Finally, the air bubbles were 'boiled' out of the material, assuring a perfect mold when they poured the viscous silicon over the wax sculpture of the base.


The sculpted base is at the bottom of the container. The different colors are two different kinds of wax.

It HAD to work because usually the sculpture is ruined when the mold is made.


Rick pours the silicon mixture into the container.

Next morning, the mold was peeled away from the wax sculpture and after cleaning out the wax bits in the flexible mold, it was time to make four castings.


The next morning, Harry Hine shows off the casting of the base made late Monday night.


Christiane painted the base and tower following photographs of the real light. As she painted, she talked to anyone who had a question.

It was truly a grand performance on both Rick and Christiane's part.

We found out that HL relies on other sculptors in the UK, in Taiwan and in Australia. Rick is the one person who does most of the mold making (except the Australian does his/hers.)

Finally the parts were mated after painting and some hand-made metal railings were added.

It was an extremely interesting process to watch and the finished 'one-of-a-kind' original was auctioned on Thursday morning. It went for $5,500. I anticipated it would bring over twice that, but several of the 'big bidders' sat on their hands during this one.


Here's the finished piece.

Rick was also working on El Morro Lighthouse in Puerto Rico which was chosen by the winner of the 2005 "Choose a Lighthouse" contest.

Harry, it WAS a FANTASTIC idea! If only we'd have had a video camera!