Finished fiberglassing the bear

Round two of fiberglassing the bear went much better. The glass on thmpts in the morning after he left so the fumes would have a chance to dissapate. This is way I was not going to do the fiberglass work at the workshop.

Today I did the last of the fiberglassing for an audience of three. The three boys that live in my building and the next were fascinated by the crazy American crouching on the front porch with a toxic brew. If I hadn’t been racing the set time on the resin, I would have grabbed my camera and asked them to take process shots. This particular resin has a work time of about fifteen minutes. So I have to get as much glass laid as possible before the resin starts kicking.

After it cured, I pulled the clay out. In places like the snout, I had to use a spoon to scrape the pieces out. This is the point where you are desperately hoping that there’s not some mistake in the fiberglass, because you are destroying the sculpture. I was a little nervous as I was pulling the clay out, because the fiberglass made some alarming pop noises. If the fiberglass was brittle, it woud mean that I had put too much of the hardener in the resin. Fortunately, it turned out to be a leaf that had blown under the head (I was working outside, remember) and been fiberglassed to the back of the skull. Whew.

The fiberglass is translucent, but I’ll still have to cut the pupils of the bear out in order for the performer to see. Currently, I’m planning to use either scrim or sunglass lenses to cover the opening. I’ll have to see which looks better with the fur.

And here is a picture of me holding the bear head on. I don’t have the lower jaw installed here, although it’s fiberglassed, but you can see the proportions of the bear. I’ll take it in to the studio tomorrow for the next step in its construction.

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