How We Built A Weathervane, Part Five

This is the fifth installment on how we made the Belle isle Aquarium weathervane. At this point, all of the clay work has been completed and now the attention has been turned towards making the plaster molds.

Here, Giorgio is elevating the clay gar to what will be the half way mark for the wood box that will be put around the fish, so that we can make molds of both sides.

The straw was put in to mark the halfway point of the gar and then metal flashings were cut and begun to be placed around the entire shape.

In this pic, the metal flashings are just about complete. All gaps were covered to ensure that no plaster leaked through to the other side.

Here, the plaster is just about done. You can see the curving of the gar's body. That was covered so no shape was discernible once finished.

Separate molds were made for all of the fins, as well. 

One side is completed, now to pour the plaster for the second half. "knuckle" indentations were made so that the two haves once dry would line up properly.