Casting a Mushroom with Molten Aluminum (Cast #091)

I've made a few of these mushroom casts and this one of the better ones that I've made so far. I've been waiting to post a video of this until I got a really good cast. This mushroom looked awesome and the casting went very well, but the back side of the mushroom was starting to decay and split on the back. It split even further during the plaster casting. Another problem was the small cracks that developed in the plaster after it was dry. I put tape around it to keep it from breaking open during aluminum casting but it wasn't cracked enough that it was coming apart. I doubt the tape was even needed, because the plaster was still very solid even after the aluminum pour. A small amount of aluminum did flow into a crack in the plaster near the top, which you can see when I break open the plaster cast. I grinded that part off later. I set up my camera first and left it taking pictures of the mushroom while I got set up so that I could see how much it was still growing. The resulting tim