Take a drive through Long Island and you might be lucky enough to see a beautiful bronze statue of Moses in the courtyard of the Sephardic Temple in Cedarhurst, NY; except that it’s not bronze at all. It’s actually fiberglass, and is the latest, stunning creation by sculptor Jamie Lester of Lester/Sculpture in Morgantown, WV, winner of November’s Project of the Month.

Jamie has always been interested in art, but he found his calling as a sculptor during his junior year at WVU. Since graduating in 1997, he had been creating primarily bronze and ceramic sculpture, but never fiberglass. When approached by a monument company about a fiberglass sculpture, Jamie was eager to jump on the project despite his lack of direct experience. The project, for a Jewish synagogue, called for a statue of Moses approximately 8 feet tall and 3 feet wide. This would be no small undertaking.

Before Moses could be created in three dimensions, he was first sketched on paper by friend and colleague Kenneth Kreider. After the drawing was approved, the project was passed on to Jamie to sculpt. As his first step, he outlined the drawing on an MDF board. With a good idea of the sculpture’s depth, he built up a substructure out of foam, which was then covered in a burlap/plaster shell. At this point, oil-based clay was applied and sculpted to match the drawing to the smallest detail. This sculpting process took about 40 hours before it was finally ready for molding.

Approaching the fiberglass portion of the project, Jamie consulted with aerospace engineer Richard Guiler, a friend with significant experience in composites. Richard provided guidance to Jamie with regards to lay-up techniques and material choices. With the clay plug already complete, the next step was to create a female mold. Given the nature of the project, a flexible, rubber mold was the ideal way to go. An initial, thin layer of polyurethane rubber was painted on with extreme care to capture the exact contours of the plug. The following, heavier layer saw the addition of thixotropic silica, turning the rubber’s consistency into a spreadable paste. The final layer of polyurethane was mixed with chopped glass fibers for added strength. Once the rubber mold set up, Jamie backed it up with a burlap and plaster shell and attached it to a wooden frame for support.

With the mold removed off the plug, Jamie proceeded to the final lay-up. The finished, female mold was first sealed with a vinyl sealer and PVA. An initial layer of pure System 2000 Epoxy with 2 hour hardener was brushed on to most accurately reproduce detail. Jamie then mixed a batch of epoxy with thixotropic silica and milled glass fibers to create a peanut butter consistency. This mixture was spread one inch thick across the entire mold surface. "[System 2000 Epoxy] was very easy to use. The directions were clear and concise, and everything worked exactly the way it was supposed to," said Lester. Eight plies of 6-10 ounce fiberglass backed up these resin layers before the entire laminate was vacuum bagged using 3 shop-vacs with a custom-built manifold and bleed-off assembly to protect the motors. Earlier experimentation had determined that sealant tape would not adhere directly to the rubber mold, so the flange was brushed with resin and allowed to cure prior to the lay-up.

Once the bagged laminate was fully cured, Jamie built a wooden framework of treated plywood to be recessed inside the back of the sculpture. The frame was then attached with fiberglass tape and epoxy, wrapping around the boards and onto the laminate itself. With that firmly in place, he covered the entire back in plywood and sealed it with a layer of 10 ounce fiberglass.

With the inner framework complete and securely attached, Moses was removed from his mold. Minor imperfections in the surface were fixed by either injection or using epoxy filler and sanding. The surface was then scrubbed and pressure washed to remove the PVA and vinyl sealer, preparing it for final painting. However, after the first layer of acrylic was applied, some areas began the flake off. Traces of PVA and vinyl sealer were preventing proper adhesion. Jamie reluctantly sandblasted the entire paint layer off, costing him almost 10 hours in work time. In order to promote a better bond, the surface was diligently scrubbed with a wire brush and acetone. The newly prepared surface was much more cooperative, though small areas still needed to be touched up. It took 8 layers of paint and about 20 hours to give the sculpture a weathered, bronze appearance. The final sculpture was then sealed for the outdoors with several coats of urethane.

After three months and 100 hours of work, the sculpture was installed at the synagogue in September. Jamie delivered his work personally, loading it up in his minivan with Moses’s head between the two front seats. The final project only weighed about 150 pounds. A comparable bronze casting would have weighed almost a ton.

Jamie’s experience with fiberglass was overwhelmingly positive, and he is in the process of bidding on several more projects of a similar nature. "I want to reiterate my satisfaction with your product," he said. "I look forward to using your products again in the future." He is currently working on a massive, five by four foot portrait of Eugenio María de Hostos to be cast in bronze.

If you’d like to see more of Jamie’s work, visit Lester/Sculpture on the web at http://www.lestersculpture.com or contact him at lestersculpture@yahoo.com

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