BUILDING THE SEAGULLS
Finished sculpture I made three fibreglass seagulls. Each one in a different pose. Unfortunately I didn't photograph every gull at every stage of the process so these photos are a bit of a hotch potch
wire armature
The wire armature in preparation to make the clay original
Clay on top of armature and sculpted

The armature covered with clay which I then sculpted.

Hammer for scale

By the way that's the top of a Bushmills Whiskey barrel I'm working on. No barrel unfortunately, just the top.
   
Removing clay from plaster mould I covered the clay original with a thick layer of plaster of Paris bandage and once set, cut it open. One half of this cast is in the background, lying on its back with some of the clay still stuck in it. The foreground section is still waiting for the clay to be dug out, but you can see some of the wire armature showing through the far wing.

Once both halves of the cast were clean I then lined them with release agent and got stuck into fibre-glassing them. No photos I'm afraid, for when I use the words "stuck in" I mean this literally for it is quite a sticky performance with the various chemicals involved and I didn't want to take my rather expensive camera anywhere near this part of the operation.

First on was a wax release agent, then a gel coat layer followed by a surface tissue of fibre glass followed by three layers of general 300 gm fibreglass. All this was applied using a resin which had been 'energised' with a catalyst. All very technical with rubber gloves and masks. Because of the fumes, I worked in the garage with the doors wide open. I think the neighbours thought I was making weapons of mass destruction with all this paraphernalia involved.
 
Once the two halves of each gull had been made they were joined together and then given a final white coat of gel coat resin. I'd tell you about how the legs are fixed into the body but this is getting too detailed so won't bother.
It was at this stage, with the three gulls ready to take their place outside, that I decided I should prepare more moulds in case something should happen to these fibreglass originals. So it was back to the chemicals again to make fibreglass moulds this time. And I used the fibreglass gulls as my originals (the clay ones having been broken up in the original mould-making operation) I did take a couple of photos of this operation, only this time there is a slight change. As I was working on the 'wings folded' gull this meant a three part mould to enable me to release the cast once made.
Two parts of fibre glass mould Here are two parts of the three-part moulds There is one section which encases the body where the legs emerge and the other which is the right side of the 'bird'
The screwdriver is being used to gently part the original from its mould. Both moulds have yet to have their edges cleaned up.
   
Three part mould And here are the three parts of the mould. Hard to see where the "leg" mould joins the other, so I have marked the join with a red arrow.
Yes I am very proud of my seagulls. But they did take a huge amount of time and effort to make.
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