Underneath the fancy hand carved skin of all of our features is a framework or armature made from a welded framework of 1/4” pencil rod. We use many, many thousands of feet of steel bar, all carefully hand shaped, cut and welded into place. The grid varies but is typically about three inches by 12” to ensure it is sturdy and does not shake when we apply the fibreglass reinforced concrete at a later stage. This cage is purposely built a bit undersize to allow for the thickness of the galvanized mesh (which is tied on next) and the concrete which is up to 1” thick. We use a wire feed MIG welder to do the welding and turn it up nice and hot so we can use it heat the pencil rod for 90 degree bends or to trim off extra lengths of bar. This cage is in turn welded back to a structural steel frame or fastened to the concrete structure to make it super strong. Building this framework is challenging but is a lot of fun for this work determines everything to come.