Harper's Round Table, December 1, 1896

by Various

To copy simple objects in clay, carrying out the detail and general line in quite a satisfactory manner, 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.

It is not possible to give the young modeller the complete demonstration, but the primary helps can be suggested, so that, if carried out in the right manner and by the worker with brains, minute features in the detail can be accomplished that only the inventive brain of the young artist would grasp and use to good advantage.

FIG. 2.

Very few tools are necessary at the beginning, and those shown in Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, 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; and 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. 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.

A stand or pedestal will be necessary on which to place the clay model, unless perhaps it should be a medallion, which may be worked over on a table.

FIG. 3.

Fig. 6 is a stand that can be made by any boy from a few pieces of pine two inches square, and a top board one inch and a half in thickness, and arranged with a central shaft that may be raised or lowered, and to the top of which a platform is securely attached.

The movable shaft can have some holes bored through it from side to side, through which a small iron pin may be adjusted to hold the platform at a desired height. Clay can be purchased at the art stores by the pound, or in the country a very good quality of light slate-colored clay may sometimes be found along the edges of brooks, or in swampy places where running water has washed away the dirt and gravel, leaving the clear deposit of clay in the consistency of putty.