Press
A Barn for a Whale
Originally published in Country Routes, November 2007

It took 1,600 lbs. of steel, 2,000 lbs. of expanding foam, 55 sheets of plywood, three weeks and 10 guys for the 52-foot long female humpback whale replica to come into being. It's the biggest animal the owners of Caledon's Advanced Taxidermy and Wildlife Design have ever tackled./p> Galea and McGregor can't say who commissioned the mammal- they had to sign a confidentiality agreement with their client- though the Terra Cotta residents have done large projects before (they had a contract with a major retail chain) and have had high profile clients (including several NHLers, former premier Mike Harris and the family of current U.S. president George Bush). However this mammoth piece posed some particular challenges for the pair.

Starting with the miniature scale, they dissected the whale into sections creating stencils which they laminated to the walls of the barn. From there they used steel to follow the silhouette and create the outline of the mammal. They made plywood ribs and used shrink wrap to create the skin. Then, they sprayed expanding foam which they then carved back. Galea says carving the foam was the most labor-intensive step- taking the team about a week to complete. "It was slow, frustrating work. But we had a lot of fun. I guess that's what happens when you have a group of guys trapped in a barn together in Caledon," Galea says. "There were a lot of Jonah jokes," adds McGregor, laughing.
Alan Liczyk
Staff Reporter, Caledon Citizen