumb we can make it in one to two days,' he told MailOnline.
'But if we make an individual silicone cover for the whole arm or leg it will take us up to one week.
'And it also depends on the stump situation, sensitivity, the healing process and the wishes of the patient.'
He said it is the finer details that make the difference, with finger and toenails crafted from acrylic, the same material used in beauty salons create fake nail extensions.
Mr Braun admitted while the prosthetics they create are more realistic, they do not function as well as those with built-in bionics.
But he said they allow people to live their day-to-day lives normally, and even allow musicians to continue playing their instruments.
The prosthetics range in cost from £1,460 to £5,000 depending on the type of prosthetic and the time it takes to craft the false limb.
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