International studio (26.1905)

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furniture in this room is mahogany, rich, strong
and warm in colour.
In the living room some concessions are made
to the conventional demand for a wall that may be
hung with pictures. This room is finished in
mahogany, and furnished with mahogany furniture
of an early and rather heavy Colonial type.
The bed rooms are variously finished in redwood,
Georgia pine and whitewood, the redwood being
waxed and left natural, the hard pine stained a
green, and the whitewood a peacock blue, which
the yellow in the wood varies unexpectedly. One
room is painted a cream white. The architraves
are plain and mitred with a slightly hollowed sur-
face to show the quartering of the wood veining.
The bathrooms are shellacked and oiled, and the
wood is a cherry, stained mahogany. The floors
are of rift Georgian pine stained an oak colour and
finished in shellac, two coats, rubbed down. The
first story floors are shellacked and waxed four
coats, and polished to form a body for later treat-
ment in wax.
This tale, like the Sunday school book, has a
moral if the reader cares to deduce it. But if it
has done but a little to indicate some of the mistaken
directions that we are blindly following in producing
our modern homes; if it will show that there is some
tendency to practice as well as preach simplicity
in treatment and furnishing; if it will indicate some-
thing of the method that we may follow in taking our
inspiration from the styles and periods that we have
inherited, and then recombining that part of each
that is applicable to the spirit of our modern life,
it will be gratifying; while if it will further point
the value of simplicity of exterior, and indicate
how an effect of domesticity and homeliness (in the
true English sense of the word) may be attained
at a slight expenditure of money, and some care and
taste, as well as point the charm to be obtained
from an unconventional arrangement of plan, its
purpose will have been well attained.
OME HINTS FOR SIMPLE METAL
WORKING
BY MRS. HUGO FROEHLICH
COPPER is the most popular of all metals
with the craftsman, both for its artistic and utili-
tarian possibilities. It colours to unusual advan-
tage and is, at the same time, malleable, durable
and inexpensive, lending itself easily to the making
of many common household articles. To the unini-
tiated the production of these articles is a mys-
tery, but a few helpful suggestions may make the

simpler forms of metal work possible to the be-
ginner.
THE BOWL
The bowl is the foundation of all cup-shaped!
forms, and is also one of easiest shapes to begin
with. For a bowl six inches in diameter, take a
piece of 19 gauge sheet copper, and, with the aid
of a pair of compasses, draw on it a circle having a
radius of three inches. Keeping the same centre,
make two inner circles, one with an inch, the other
with a two-inch radius. Now cut the copper a
little outside of the outer circle with tinner's shears,
filing the edges to remove any roughness. In the
end of a block of hard wood, four inches square,
carve a circular depression, one-half inch deep and
two inches wide, as shown in Fig. 1. Holding the
block firmly in a vise, place the metal on it and
hammer it, three-fourths of an inch from the edge,
over the hollow, continuing in circles until the inner
circle is reached. (See Fig. 2.) For this work use a
round-faced steel hammer, and strike with even
blows, so spaced that no ridges will be left between
the impressions. Continue this process until the
bowl assumes the desired shape, after which any
uneven places may be removed by placing the
metal on a smooth steel plate or a flat piece of hard
wood, and hammering gently over the entire sur-
face. The size and proportion of the bottom of the
bowl may be left to the individual worker, but care
must be taken to secure a perfectly flat face on
which the bowl may rest. When the copper has
assumed satisfactory shape, cleanse it thoroughly
by immersing it in the pickle, which is made by
adding two tablespoonfuls of sulphuric acid to one
gallon of water. Rinse well and dry.
The colouring of the bowl is a second considera-
tion. Suppose a bright polish is desired for the
copper; it is secured by rubbing with different
grades of emery paper, first No. 1, then No. o, and
finally, polishing paper. Colouring by means of
heat is also effective and simple. After rubbing the
cleansed metal with oil, subject it to a slow, even
heat until a good colour appears. Again, various
effects may be ob-
tained by painting
the copper with dif-
ferent acids.
Using this same
form as a basis, very
satisfactory salt-cell-
ars can be made by
taking silver, gauge
20, and forming it
into diminutive SHAPIXGTHEBOWL



LX VII