STUDY CAST
 

IN THE SUMMER 2004 OF BREAKTHROUGH, I explained the importance of, and how to make, fish study casts. As I stated before, alginate for molding, in tandem with Bondo and resin for casting, is the simplest, easiest and most economical system for making study casts. Economical, that is, until the fish are getting into the 20-inch range. Usually, for the kind of work I do, 18 inches is about the maximum length of fish that I would carve. Once in a blue moon, I’ll get a request to carve a fish in the 20- to 30-inch range. The logistics of making a study cast of a fish this size, using the methods I described, gets a little tough, and it gets a little pricey for the cost of materials, too. Couple that with the need to find a place to store that larger casting, and my desire to have a large cast drops off real quick. Don’t get me wrong, they are an excellent reference and are great to have, but due to space limitations and their increased cost, I’ve come up with an alternate method that is almost as good, but less expensive and easier to store.

Think about this… which parts of a fish study cast reveal the most details (reference) to a fish carver? No doubt, the head and the fins top the list. The head (and more specifically, the eyes) are the focal point. Lots of ...

...Continued in the Winter 2005 Issue of Breakthrough.

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