DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19955#0014
12
TO PREPARE IVORY.
besides being more difficult to wash colour upon, requires
much greater labour in working. Ivory, which is grained
all over, must be rejected, and those pieces alone chosen
which have a clear space in the centre, broad enough for
the face to be painted on it; for the hair, the dress, and
the back ground will be so inevitably charged with colour,
as to render the striated vertical grain in the other parts
unobservable.
Ivory properly prepared for use may now be procured
at all the artists' colour shops; so that it is scarcely worth
the time and trouble of painters to prepare it for themselves;
as, however, in the country or abroad, there might be a
difficulty in procuring these ivories, I will describe the
best method of rendering it fit for use; premising that when
the leaves come from the ivory-cutter, they are smooth and
sinning, and more or less full of scratches from the saws
used in cutting them; and hence, in that state, they are bad
for working on, and incapable of receiving colour. The
object, in their preparation, is to erase these scratches, and
to produce a " tooth" or surface to which the colour may
adhere.
TO PREPARE IVORY.
For this purpose, a flat, nicely-smoothed, square piece of
wood—(an inch or more in thickness, to prevent its warp-
ing)—a basin of clean water, and a sponge thoroughly free
from grease, are required. Dip your ivory in the water, so
TO PREPARE IVORY.
besides being more difficult to wash colour upon, requires
much greater labour in working. Ivory, which is grained
all over, must be rejected, and those pieces alone chosen
which have a clear space in the centre, broad enough for
the face to be painted on it; for the hair, the dress, and
the back ground will be so inevitably charged with colour,
as to render the striated vertical grain in the other parts
unobservable.
Ivory properly prepared for use may now be procured
at all the artists' colour shops; so that it is scarcely worth
the time and trouble of painters to prepare it for themselves;
as, however, in the country or abroad, there might be a
difficulty in procuring these ivories, I will describe the
best method of rendering it fit for use; premising that when
the leaves come from the ivory-cutter, they are smooth and
sinning, and more or less full of scratches from the saws
used in cutting them; and hence, in that state, they are bad
for working on, and incapable of receiving colour. The
object, in their preparation, is to erase these scratches, and
to produce a " tooth" or surface to which the colour may
adhere.
TO PREPARE IVORY.
For this purpose, a flat, nicely-smoothed, square piece of
wood—(an inch or more in thickness, to prevent its warp-
ing)—a basin of clean water, and a sponge thoroughly free
from grease, are required. Dip your ivory in the water, so