Embroidery and Fancy Work/Modelling in Clay
MODELLING IN CLAY.
Modelling in clay may be recommended to the amateur, anxious to try his or her hand at art, on many accounts. The materials are cheap and easily procured. The work may be made not merely decorative but useful, and it teaches one much of drawing. Indeed, this fact is recognized now in many of the primary schools in teaching drawing. The children are first taught to make the forms, such as cubes, spheres, etc., and then made to draw them. And the remembrance of mud-pies suggests another advantage in clay modelling over the other minor arts—the taste is born in us. Every child makes mud-pies; all children, too, delight in that other plastic material, dough, and will keep quiet and amused for a long time if allowed to mould it according to fancy.
For beginning this fascinating work but little expenditure is required. Modelling clay can be procured for from three to five cents a pound. In some localities it can be had for the digging, but for a beginner there is an advantage in getting it at a pottery, because it is then ready for manipulation. It should be kept in a water proof box, as it is necessary to keep it damp as long as you are using it. If, however, the clay becomes dry and hard, it can easily be moistened and kneaded up like dough to the proper consistency. Sometimes the clay will have air bubbles in it. This is remedied by what is called wedging—that is, cutting the lump in two with a wire and then striking the two piles hard together, and repeating the process until the whole mass is perfectly smooth.
The tools for modelling can be procured at any artists' supplies store, or if once seen can be easily whittled out in pine wood.
Many fancy that foliage is one of the easiest things with which to begin, but the author of "Minor Arts" (an authority on all such subjects), recommends beginning with an animal. Procure a plaster cast of the object you are about to model, say a rabbit. Form a lump of clay (working on a smooth board or a slab of slate or marble) into a general rude resemblance to the object. It is well to make a smooth base of clay on which the figure may stand. Have the clay from which you model your figure a very little wetter than the base as the drier clay will absorb the moisture from the lump, and in the process the figure will be more firmly fixed to the base.
This rule should be always remembered in building up your figures. It is much easier for the beginner, however, to take from than add to the clay. Therefore in your first attempt, be sure and have the blocked out form sufficiently large. Ascertain that you have the main points correctly by means of a large pair of compasses. Don't be discouraged by repeated failures. "Rubbing out" is much easier than in drawing, for it is but to work the whole into a lump and begin again. If you find that the clay is getting too dry, sprinkle water over it by means of an atomizer or a brush dipped in water.
When the figure is blocked out satisfactorily, proceed by means of tools and fingers to bring out the details. Use alternately the point of your bone tool to form the eyes and indentations of the ears. For the larger curves the fingers are the best tools. A few days of earnest, studious work will enable you to imitate any simple object. In finishing the hair the bone tool may be used, scraping deeply to form the masses, and using the mere point for the fine lines.
Copy foliage from leaves carved in wood, or from plaster casts. If you live near a pottery you can procure a vase, in what is called a green or unbaked state, and ornament it with some leafy design, or if you choose you may make for yourself a vase, and having ornamented it with a design in relief, you can have it baked at a pottery. Probably your first vase will be like poor Robinson Crusoe's earliest attempts at pottery—one-sided—or your clay may get too dry; but patience and perseverance will enable you to overcome the first difficuly, and you can moisten your clay for another attempt. Keep your unfinished work in a jar or covered box, and if there seems to be danger of its drying too quickly cover it with a wet cloth. A pair of compasses is needful in getting circles exact, and, in fact, will often be useful in determining curves. Never send a piece of work to be baked (which can be done at a pottery) until satisfied that it is thoroughly dry, as any moisture must inevitably result in breaking tho model. You can, if you prefer, further ornament your vase by painting before baking it in underglaze colors. I have given suggestions for the first steps in this art only. Handling the clay will show you what you can undertake. Remember that in this as in all real work, the foundation must be well laid. Copy what you endeavor to do carefully. Do not attempt to refine too much. Clay is solid, and leaves, flowers, and tendrils made of it should not look as if a touch would destroy them. It may sometimes be necessary to place props under certain parts of your work, to support them until the clay hardens. This is especially the case if you attempt modelling figures. In modelling, have your whole design, whether in the round or in relief, accurately blocked out, so as to mark the proportions before attempting to finish any of the details.