When you are
Ready for Work
take out a good sized lump of clay, put it on a pastry board and knead it like bread. This is to work out all the air and make the grain close and fine. If the clay seems too stiff spread it out in a flat cake, pour a little water in the middle, bring the edges together and knead again until the whole piece is softened. When the clay is too soft spread it out and put it in the air where it will soon stiffen. If it is freezing out of doors do not expose the clay but let it dry off in the house. From time to time, while you are working the clay, cut the lump in two with a palette knife or ordinary table knife (A, B, Fig. 559). Put the outside edges together (C, D, Fig. 560) and continue kneading. The professional potter has a wire strung above his table and on it cuts his clay quickly and neatly in half, but a knife will answer very well. You may have a number of
Modelling Tools
or a few, and you can do very well with two or three contrived by yourself. A wire tool like Fig. 561 is useful in cutting away the clay when the walls of a piece are too thick, but a wire hairpin answers the purpose almost as well. A wooden skewer, used by butchers for pinning meat, is also good for some purposes. In my own work one summer, when far out of reach of modelling tools, I found use for a palette knife, the handle of an old spoon, a hairpin and a steel ink eraser with a curved blade. But best of all and most to be depended upon are the fingers, for these sensitive, flexible, natural tools can perform most of the work alone. Fig. 562 is a small jar made entirely with the hands, no tool of any kind, save the fingers, having been used in the modelling. You should have a good
Strong Table,
one you have no fear of harming, and that stands firmly and evenly on the floor; a piece of smooth, rather thick board about ten inches square upon which to build your pottery and a small pastry board. Place the table near a window where there is plenty of light and under it lay a piece of oilcloth to protect the floor; thus prepared you may plunge into your work and accomplish wonders without disturbing the general order of the room. At a convenient place on the table set a small bowl of water and a cup of slip. The slip is simply clay softened in water until it is about as thick as cream. A large piece of old muslin, that you can tear in pieces as needed, should always be at hand, and a wet sponge on which to wipe your fingers.
Place your pastry board on the table and when the clay is kneaded lay it to one side and scrape the board, clearing off all dried particles. Unless this precaution is taken crumbs of dry clay are apt to mix with the moist clay and make it rough and gritty.
Figs. 563, 564 and 565 are three original designs in candlesticks. We will take one of these for a model. Fig. 563 is the simplest and most easily made, so we will begin with that.
Have ready a rather deep
China Saucer,
tear off a square of muslin large enough to cover the inside of the saucer and to extend over its edge. Dip the muslin in the bowl of water and lay it flat in the saucer, pressing it down as evenly as possible and smoothing out the air bubbles.
Now take
A Large Handful of Clay,
roll it between your palms, lay it on the pastry board in front of you and with an even pressure of your hands roll it back and forth until it lengthens out and forms a snake-like piece a little more than half an inch in diameter (Fig. 566). Do not let the roll flatten, keep it as round as possible and of an equal size from end to end, then press it with your fingers and flatten the top just enough to take off its roundness. When this is done place one end of the roll narrow side up exactly in the centre of the saucer and make
A Close Coil
like Fig. 567, bringing the edges of the coils together with your thumb nail. When you have coiled one roll make another roll and, cutting the end of each, like Fig. 568, fit them together and make a smooth and even joint.
Continue to coil the clay until the saucer is filled to the edge, then build it up one coil higher on the edge and cut the last end of the roll as you did the first. Press this end down to join the roll beneath it, making the joint invisible. Now
Dip Your Fingers in Water
and rub them gently over the coiled clay in the saucer to smooth it, but be careful not to get it too wet and not to lower the coil on the edge in the process. If depressions occur fill them with fresh clay joining the edges of the new clay to the coiled clay, making it one piece with no cracks or seams. In adding clay at any time the new piece must always become one with the old, else it will crack when dry or in the firing, and it is best to brush the place to be filled with slip before adding the clay. Set your saucer away at this stage of the work until the clay stiffens a little and the piece becomes what is called “set.” It is just here that you must use patience, for to continue to work while the clay is too soft will frequently spoil the whole thing and the only remedy is to bunch the clay and begin over again. To be successful in the making of pottery one’s enthusiasm must be of the kind that will not cool during the necessary waiting periods.
