Color Cement Handicraft

Copyright, 1922 by The Davis Press, Inc. Worcester, Mass. Printed in the United States of America Dedicated to ROBERT B. HARSHE Director of the Chicago Art Institute for his early recognition and encouragement of Color Cement Handicraft



It is evident to the most casual observer that the use of cement and concrete has developed into a most important building material—undoubtedly the most important of the age. Industrial and vocational educators have recognized this importance and thousands of school children have received instruction in its use and application to objects of utility. Its use has been the subject of many books, and the reason for the issuing of this book is to present in printed form the use of color cement for the decoration or surface enrichment of cement and concrete objects. We heretofore have thought of cement in terms of rough surfaces and crude retaining walls, little thinking that beautiful patterns and textures are possible with proper combinations of color with cement, presenting possibilities for producing art tiles, pottery, and decorations of a high art quality.
After a study some years ago of the various forms of producing clay pottery and its possible relation to school arts and industrial education, the handicap of necessary firing to give permanency loomed large against its general adaptation by schools. This resulted in considerable research and experimenting by the authors with cement and the use of color in the endeavor to parallel in some measure each of the methods employed in the making of fired tiles and pottery. Particular attention was given to simplifying the process of securing permanent form to many of the plastic forms of schoolroom art, which have been presented in clay and other perishable mediums. With the projects presented in the following chapters permanent useful objects can be secured by students in their school art subjects. Attention was also given to the enriching or refining by decoration the many objects heretofore made in cement and concrete by vocational classes. The problems and methods explained in the following description solve this need.