Casts From the Past IX

Casts From the Past is a recurring retrospective of select Palladio GFRG projects.

An entablature squats beside the mould from which it was just released. As the drawings demonstrate, it will sit beneath the spring line of a canopy atop the column capital.  

An infrared image shows the difference in moisture content of the two casts in the background. The darker piece on the left has just begin to dry. The other is nearly dry and barely visible.

These imposing sentinels are the shafts for 12-foot-tall octagonal columns, destined to line a cathedral. 

This altar’s base is composed of glass-fiber-reinforced gypsum. GFRG is light, strong, dependable, and, if that’s not enough, its glass fibers are created from post-consumer recycled materials.

This is a plaster or “reverse” mold, so called because it’s the reverse of the finished part. The earliest technique for molding, reverse molds are destroyed during demolding and date back centuries. Exactly how old we’ll feel if this one-time mold doesn’t work perfectly!