An outfit for pierced brass work can be bought for as little as 60 cents and you can buy any number of brass or copper cutouts with the designs stamped on them for 25 cents each, or of German silver for 50 cents each.
How to Do the Work.
—The first thing to do is to lay the sheet of metal with the design on it on your drawing board and fasten it there with thumb tacks.
Now with your stippling awl punch little holes about ¹⁄₁₆ inch apart all along the outline of the design. The background is then stippled with the awl, that is, dotted all over but not punched through, and the closer the dots are the prettier it will look.
Use a small modeling tool to put the veins in the leaves and after you have done this use a larger modeling tool and shape up the leaves or whatever the design may be.
To do this grip the tool in your hand and press it hard on the edge of the leaf and force it in toward the vein and at the same time ease up on it. This is all there is to the actual work of piercing brass.
After you have made the design take some brass polish, put it on a little wad of cheese cloth and rub off the remaining marks and then polish it with a clean cloth.
Since the brass or other metal for pierced brass work is very thin you will have to back it up with thin wood, although candle shades and other small articles can be used as they are. A design for a candle shade is shown at [B] and the finished candlestick at [C], while one for a toast panel that can be hung on the wall with a Venetian bent iron hanger which I described on [page 76] is shown at [D].
’Tis easy enough to be pleasant,
When life goes by with a song;
But the nan worth while,
is the man who will smile,
When everything else goes wrong.