When the clay in your saucer has become firm but is still quite pliable, dip another square of muslin in water, spread it inside the clay saucer and
Fit in Another Saucer
of china a trifle smaller than the first. This will give you a pile of three saucers one within the other, first china, then clay, then china. Now cover your small board with wet muslin and turn your stack of saucers upside down on the board. Lift off the top saucer and you have your clay saucer inverted on top of the smaller china saucer. You will find all the seams of the coil showing on this underside and must join them and make the clay one piece as you did on the inside. With your wire tool (Fig. 561) or a hairpin, carefully
Cut Down the Parts
that seem too thick, but at the same time beware of making them so thin as to weaken the walls of the saucer. It is better to fill out and make a piece rather heavy than to try at first to obtain the delicacy one naturally desires, for thin walls often collapse in unaccustomed hands. As you work, turn the board around and around to be sure the contour is symmetrical. It is often a good thing to raise the work to the level of the eye in order the better to detect inaccuracies of outline.
When you have finished the underside and the clay seems firm enough to stand without support, turn it right side up on the board, always with the wet muslin between to keep it from sticking. Lift out the small saucer which is still in the clay saucer and proceed to remove all traces of the line in the clay made by the ridge on the bottom of the china saucer. This can be done by smoothing down and adding more clay to make a curve instead of an angle.
With the wooden skewer make a dot in the centre of the clay saucer, measuring the distance to be sure it is exact, then take
A Half Candle,
wrap it spirally and closely with a narrow strip of wet muslin (Fig. 569) and stand it directly over the mark (Fig. 570). Make little crossed lines with a sharp tool, or hat pin, around the candle like Fig. 571; then roll some clay for coiling the candle holder, flattening the roll as you did for the saucer.
Before beginning to coil cover the roughened surface around the candle with slip, then press one sharpened end of the clay roll onto the saucer close to the candle (Fig. 572) and bring the roll once around the candle. Make crossed lines on top of the coil, brush with slip and coil again. Continue roughening the top of the coil and covering with slip until you have built the holder up a little over two inches from the saucer, then sharpen the end of your roll and join it to the top (E, Fig. 573). With a brush dipped in slip, fill up, to some extent the creases between the coils and make the coil even and round where it may have been pressed out of shape, for in this part we allow the coil to show.
When the walls of the holder are firm enough gently remove the candle and
Smooth the Inside of the Holder
with a finger wet with slip. If this does not fill up the cracks use a rounded tool, but be very careful not to press the holder out of shape or enlarge the opening.
Make the Handle
of a coil of clay as shown in Fig. 574. First the small coil, joining the base of the holder to the saucer, then the larger coil which connects the small coil, and the inside and the outside of the saucer. Use your first finger for keeping the hole in the centre of the large coil the proper size. Build up the edge of the saucer slantingly to join the inner coil of the handle (F, Fig. 574) and allow a ridge to extend from the outer coil a short distance along the outside of the saucer (G, Fig. 574).
This Blending of Decoration with the Article
itself, making it appear a natural outgrowth from it, is a law of beauty in modeled decoration, which should always be kept in mind. No part of a piece of pottery should look as if it were simply stuck on and might drop off again, but rather as though it were a necessary part of the whole.
When your candlestick is in good shape and still moist, go over it with a camel’s-hair brush dipped in water, smoothing down any little unevenness in this way. Sometimes a coating of slip, well worked in with the brush will give a good surface. Set the piece away after this and let it stand undisturbed for several days, or until the clay has become quite dry and has turned almost white, then if it is still imperfect in shape
Scrape it Down
with a steel tool or pocket knife. The clay is so easily shaved off at this stage the danger lies in making too deep a cut and the work should be done gradually and patiently. For the final rubbing use a piece of fine emery paper. Even this must be carefully handled, for if pressed heavily on the clay it, also, will cut too deeply.
Do not put your work away to dry in the sun or near a fire. If dried too rapidly the clay will crack. Sometimes it will crack when it dries, never so gradually; it may be from shrinkage or because the clay has not been sufficiently kneaded.
