THE WORK ON THE CEREMONIAL CANOE 
A MODIFIED METHOD OF MAKING PLASTER CASTS FROM LIFE 
By Sigurd Neandross 
HE Museum is continually carrying on experiments to find methods 
for reproducing objects which cannot in themselves, because of the 
very nature of the case, be exhibited, and when the work was started 
upon the Ceremonial Canoe Scene of the Chileat Indians it was found that 
the earlier methods of cast taking were not entirely satisfactory. 
The work as a whole brings an unusually large number of technical 
problems, for here must be reproduced some forty figures for exhibition 
without the protection of glass cases in the center of the North Pacific 
Coast Hall. The lack of protection means that not even the garments, 
the furs, the masks and regalia can be used, for a few years of such 
exposure would mean great deterioration in value of some of the richest 
possessions of the Museum. Therefore everything from the smallest ivory 
ornament to the largest ceremonial robe has to be reproduced and that in 
durable materials. The work presents unusual difficulties also, because in 
addition to its artistic scope, it has to be given great scientific value as ¢ 
record of individual types of these Indian tribes, requiring at every step 
work most accurate of form and lifelike in coloring. 
In the figure work a new method has been developed to a most successful 
working so that perfect life casts can be made. A paraffin spraying machine, 
the idea of which was obtained by Director Bumpus in Europe, has been 
utilized to cover the model with a coat of wax preliminary to the applica- 
tion of the plaster. Some time after the work was begun, however, a simple 
brush method of applying the paraffin was substituted for the machine. 
This yields equally good results and has the advantage of making 
the method possible for a man working alone in the studio or in the 
field. The method makes the process less disagreeable for the model 
than is the case in making the ordinary plaster mold. It is also possible 
to make larger casts in this manner than by the usual method, such 
as the full head and shoulders as in a portrait bust, even half the body or in 
fact the whole if the pose permits. One principal gain in plaster casts taken 
from molds in which the paraffin process is used is the advantage of accuracy 
of form whereas in the old method the weight of the plaster compresses and 
distorts all the softer parts of the body. The threads used to cut the mold 
being first laid over the model in the usual way, warm paraffin heated in a 
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