1950-09-16 — Page 3

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THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1950.

AN EXTREMELY fine layer of liquid wax is brushed on the plant. It is then smeared with off This keeps it from slicking to the plaster in which it will be encased.

HE GROWS A GARDEN OF GOLD

THE COATED PLANT is covered by a cylinder, open at both ends, which is hermet- ically sealed to the base. Special plaster is poured in slowly to avoid bubbling.

Desert garden of precious metais is carefully "pruned" by Simon Yavliz, whose habby is duplicating nature's masterpletes. Ditplays Include hundreds of plants

EW MEN Can Improve on the artistry of nature, but Simon Yavitz does it every day. A retired New York financier, his hobby is "raising" gold and silver plants and flowers, phoenix-like, from their own ashes. Any metal can be used.

Following the method of precision casting em- ployed by Benvenuto Cellini in the 16th century. Yavitz converts desert plants into metallic dupli-

cates, exactly identical to their natural shapes.

To make one of Yavitz's specimens, a real plant is first embedded in plaster. It is then baked out, at 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit, with small holes remain- ing in the plaster casing to carry off the vaporized plant. Liquid metal is forced into the hollows under centrifugal pressure. After the molten metal has cooled and hardened, the pluster is carefully broken

away, leaving a replica of the original plant, down to the finest lent veining,

Mr. Yavitz began his absorbing hobby after he, had seen the fine flowers Japanese cräfumen made before the war. With plenty of time on his hands,. his buds were soon "aprouting."

The gardener in gold" has been commissioned by museums, colleges to create exhibits for study.

AFTER the plont has been burned out, the plaster cast is carefully removed by a technician. Plainly visible are the holes through which the metal will be forced,

THE REAL PLANT mugically replaced with one of silver, Mr. Yavita deli- cately picks away remaining bits of plaster after breaking open the flask.

WHICH IS REAL, and which is silver? Only

at right in artificial. It has been-painted in natural colo

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