The most important part of the procedure is making the armature. This is made with cold-rolled steel rod and aluminum mesh screening. The steel rod armature is either wired together or welded. I usually paint the rod to prevent rust bleeding into the plaster. Also, one must use aluminum or other wire wrappping or dry wall adhesive nylon screen to prevent slippage of the original coat of plaster. Hydrocal plaster is applied in layers (wet on wet) and tooled both wet and dry with hand rasps, carbide burr bits on a standard drill, and an assortment of dremel bits. Of course, there is lots of old-fashioned hand modeling as well. There is no problem allowing the piece to dry before the sculpting is completed. It just needs a good soaking in water before adding more plaster. This method of sculpting incorporates hand modeling as well as removal of unnecessary material (as in stone carving).

     Here is one of my great secrets: as you have aleady noticed, most of my horse sculptings are balanced on one hoof, requiring a bit of creative engineering of the armature which is coiled to form a base to counteract the offset center of gravity. When the armature is self supporting, you know you have succeeded. The one point where the hoof or foot or whatever is attached to the armature base is movable. So at that point, it is necessary to model a part made of permanently pliable epoxy or polyester resin. Clearly, plaster would crack at this juncture. The finished pieces is a bit 'kinetic', but I have seen no problems with separation or cracking even after some pretty rugged treks to exhibition sites.

      When the piece is finished (when is a piece ever really "finished"?), it needs to be sealed with paint. I use a matte acrylic or enamel primer. This coats the epoxy, seals the hydrophobic hydrocal, and covers any discoloration from the underlying steel rod. The painting proceedure can always be repeated as necessary.