The painting party begins. Most of the paint was donated to the project, and we had lots of plastic bowls of different colored paint.

The painting party continues. It actually went on for many days. Most of it was done with sponge painting, which is much quicker to cover large areas. Brushes were used for small detail.

The mural starts to come to life.

Each animal has lots of fussy details.

Marty assembles the animal pieces. They are held together with small wire ties and washers. Holes are first punched through the foamcore board with an awl. Then a washer is placed on the front, one between the pieces and one on the back. The wire tie is inserted through this sandwich and pushed through the head of another wire tie on the back -- until proper tension is achieved.

The front of the assembled seal. The main support rod is the one on the right. There is a finish washer and a fender washer on the front. A screw goes through the foamcore board into a CPVC 90 degree bend with a small piece of dowel in it on the back -- see next picture.

The CPVC 90 has a bamboo rod glued into the other end of it. The bamboo is chosen for a thickness that will fit into a piece of 3/4" PVC pipe which holds it into its proper position in the mural.

The back of one of the set pieces. The outer two pieces of PVC pipe hold it to 3/4" pipe pieces coming up from the base of the mural. Marty found that the lightweight version of 1" pipe (schedule 200) will slide over 3/4" PVC pipe. (The same is true of 3/4" and 1/2" pipe) Therefore, once the base is loaded with its cut-to-fit upright pieces, the set pieces just drop on.

The center piece of PVC is positioned to hold one of the animal main support rods. This gives more flexibility as to where animals can be positioned.

The finished mural