Studio: international art (7.1896)

Light Metal-Work for Amateurs

small pieces of work as delight the heart of the
amateur, always eager to commence some new de-
sign. The material used is the thinnest sheet copper

COPPER-WORK BOOK COVER BY C. H. L. EMANUEL

224

to be bought by weight at any metal merchant's. A
strip half a yard long by 12 inches wide costs 6d. or
id. The tools required can be easily made at home.
Those used for the outlining of the design can be
made of a couple of decapitated French nails, each
driven into a wooden handle and filed, one to a
fine, and the other to a somewhat blunter point.
In the same way the embossing tools can be made
out of the handles of a few old tooth brushes, and
a bone penholder or two, with the ends filed down
to different sizes, the finest being of about the
size of the point of a stylus. The smallest of these
tools come in handy when embossing small sur-
faces. These embossers should be about three
inches long and driven an inch or so into wooden
handles.

Owing to the thinness of the metal, it can be
worked on a bed formed of a thick piece of felt or
a few thicknesses of flannel, but where a high relief
is required a pad of cotton-wool should also
be superimposed. Before commencing work the
metal should be rolled fiat—a round ruler does
capitally for this purpose. The design is drawn
or traced on the back of the metal, and the out-
line so obtained is impressed by means of one of
the outlining tools, which should be held in the
right hand, slanting towards the body, and drawn
towards the body, the line being carefully followed.
Slight pressure of the hand is sufficient to raise
the outline on the face of the metal. The line
should then be gone over a second time, and
so the relief increased with less chance of an