If Cracks Occur
while the clay is still moist fill in with new clay and slip. If the piece is perfectly dry mix some finely powdered baked clay with water, making a thick paste, and fill the opening. You may be able to get the unglazed baked clay at the pottery, but if not put a thin cake of clay in any kind of a very hot oven and allow it to bake several hours, then grind to a fine powder. Keep this powder in a labelled box that it may always be at hand when needed.
It is generally supposed that when a piece of pottery cracks in the firing there is no remedy. This is very likely true with pieces that have been glazed, but with unglazed ware my own experience has proved that it can be mended. When an unglazed piece comes from the firing showing cracks, large or small, mix a thin slip of clay with a little finely powdered flint and run into the cracks until they are more than filled, then rub or scrape off the surplus. This formula was given me by a prominent art potter who also furnished the mixture.
In putting away
Unfinished Work,
cover with a damp cloth and keep the cloth damp until you are ready to go on with your modeling. Once hard the clay can no longer be worked, and unfinished pottery must always be kept moist. In the case of a piece having handles, spouts and like projections, place something under the cloth to hold it away from these parts and prevent its pushing them out of shape.
You May Glaze Your Candlestick
with colored glaze before it is fired or you may have it fired and returned to you in “the bisque,” when it can be glazed and sent to be fired the second time. One firing really seems all that is necessary for small pieces, however. Fig. 563 was fired but once, the glaze having been applied to the unbaked clay and it came from the pottery in a perfectly satisfactory condition, without crack or blemish.
The glaze used for all the pottery in the little group in our full-page illustration, is Marshing’s soft Limoges glaze which may be obtained where mineral colors for pottery and china painting are sold. The glaze is transparent when fired and is to be mixed with color unless the piece has underglaze decoration or the clay is colored. The proportion is one part dry color to nine parts dry glaze. Both come in powders and must be thoroughly mixed, then dissolved in a solution of gum arabic. Eight and one-half teaspoonfuls of glaze to one-half teaspoonful of underglaze color is sufficient for two candlesticks. Apply this with a No. 8 camel’s-hair brush and give the piece three coats, waiting each time for one coat to become thoroughly dry before putting on the next. Lay the color on evenly and do not allow little streams of glaze to run over the edges.
There are various
Other Methods of Coloring Pottery.
One is to work the dry color into the moist clay by kneading. For the little pitcher (Fig. 575) one tablespoonful of raw sienna was thoroughly worked into a lump of clay the size of a large apple and the pitcher then modelled from the colored clay. Prepared mineral color was not used, but dry “raw or green” color purchased at an ordinary paint shop. When quite dry the pitcher turned a beautiful ivory yellow, but became almost terra cotta when fired. The uncolored glaze was dissolved in gum arabic and applied after the first firing, and the pitcher was fired a second time.
Another way to color your pottery is to mix the raw color with slip the consistency of cream and with it paint a design on the unbaked clay. A little gum arabic added to the slip will make it adhere more closely and prevent its rubbing off. This must be fired before the uncolored glaze is applied. The little bowl (Fig. 576) was decorated in this way and the colors used were raw sienna and burnt sienna. But one coat of glaze was given the bowl which makes it look more like old Indian ware than if it had the very glossy surface.
Colored pottery
“In the Bisque”
or unglazed state is often very beautiful and if designed to hold water or liquid of any kind the inside alone may be glazed, leaving the outside in its natural dull and porous condition.
Of the various designs shown here the saucers were used only for Fig. 563, and the sooner you are able to discard all such aids and depend upon your eye alone to guide your hands the more you will enjoy your work.
Probably you can have your candlesticks fired at the pottery where you get your clay, but if you wish to carry on the work and experiment for yourself secure a kiln of your own by all means.
In the orange groves the great golden balls are ripening, and on the long-leaved banana trees hang the queer bunches of bananas, growing in their funny upside-down fashion. Pineapples, lemons and many other fruits are there, all growing and ripening that the children of the North may have them when their own delicious strawberries, peaches and plums have gone.
We are very glad of these Southern fruits, even the skins seem too good to throw away. And so they are.
Save Your Orange, and Banana, and Apple Skins,
too, and see what delightful things you can make of them.
