New London is, after all, the Whaling City so the idea to have a fountain in the shape of a whale diving into the plaza pavement was both amusing and represented an important element from our history.

Working with the largest bronze foundry in the world, Matthews Bronze, the City was introduced to the sculptor Alan Cottrill, from Zanesville, Ohio. For this 11 million dollar commissioned piece, the City provided sculptor Alan Cottrill with the idea of a whale's tail. 

From this idea, Alan first created a 1/16-scale maquette, or model, of the fountain.  Next, welded tubular steel with styrofoam bolted to it was used as an armature for the full-size model. The armature is the means of support upon which the sculptor models the clay, wax and /or plaster form.

Alan's preferred material for sculpting is a soft  'Victory Brown' wax. By putting the material under a light bulb is becomes soft and easily modeled.  This material is modeled directly over the aluminum/styrofoam armature. Once the piece was completed, it was sealed with two coats of shellac and two coats of a silicone release agent.

A three-part R.T.V. liquid rubber was then mixed and painted over the maquette.  Forced air was blown over the entire surface to eliminate any trapped air bubbles. Three additional coats of rubber were applied with a sheet of burlap sandwiched between layers 2 and 3 to give added tensile strength to the rubber. He then applied pre-cast rubber which acted as keys and was eventually cut through to separate the mold sections. These sections form the 'mother mold' in which the wax was cast. This wax is encased in plaster and melted away to create the hollow form into which the molten bronze was poured to create the 7,000 pound sculpture.

Considerable finishing was required to create the surface texture and warm patina of the finished sculpture.