Fibre Glassing Corbels
This summer we were approached by The Lypiatt Hotel in Cheltenham to help restore some of their external corbels that had been damaged. Loving a challenge, we began by silicone moulding an intact corbel and then sealing it in a 3 piece fibre-glass (GRP) jacket.
Fibre glass (GRP) is a robust, extremely strong and lightweight material made from a plastic matrix and glass fibre strands. It is used in the production of boats, water tanks, aircrafts etc. We used it to create a sturdy, removable jacket for the silicone mould (above) which could be reconstructed back together at the workshop for casting the fibre glass replica.
Once cast it was time to remove the GRP jacket and silicone.
After repeating this process we were left with 2 exact replica casts of the existing corbel from the building, fooling a few visitors into thinking we had started working in stone! Once painted you could see how the casts had picked up all the surface character of the weathered corbel they were moulded from and on the building it is almost impossible to tell them apart. It makes for a tough game of spot the difference!