Long, long ago, before there were any steamboats, sailboats or even rowboats in the British Isles, when men’s clothes were merely the skins of wild beasts tied on with leather thongs, the people went on the water in little circular boats called coracles. These boats were wickerwork baskets covered with the hides of animals and resembled bowls in shape. They were sent skimming over the water very rapidly by means of a paddle which was dipped in first on one side of the boat then on the other. The coracles were so small a man easily carried his boat on his back to transport it over dry land, looking, one would think, very much like a huge turtle walking on its hind legs.
It is a boat like this most primitive one that you can make of
Half of an Orange Skin
It will float, too, and ride safely the roughest waves of the bathtub sea. As it is perfectly water-tight, Miss Dolly need have no fear of wetting her dainty skirts as she sits in the bottom of the boat.
Cut an orange exactly in halves like Fig. 577. Slide the blade of a penknife around the edge, loosening the pulp from the skin, then cut the pulp in quarters and remove it piece by piece as in Fig. 578. When all is taken out you have your little boat (Fig. 579) and your orange besides.
Place the coracle in a basinful of water, put a small doll in it, stir the water round and round with a stick, and watch the boat glide along as swiftly as if its little occupant were paddling with all her might.
From the skin of the banana an almost
Perfect Canoe
can be made, which will look very much like those used by the Indians at the time when Columbus discovered America. You know, of course, that a banana has several ridges on its surface with wide, smooth spaces between and that the stem end curves up more decidedly than the other. Along the middle of the smooth space which takes the upward curve of the stem you must make a slit with the sharp point of your knife, as shown by the black line on the banana in Fig. 580. Open the slit carefully, cut the banana in small pieces and take out one piece at a time (Fig. 581).
Cut the sulphur ends off two matches (Fig. 582) and place the little sticks crosswise in the banana skin, one near each end, to act as braces in holding the sides apart (Fig. 583) and as a seat for the doll-man (Fig. 584). Fig. 584 shows both the canoe and the coracle in the water.
In selecting a banana for the canoe choose a symmetrical or even-sided one, that it may not tip but sit squarely on the water. In case the banana is not perfect and the canoe does tip to one side, place in it a small weight and the balance will be regulated.
The apple lantern, or
Fairy Lamp
(Fig. 585) requires a little more time and patience in its preparation than the boats, but it is not difficult to make. Find a rather small, perfectly round, red apple without bruise or blemish. Hold it in both hands and gently press it with your two thumbs, beginning close to the stem and gradually working down to the blossom end. Be careful not to break the skin, but press and press until every part is loosened and the apple feels pulpy like a grape—every part except the blossom; that holds fast because it is attached to the core. When no hard spots can be found cut a circle around the stem as shown in Fig. 586, and little by little dig out the apple until nothing but the skin remains (Fig. 587); then you will find a small lump at the bottom which must be left, since cutting it out would result in a hole in the skin. With a pair of sharp scissors trim away all unevenness or raggedness that may be found on the edge. This will make the opening a trifle larger.
Cut a Slice from an Ordinary Candle
about half an inch thick (A, Fig. 588) and hollow out the under side enough to allow the candle to fit over the lump in the bottom of the apple skin (B, Fig. 588). Fit the candle in place, and when it is lit you will have the prettiest, daintiest little fairy lamp imaginable. The light shining through the rosy, semi-transparent apple skin gives the effect of Bohemian glass and casts a red glow all around it.
The fairy lamp looks very pretty floating in water in a glass bowl, and a number of lamps around your birthday cake will be a new way of telling how old you are.
Before we make the little paper people, let us build
Columbus’ Ship.
This ship is to be as nearly like the Santa Maria, the real ship in which Columbus sailed, as is possible to make of paper. Cut a piece of light-weight cardboard fifteen and three-fourths inches long and seven and one-half inches wide; on this draw the diagram of the boat (Fig. 589), making the greatest lengths of the diagram exactly as long and the greatest widths as wide as the cardboard. Find the lengthwise centre of the cardboard, which will be three and three-fourths inches from each long side line, as the cardboard is seven and one-half inches wide. Draw a line along the centre from end to end, to guide you in making the diagram of the boat; this central line will also be the centre of your ship. Commence drawing the bottom A—A (Fig. 589) at a distance of two and one-fourth inches from the end of the cardboard; the bottom must measure seven inches from its extreme front point A to the back line A, and two and three-eighths inches at its widest point from B to B. The point A of the bottom must come on the long central line, and the straight back line of the bottom A must be one and three-fourths inches across.
