Postup a technologie

1) „TECHNICAL DESIGN"

• redrawing of images into digital vector "technical" form

• enlargement or decreasing of the drawing to the scale

• eventual corrections of individual parts, so that the ratio correspond to the reality
(at least the view from the side, from the front and from the back and eventually from the top is necessary to make by this way main details - usually head, sometimes, limbs or others)

• drawing of the main supporting construction (into the processed drawings) - the supporting contruction, ie pipes including all bends and angles of attachment - at least two views, eventuelly separately the fore and hind legs or so on. (it is necessary for hiding of the whole supporting structure inside of the animal body and limbs)

• drawing of basic planes of the animal - usually necessary are: medians of the body and limbs (caudal to cranial and lateral to medial direction), horizontals of the body and limbs (dorsal to ventral direction of the body and proximal to distal direction of legs) and transversal of head (oral to aboral direction) - by this the basic axes of the animal's body are determined



2) BASIC INNER CONSTRUCTION AND STAND

• basic design of the pipes (diameter according to the size of the animal) - the most accurate according to the drawing (for hiding inside the body and limbs). Vertical elements through the limbs are longer (reach under "the animals", due to later attachment to "stand" and the subsequent installation)

• attachment of basic construction to the stand - welding of the horizontalmetal elements (eg of scaffold pipes) to the tips of lengthened verticals, to allow the posture of construction and avoid its crossing. The stand later serves for mounting and fixing the whole sculpture.



3) BASIC AXES AND PLANES OF ANIMAL

• welding of spins of polished steel round pole into the completed basic structure

• connection of spine peaks by continous steel rod = creating of basic axes and planes of the animal (technically you could say the sectional-views of the animal), which serves as the foundation of the entire skeleton



4) OUTER IRON SKELETON

• making of a complete skeleton (in the basic construction with the axes of the body) of stronger, but malleable wires (diameter 4-6 mm) - wires bent into various shapes (as when they represent the outlines of sectional-views or tomographic scans of the animal plane) welded horizontally and vertically, eventually diagonally. The final shape and rigidity of the skeleton is created by its mutual crossing (this part is done only based on the photographs or other images, ie. largely by the imagination and skill... - some knowledge of animal anatomy is often necessary for this

• addition of the wires to all places where there is a change in direction of the planes (eg. attachment of the limbs to the body etc.)

• reinforcement of larger parts of the body adjacent to the body by a small surface (such as wings, horns etc.) - by steel rod or pipe inside the skeleton or by welding of the other end to the other parts of the body (such as the tip of the tail to the leg)

• eventual reinforcement of the construction - in accordance with the size, shape and position of animal - several pipes or rods welded inside to the supporting structure and also basic skeleton as well as mutually in place of crossing

• too small animals must be always made on some object (branch, rock etc.) - in order to avoid break the small parts (eg feet of small birds)



5) MESH SURFACE

• covering of whole body by two layers of rabbit mesh - the mesh mounted to the skeleton and mutually intertwined all the individual parts

• covering of mesh by cement-spray (runny cement plaster)



6) BASIC BOTTOM CONCRETE

• eventual attachment of the whiskers or so on (eg. of fishing line) just on the construction - already before concreting

• gradual applying of concrete (of sand for concreting) with a higher content of binder (cement) and the necessary ingredients and additives (so-called building chemistry) at the mesh - in the entire surface
(by extrusion of concrete through the mesh, reinforced concrete is becoming from the concrete)



7) PRIMING

• applying of primer or "contact bridge" (containing sand, granulate or so on)
(with the top coating layer, then everything works on the principle of "composite or joined concrete topping")



8) TOP FINISHING CONCRETE

• fixing eyes to prepared eye sockets - covering of glass (taxidermy) eyes by adhesive tape, sticking by silicone to the eye sockets, mutual straightening, greasing by denser concrete (due to going down than silicone dries)

• gradual applying of concrete with fine sand, large quantities of cement and a few ingredients and additives (so-called construction chemistry) to the dry primer - in smaller batches and continuous layers

• continuous making of all details (feathers, scales, wrinkles, protrusions, etc.) - at the same time with the concreting and during the whole process

• rough finishing of withering concrete by sponge (rough surface)

• gradual smoothing of the roughly finished surface by very small steel flat tool - "float" - preferably by steel grout tool (also applies to large surfaces - smoothing by trowel is not sufficient nor by special attic and "preservationist's" trowel), very small details must be smoothed by a scalpel or similar tool
(very tiny, unpleasant and time-consuming work... however, if the absolutely smooth surface is not required, the smoothing may be omitted; otherwise the size of surface for applied concrete have to be adapted to time feasibility of smoothing)

• applying of concrete as well as its finishing (smoothing) is performed solely on whole individual surfaces in the same period of time - making of part of the surface only and completing tomorrow is not possible - it is impossible to connect the concrete without a visible connection seam - all connections must be solely in places of surfaces breaks - in sharp bendings (eg. at the place of attachments limbs to the body, corners to the head etc.)

• removing of larger sunken areas on the the top side of surface - if the sculpture is designed for exterior - the sunken areas would hold water which would freeze in the winter and damage the statue

• continuous wetting of the concrete (eg by sprayer) and sprinkling later (after drying surface)



9) COATING

• longer technological break - proper curing of concrete (depending on the weather and temperature)

• applying of necessary chemical coatings - eg. antiabrasional, neutralization of ionic salts etc. 

• priming coat with white (or other light) colour (after drying of chemical coatings)

• final top coat with graffiti artists' colours (on dry prime coat)
(more suitable - better and more permanent would be to use an airbrush with acrylic paints)
 
• completing of details and badly accessible places with smaller (preferably school) paintbrush

• careful removing of adhesive tape from the eyes with a scalpel (after drying of the spray)



10) INSTALLATION
customer done installation by himself - usually in the exterior (outside), ie.:

• placing the statues to digged out hole

• shuttering of the stand (iron construction beneath the feet of the animal)

• concreting of the stand (concrete with aggregate)

• landscaping, eventually making of the background or other elements imitating the environment etc.

• placing of label or information board (eg in zoo)