Chapter XI
CLAY-MODELLING AND PLASTER-CASTING
The boy on whom nature has bestowed the natural talent and liking for art-work will find clay-modelling a fascinating and pleasing branch to follow.
To become a perfect modeller, and finally a sculptor, requires years of patience and perseverance, but to copy simple objects in clay is not a difficult matter, and with some clay, a few tools, and the skeletons, or supports, the amateur should not meet with any great obstacle if the following descriptions and instructions are accepted and practised.
Very few tools are necessary at the beginning, and Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, shown in Fig. 5, are a full complement for any beginner. The first four are wire tools, made of spring-steel or brass wire, about which fine wire is wrapped. The ends of the wires are securely bound to the end of a round wooden handle, and sometimes, for convenience, two ends are made fast to a single handle. These tools are called “double-enders,” and are used in roughing out the clay in the first stages of the work. No. 5 is a boxwood tool with one serrated edge, and is used for finishing. The tools shown in Nos. 6 and 7 are of steel, and are of use on plaster, where others would not be sufficiently durable. Nos. 8, 9, 10, and 11 are boxwood tools, a wire loop being fastened in the end of No. 9. Any of these tools can be purchased at an art-material store for a few cents each, except the steel tools, which are more expensive.
THE TOOLS
Fig. 5.