THE CARE OF PATTERNS.
New patterns, before being used, should be rubbed over on the rough side with a smooth piece of pumice stone; this wears off the burr and makes the stamping come out cleaner and finer. When patterns are so large that they have to be folded, iron out the creases before using them. After using the patterns for powder stamping, snap the pattern to shake the powder from the perforations. After using the patterns for paint stamping they should be washed thoroughly with naphtha until the perforations are all perfectly clear. Keep the naphtha away from the fire. After the pattern has been washed, do not use it for powder until it has had time to thoroughly dry, otherwise it will gum up the holes and spoil the pattern.
If these directions are carefully followed the stamping will always be satisfactory.—Popular Art Instructor.
CHAPTER XVII.
BRONZE WORK.
Bronzing is the latest improvement in waxwork, and if properly made cannot be detected from the most expensive artistic bronze. It answers for table, mantel, and bracket ornaments, and may be exposed to dust and air without sustaining the slightest injury. It can be dusted with a feather duster like any piece of furniture, and is a very desirable and inexpensive ornament.
The colors required in bronze are: Silver bronze, gold bronze, copper bronze, fire bronze, and green bronze.
THE ART OF MAKING A VASE IN BRONZE.
For instruction, let us take a vase to be finished in copper bronze. First the vase must be molded. The casting material is one part wax, one part spermaceti, two parts mutton tallow. Melt the three articles together and color with burnt umber. Have a coil of fine hair wire, cut into one-half inch lengths, and when the mixture is melted to the consistency of thick cream stir in the cut wire by degrees until there is a sprinkling of it throughout the mixture; then pour into the elastic mold and let stand till perfectly cold and solid; then loosen the sections of the mold and take it out. Should any of the ends of the wire project, they can be cut with a pair of sharp scissors. Trim the seams caused by the sections of the mold; then take a piece of soft flannel cloth, dip it in the refined spirits of turpentine and polish the vase with it, after which it is ready for bronzing.
Take copper bronze No. 4000, and with the tinting brush bronze the vase evenly, and polish it with a soft piece of white silk. Now take another brush and with copper bronze No. 6000 give it the last coat The vase is now ready for draping. The most simple drapery is an ivy vine. Take an embossed ivy leaf (or embossed muslin leaves, as they are named), lay a fine wire along its midrib, leaving two or three inches of wire for stem; cover the leaf with brown sheet wax, press them together well with the finger and thumb to make the wax adhere to the leaf, get the impression, and hold the wire firmly; then lay another piece of wax on the under side, press the edges together and cut away the superfluous wax, leaving the edge plain (the ivy leaf is not serrated), cover the wire stem with wax and the leaf is ready for bronzing. Rub both sides with turpentine, give one coat of bronze No. 4000, then the last coat of bronze No. 6000. When all the leaves are finished, weave them into a spray, grading them from large to small till the end of the vine is reached, then bronze and drape around the vase in an easy, natural way.