The complicated mold begins to be made of the Dragon's head. Because of the complexity of the piece and the inability to cut the head into many separate parts, a multiple-part mold must be made of the entire head. First the Dragon's lower jaw was removed and molded separately, and the remainder must be completed in 5 separate mold parts. if this were not done, the head would become trapped inside of the mold with no way to get it out.
Here the in-progress mold of the head is prepared for another part of the mold to be poured.
The mold is completed on the underside of the Dragon's head. Note that the eyes were removed from the inside - the head was hollowed out after the bottom jaw was removed, and the eyes taken out from the inside. This will allow the head to be cast with a hollow chamber inside of it, allowing the semiprecious stone eyes to be placed in each of the cast heads. Without this step, the Dragon would not be able to have its beautiful gemstone eyes.
