Sharon, I didn't know you were an art teacher.
The lion sounds just awesome! What a bummer about it being too big though.
I did something similar once. I built a hypertufa project that was really big. I built it in the garage and made sure it would fit out the door. What I didn't take into account was how heavy it was. It took 4 men to tip it onto a tilt bed trailer, 6 of us to push it outside to where I wanted it and stand it up. I sure got a hard time about that!
Edited to add: Charleen, it would have made a great fountain!