The length of the extension at the back of the boat from C to D is three and one-half inches; the deck from D to E, three inches. The greatest width of the deck, E, not including the two flaps, is two and three-fourth inches, and the narrowest part at the line D one inch. The sides of the boat are slashed and the last slash or side piece, F, at its greatest height touches the edge of the cardboard, while the side pieces G and G, are the lowest, and so are the longest distance from the cardboard edge. When you have drawn the diagram cut out the little craft.
Cut along all the heavy lines. Bend the four dotted lines of the prow ledge (H, I and H, I) backward. All other dotted lines must be bent forward, and care taken to keep the bends exactly on the dotted lines. Do not bend the laps enclosed by the tiny circles along the sides J, J, J, J, J, J. These circles merely show how far the slashed sides lap over each other to form the correct shape of the Santa Maria, for you must know that Columbus’ vessel was very different in build and appearance from any ships we find at the present time. The prow and stern were much higher than the middle of the boat and at the top the stern was quite narrow while at the bottom it was wide, making the rear of the ship big at the bottom and small at the top.
Now put the little craft together. Bend the sides up and fasten each lap on the edge of the next side piece with glue or strong, thick paste. Bend up the back and paste the three laps of each edge over onto the sides, fitting the short laps on the section K over the projections L and L of the sides.
Make the Mizzenmast
of a paper lighter, ten inches high after the end has been bent (Fig. 590). Slide the small end of the mast, from beneath, up through the hole K in the after deck (Fig. 589). The hole should be a tight fit. Paste the bent end of the mast flat and tight to the bottom of the boat; bring the flaps of the deck down over the top of the sides and paste them securely in place.
Next bend up the prow, lapping the flap O (Fig. 589) over the side edge of the prow, O, and the flap P over the prow, P.
Cut the Bowsprit
(Fig. 591) of cardboard six and one-half inches long, split the wide end up lengthwise through the centre two and one-fourth inches, then fold the remainder lengthwise through the centre according to the dotted lines Fig. 592. Open the split end and place one-half on the inside of one side of the prow, and the second half opposite on the inside of the other side of the prow. Leave these ends loose, resting the bowsprit in the short opening at the centre top of the point of the prow, where the two short ledges, H and I (Fig. 589), meet.
Make the forward Deck
of cardboard (Fig. 593) two and one-fourth inches long and at its widest part a generous one and one-eighth inch. Cut the hole N, five-eighths of an inch from the wide, straight edge; then cut a strip five and five-eighths inches in length and three-fourths of an inch in width, slash as in diagram and bend at dotted line (Fig. 594). Cut the slit M, and fasten the strip on the deck by pasting the flaps over the top of the curved edge of the deck (Fig. 595). Slide the flat point of the projecting bowsprit through the slit M (Fig. 594), and run a paper lighter foremast, nine and one-half inches long, not including the bent end, through the hole N (Fig. 593). Bring the deck down over the prow, adjust the bowsprit to the inclined height of the bowsprit in the illustration and paste the two split halves of the end of the bowsprit on each side of the inside of the prow. Fasten the foremast tight on the bottom of the boat and paste the deck on the ledges, H, I, H, I (Fig. 589). Make a
Deck-Fence
for the stern of a piece of paper seven and one-half inches long and one inch wide. Cut it in a fringe with every other short strip of the fringe cut out like Fig. 596. Paste the loose fringe ends along the three outside top edges of the after deck, allowing the solid border of the fringe to form the fence rail. See illustration. Cover the lower ends of the fence when they are pasted to the deck with a band of paper seven and one-half inches long and three-eighths of an inch wide (Fig. 597).
Make a Spar
for the stern of the boat as you made the bowsprit Fig. 592, only the spar should be shorter, extending beyond the stern of the boat about two inches. Slide the large end of the spar through the opening in the deck at E (Fig. 589) and rest the split ends on each side of the mast.