Six months after painting the stuccoed shell dwellings, their appearance — paint a cosmetic — became unacceptable. Looking for a better solution, I envisioned the shells clad like armadillos with jointed armor plates. The arrangement of plates shown in the models reanimated the sculptured surface and, ready to proceed, I settled for it.

An inquiry as to the cost of the sheet metal, the fabrication of the plates, and the means of anchoring them to the existing surface is underway.