Soak one pound good white glue in cold water until soft, then pour off the cold water, and dissolve the glue in hot water. Mix twenty pounds of good whiting in water to a thick paste; dissolve one pound of alum in water, and add it to the mixture. Before mixing the glue and whiting, put in your tinting colors, which should be ground in water. Test your color by dipping in a piece of paper and letting it dry. After you put in the glue, test in the same way to see if there is enough glue to bind it well, then set your kalsomine aside to get cold.
Thin to good workable consistency with cold water.
Have in enough glue to hold it from washing up when you have to put on a second coat. Too much glue will cause the kalsomine to go on hard, and crack and scale off when dry. If it dries too fast, add two ounces of glycerine to one gallon of kalsomine. Have good staging, and two men for a good sized room. Use good kalsomine brushes, and work fast. Lay on the kalsomine freely; the beauty of the work will depend upon how you lay it off, and level it up. Put it on not as you would paint, all one way, but work your brush in all directions, until your work is level, then carefully lay it off with light strokes.
For a white job put in a little blue. If you have never done a job of kalsomining, and have no one to aid you, practice on the wall in your shop or any other place, until you get the knack of it. Cover a small space and see how it comes out.
Always finish lightly with the point of your brush. If an edge dries, stop and wet it with a clean brush and clear water; if careful you can join to it without showing “laps.” If you find you have missed any spots wet the edges in the same way, and carefully touch them up with kalsomine. If you find after all your precautions, a water stain has come through your kalsomine, wet the place with a solution of sugar of lead, made in proportion of 1 ounce sugar of lead to 1 quart of rain water; it may kill the stain. See article on wall sizing and water stains, page 39.
Rough places in plaster take more color than a smooth wall, hence they are liable to show spots; so it stands you in hand to make such places smooth as possible; to do this take off the rough sand with sandpaper and knife or trowel on a thin coat of plaster paris, or give the rough places an extra coat or two or size. Fill all cracks and holes, and give the filling time to dry before putting on the size, because otherwise it will take more color than the balance of the wall and your work will look spotted.
In the kalsomining season have some large tubs and mix up as much whiting in hot water as you will need for several days. Add your color, glue, size and alum to as much only as you want for immediate use. In hot weather I use liquid glue.
LIQUID GLUE FOR KALSOMINE AND WALL SIZING.
For use in hot weather, a liquid glue which will not decompose and smell badly is very desirable to the workmen and the inmates of the house.
No. 1. To make such a glue fill a bottle a little more than half full of broken up good white glue, and fill the bottle with common whisky or equal parts of alcohol and water. Let it stand a few days and it will dissolve the glue; this glue will keep for years. Keep the bottle corked.