After stuffing the cast with newspaper, we assembled the sculpture and stuck the feet into the old jeans and boots. At this point the sculpture looked mediocre, but we knew everything but the legs would be covered up in the end anyway.
Applying the Sheet
Using 50 lb fishing line, we suspended the body cast by its belt loops to the ceiling. The sheet is a King-sized sheet folded long-ways. Once draped over the body cast, we arranged the layers of fabric around its head and arms until we got an appealing, life-like pose:
Treating the Sheet
We did the above-mentioned pre-arrangement so that we could plan out how we would drape the body cast with the treated sheet. After all, we would only get one chance. We filled a bucket with a mixture of wood glue, regular Elmer's glue, and water and submerged the sheet. The weight of the soaked sheet caused a few issues with the structure of the body cast, but we were able to secure the sculpture into place with some more fishing wire.
To emphasize the shape of the sculpture's head, we tightened some duct tape around the sculpture's neck. After arranging the folds of the sheet into the shapes we wanted and holding some parts of the sheet together with safety pins, we left the sculpture to dry.
This final process was finished at 12:20 PM yesterday; by about 4:00 PM much of the sheet had dried and stiffened. We will continue to monitor the drying process, possibly re-applying wood glue/water solution to parts that need additional treatment.
The final challenge will be the process of transporting the sculpture outside to the bridge between Langford A and Langford B/C Thursday morning before we install it in its final exhibition space.
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