Harper's Round Table, February 11, 1896

by Various

Do not be too ambitious at the start, but take a small fish, as a shiner, a perch, or a sunfish. Do not try to make the cast of a catfish at the beginning, because the barbules or head appendages of a catfish are hard to take. Do not try, either, an eel, for eels and snakes present some difficulties. With practice, however, a snake or an eel is not hard to make a cast of.

You have caught your fish. Wash it so as to get rid of the slime or mucus. Sometimes this slime will not come off readily; then put a pinch of alum in the water you wash the fish in, and the fish will become perfectly clean. Dry the fish rapidly with a bit of paper or a towel. Now you are ready for work.

Place your fish on the plate of glass, and prop up his tail and his back fin, or fins, with little bits of potter's clay. Sometimes the back fin, or the dorsal fin, as it is called, will become contracted. Stretch out the fin as the fish ought to look, and with pins hold it in place, running the pins through the fin into the clay supports. Having laid your fish straight and in a natural position, now build a little wall around the fish. This is to prevent the flowing of the plaster. This dike should be, say three-fourths of an inch higher than the fish.

You mix your plaster and pour it in carefully on the fish. Now let it all stand awhile, and exercise patience. It ought to be set and hard in an hour, but that depends on the plaster, the batter, and the temperature. You cannot try it with a straw, like you would bread, to see if it is properly baked. When it sets, however, take the plate of glass, hold the cast downwards, and remove the whole thing. If you have worked properly you will have a perfect matrix. The fish being supple, you take it by the tail and get it out.

Your mould may be dry, but you want it drier. It may be left twenty-four hours and put in the sun, or, if you want to hurry it up, you can place it in an oven, but not in too hot a one.

You have now gone as far as I used to go when I began to take the casts of medals. You want to go beyond that, and get a perfect fish, and you have the mould. It would never do to pour liquid plaster into a plaster mould. The new mixture would stick fast to the old one.

The shellac varnish now comes into use. You can buy the shellac varnish ready made, but it is too thick, and you must thin it with alcohol so that it will flow readily. A very little shellac goes a long way. Take a soft brush, and give your mould a coating of varnish. Use a light hand. When the first coat of varnish is dry give it a second coat. Not a bad way is to pour some varnish into the mould if the varnish be thin enough, and drain off the surplus. But remember, if the varnish is too thick, you fill up all the fine lines the fish itself has made.

You want to bear in mind now the piece of wood. This bit of wood should be a little less in length than that part of the fish starting back of the head to the beginning of the tail, and it should have a screw sticking out at each end at right angles to the direction of the stick itself. When your mould is full take this bit of wood with the screws in it, and push it or put it into the soft plaster.

The use of this wood is double. It will help, by means of the screws—which, of course, are firmly embedded in the plaster when it becomes solid—to draw the perfect plaster cast out of the mould, and if you want to hang up the model you can pass a bit of wire through the eyes or the head, of the screws.

Let the plaster set just as before, and when it is dry draw it out by means of the bit of wood and the screws.