Though Grandparents’ Day is usually celebrated in September, Haddonfield celebrated early with a celebration in the Children’s Sculpture Zoo.
On April 19, the Haddonfield Outdoor Sculpture Trust (HOST) held a free event for grandparents and children alike to enjoy.
Michael Willmann is the co-founder and vice chair of HOST.
“It’s so people know, number one about the sculptures here. Kids enjoy it. It’s also so people know about the sculpture trust. We have more than two dozen pieces around town, and we simply want people to know that if they are interested in helping us, it would be great,” said Willmann.
Held annually for the last several years, the event featured tables of free animal plushies, plastic figures and finger puppets, bags of animal crackers, books and facepainting for the children.
In honor of Easter being the next day, plastic easter eggs with stickers inside were hidden around the Sculpture Zoo, with children finding them throughout the three hour event.
In addition to everything there for the event, children also took pictures with and played on the animal sculptures.
At noon, John Giannotti, nationally known sculptor and artist behind “Haddy” the dinosaur, began a demonstration on his process.
A number of scale models and full-size sculptures of Gianotti’s were laid out on a table, with Gianotti giving background information on the inspiration behind each piece and the process that went into creating them.
Most of Giannotti’s public sculptures throughout the country are cast in bronze, while smaller pieces range in materials.
He described how he first sculpts models out of clay or plasticine, in order to get all of the details and proportions worked out. Then, a mold has to be created, which will be put into a furnace to solidify the bronze.
In the case of larger sculptures like “Haddy,” many different molds need to be made, then welded together.
“We work very carefully to take all the seam lines away. If you look at “Haddy,” you will not see a single seam line, even though there are 22 castings for that sculpture. So you work very diligently with small tools,” said Giannotti.
Giannotti then did a demonstration of how sculptures are cast.
With the help of one of the children present for the event, he used small molds of a vintage Coca-Cola bottle and the head of an eagle, to cast small pieces in plaster.
He showed how the plaster is made, mixing the materials together with his hand, before pouring the mixture into the molds. He then picked up the filled molds and tapped them repeatedly against the table to get out all of the air bubbles.
The crowd dispersed to let the plaster set, coming back 20 minutes later when Giannotti took the molds off and showed off the plaster castings, giving the plaster bottle to the child volunteer.
As the Sculpture Zoo is an open outdoor space, people came in and left throughout the course of the event, with 163 visitors throughout the duration of the event.
Rosie Hymerling is one of the trustees for HOST.
“The weather was lovely, and it cooperated,” said Hymerling. “It’s better than going to the Philadelphia Zoo today. You look at how they touch the frog and they touch the gorilla and they touch the seal and they touch the tiger, and they touch the giraffe, and they feel like they come alive… and it was a spectacular day to enjoy the scene.”
