The Captain's Sculpture, parts 52 - 55

52. I thought the device of arranging your sculpture in such a way that the forms combine to give it strength was very smart of the Captain, but soon I began to notice that all the little ceramic figurines you see in gift stores always use the same device.

53. I found myself gravitating to the gift sections department stores where I would examine the glossy casts of little ducks and frogs, unicorns and toads, and in every case it was plain to see that all the various forms of the figures were composed is such a way that the entire object resolved itself down to one simple shape.

54. “Obviously,” I thought to myself, “they do it this way so it will come out of the mold easily.” Just as I made this realization, I pictured trying to pull a more complicated shape out of a mold. A complicated shape consisting of many parts with interior voids would need to be cast in several pieces.

55. Although this is quite complicated to explain in words, it is very obvious if you just go and have a look at gift store figurines, if you could do that it would make my life a lot simpler, because you can see at a glance, what it is almost impossible to explain with words.