141v - - - - - 141v - - - - - [continued]
Let your crayfish dry a little in the sun, by itself. If it has spawns, they will shrink while drying, and be all the more beautiful for it. Make your paste out of yellow potter’s earth, just like for the other representations. Lay your crayfish on it, the back side down, and the other parts which are more tricky to mold —— legs, belly, eggs — side up. Drive in the back side in the clay paste up to the legs, which is about the half part of the crayfish’s body. Fix the body with a pointy iron thread in the middle and, if you feel you need it, you can also drive another one at the edge of the tail. And in order that the big legs be lower than the head, which is lower because it is linked from below, add a little clay under the head. Then add a bit of clay under the jacket in order to raise it. Hide the feelers under the clay and under the crusher claws, then arrange it as you like. Stretch out the walking legs to the joints, and for the first cast, bend the second part of the walking legs. Fix the joints of the legs with wax and a warm wire so they will not move. If you want to mould something fancier, fix the end of one walking legs on the body or on a crusher claw , using the same wax. If the female has spawns, bent half the tail over the spawns, and keep the shape by fixing the tail with a wire. Be sure that you will be able to clean this part. Finally rub your crayfish with spirits, and cast your sand. Once the sand is hardened, uncover the back side, the head, the eyes, and the small legs close to the crusher claws, and the walking legs all along. One must uncover these parts as much as possible. Then bend and cover the spawns again. The other animals
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Fix what may raise the two padded edges on each side of the mouth with melted wax under them.
Figure at left top margin
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Uncover as many parts as possible, but be sure the channels you make are well stripped.
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Incline your mould to the thickest side of the animal.
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To paint the crayfish, one paints the middle of the back with vermilion, mixed with a bit of lacquer. The sides, the belly, and below the legs with a mixture made of vermilion, ceruse, and a bit of yellow ochre. As with all things, always keep the real one in front of you in order to copy it as realistically as possible.
at left bottom margin
Lay the feelers on the crusher claws, or solder this part with a wire made of bleached brass.
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When you arrange the legs, be sure that they do not get over the belly, and that they are well set against the belly otherwise
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