Directions for modelling with cut paper figures
Directions for modelling with cut paper figures
Chapter I
Preliminary requisites and directions.
To make neat representations in paper of any given object on a small scale, is an occupation as agreeable as useful. It consists * chiefly in drawing, cutting, folding, joining and painting.
1. The drawing regulates the cutting and fold-ing. It is most easily performed by means of a pair of compasses, a common ruler, and a ruler either of brass or wood, Fig. 10, Plate I. in the
See also the Second Chapter on the introductory Exercises in Drawing. ' B 2 shape of a triangle, a representation of which is given. '
2. The cutting is performed either with scissars or with a penknife. When the latter is used, the p^per should be laid on a small board of soft wood or pasteboard; and whether the paper be cut with scissars or with a penknife, margins must be left on the cut paper figures for the pur¬pose of glueing them together.
3. In folding, particular attention is to be paid to its being done in a straight line.
4. The joining may be effected with glue, gum arabic, paste, or wafers, the latter being easily converted into a kind of paste when properly wetted. Care however must be had to glue only the edges or margins left for that purpose in each cut paper figure; and in some cases recourse must be had to cording or fastening with small slips of tin, until the parts glued be properly joined and perfectly dry. '
5. Of the articles used for joining, the glue
3 must be in such a state of thickness as to he like the white of an egg, or pretty thick oil, when suf¬fered to drop from the vessel in which it is made: the gum arabic is to be dissolved in water so as to have the same consistency with glue; paste is best when made of starch or fine wheat flour; it is much cleaner than glue, but any brush or stick left in it, will cause it to ferment and render it too watery.
6. The painting is performed in the usual way with different colours or mixtures of colours, and with brushes proportioned to the size of the cut paper figures to which the painting is to be ap¬plied.
But every thing depends on the goodness of the paper, which should be strong, stiff, and very smooth. Laid royal, or drawing paper, Bristol board of moderate thickness, is the best. A thin¬ner sort of paper may be employed, whenever it is to be used double; and in this case, both sheets of paper are to be done over on one side with n 2 4 glue or paste, but one. of them so sparingly as only to become: moist,; they then shqjild quickly be laid one upon the other, covered with a dry sheet of paper, smoothed in an uniform direction on a hard, even surface, and pressed between two boards or in an old. book until they are perfectly dry.
Lastly, objects ought not to be represented on too large Or on too small a scale. In the former case, or when the objects are complicated and composed of too many parts, the surface of the paper seldom proves sufficiently stretched and even, and both the beauty and durability of the model are impaired. And when the scale is too small, it frequently occasions a waste of time and labour, and too diminutive models rarely succeed after all.
/Neither should such objects be attempted which cannot well be represented in paper. A certain, facility in modelling easy objects must have been previously acquired, before one may
.5 venture upon more difficult ones. The models mentioned in the following Directions should not be altered, nor should new ones be undertaken, but after they have been repeatedly and success¬fully executed. The transition from what is easy
1 to what is more difficult, is as indispensable in this, as in any other art or science.