Color Cement Handicraft 20

Color Cement Handicraft 20

CEMENT TILES simple in form may be made in any grade where tiles are

made in clay or the modeling waxes. Many times clay is used in making

tiles and the coloring is done with colored chalks or paints. These can

be but temporary in effect and are broken easily, being impractical for

use. The child’s interest will be much greater where he knows that with

cement the results will be durable as well as to know that he is working

with the same materials that the “grown-ups” use.

 

COMMENCING WITH SMALL TILES IS THE BEST PLAN. Have the class plan from

nature a rosette design for a two-inch tile. An excellent way to secure

interesting patterns is to fold a two-inch square paper into four folds

and cut a design in the four folds. Opening out these folds will often

reveal a very interesting design. When the student has completed the

design, it can be traced with a pencil onto a flat layer of modeling

wax, and a pencil, stick or nail used to cut away portions of the

design. The pattern designed may be the part taken out or the background

may be the part to be removed. In either case the part removed should be

scraped out about a quarter of an inch deep and the sides should not

slope in but rather outward. If the design is to be simply produced by

incised lines only (and charming results can be thus secured), the

stick, nail or instrument used should be sharpened so that it scrapes a

groove in the clay that remains widest at the surface. The design being

completed in the clay or wax, a few strips of thick cardboard or heavy

oiled paper is cut so as to project above the clay or wax tile. This

projection must equal the thickness of the mold to be made in

plaster-of-Paris. These strips may then be placed up against the tile so

as to surround it, and are to be retained in position with nails or pins

or heavy objects.

 

When the pupils have all reached this stage of the tile, the teacher

then may mix up the plaster and pour it into the molds, illustrating the

correct method for the students to afterwards follow.

 

AFTER THE PLASTER TILE IS RELEASED, it is brushed well with oil and

again surrounded with the strips of paper. Cement with any desired color

added to it is then poured in and after two or three days the completed

tile can be removed.

 

To secure color effects it is only necessary for the teacher to mix two

colors of cement sufficient for the student’s use. The student then

places a thin layer of the color on the plaster mold, keeping it within

a certain portion of the design. The second color is placed on the

spaces left, and after the color has set for a short time it is backed

with ordinary neat cement and the whole tile permitted to dry several

days.

 

TILES WITH THE DESIGN IN A RELIEF LINE can be made as follows: The

teacher should have previously made a number of plaster tiles with a

smooth surface. These can be easily made by flowing the plaster onto

glass or other hard, smooth surface, the plaster being retained between

two strips of wood 4 × 4 inches. Cutting these bars of plaster into

squares, one is given to each student. A simple design is made on paper

first and traced onto the plaster tile. A nail or hard pencil is then

used to incise the design in the plaster, after which it is brushed well

with oil and surrounded with cardboard strips and cement poured into it.

This will result in a tile with the design in relief. Within these

relief lines cement with color added to it may be placed and the tiles

placed in a tray of water with the water coming half-way up the side of

the tile. The tile will be hard enough to remove in five days.

 

SIMPLE ROUND PAPER WEIGHTS and tiles that are not square can be made by

the same method. A little ingenuity in arranging the retaining cardboard

strips around the plaster or wax model will solve the producing of

irregular forms.

 

FLOWER AND PLANT HOLDERS, FISH PONDS, AND BOOK SUPPORTS can be made by

using the tiles as the principle part. Take four tiles that have not

been permitted to dry and place them face against the inside wall of a

rough box form without the bottom, the size of the box to conform to the

tiles. Pour about an inch of cement into the bottom of the box to form a

bottom. When this has partly set, place strips of wood across the inside

covers to hold the cement which is then poured in so as to connect the

tiles where the corners meet. The cement should be poured also into the

outside corner spaces. After the complete form has dried for a day, pour

water inside and let it remain for three days or more. Release and trim

corners and inside as desired. A thin mixture of colored cement placed

inside and then poured out will give an inside lining, producing a

finished effect.

 

SAND BOX ANIMALS AND TOYS can be made in a very durable form by the use

of cement. The method to follow in class should be as follows: Have the

pupils outline an animal in simple form on paper. No intricate or small

details should be attempted in this outline and the feet or lower

portions of the animal must be planned so that it will stand up easily.

 

After the outline is made then secure thin strips of tin or other sheet

metal and have the pupils bend it with their fingers and with the use of

a ruler to conform to the outline. The metal should be about two inches

wide. The outline need not be made entirely of one piece of metal but

perhaps of several. When the outline is completed in metal, it should

conform fairly closely to the outline on the paper. This metal rim is

then pressed slightly into wax or clay, or it may be placed on glass or

on an oiled card. If clay is used, the eyes, wings, or other parts may

be incised in the clay within the metal rim. A one-inch layer of cement

is then poured in the metal rim, and after several days, the metal rim

is removed and the cement around it is evened where necessary and

colored if desired. By making the feet of birds or animals first,

combining wire legs with them, the body can then be cast, combining the

body and the legs through the wire connection.

 

MOSAIC CEMENT TILES can be easily produced as follows: Secure a number

of the small mosaic stone squares used by masons and tile setters for

inlaying floors. These come in many colors and different geometric

forms. Plan a four-inch tea tile arranging a design with the use of two

or three different colors of mosaics. When the arrangement or design is

decided upon, the mosaics should be glued face downward to a piece of

cardboard or glass. If glass is used, it should be brushed with oil

after the mosaics have been glued into position and before the cement is

poured. Where glass is used the design arrangement on paper can be

slipped underneath the glass to show the location and correct position

for gluing the mosaics onto the glass surface. The mosaic pattern is

then surrounded with retaining bars or slips of wood or surrounded with

metal and the cement poured over the mosaics until the right thickness

is secured. It is then left for several days to dry, after which it is

removed from the glass or the cardboard is peeled away from the cement

surface. The tile is then finished after being placed in water for a

week to harden. Glue a piece of soft leather or felt on the bottom when

the cement has thoroughly dried.

 

CEMENT BOXES AND BOOK SUPPORTS can be made by the use of mosaics, gluing

them onto sections of boards and then assembling the boards and tying

them so that they will hold the cement that is poured in to finish the

object. Where cement is removed from the mold before it has thoroughly

hardened, it can be shaped with a knife, and mosaic book supports or

boxes made in general form can be shaped easily this way.

 

VASES AND BOWLS as a problem for the schoolroom can be simplified if the

teacher produces previously several vase molds so that the pupils can

make their casts in individually selected colors, after which they can

scrape or slip paint the shapes as they are removed from the molds.

 

THE POSSIBILITIES OF COLOR CEMENT for schoolroom applied arts are many

and the interested teacher can arrange working equipment and methods of

presentation according to space and class size. One ingenious teacher

placed building paper on the floor of a schoolroom corner section,

covered several old tables with oil-cloth and secured excellent results

with her class room problems by permitting a small group of students to

work at a time on account of the limited equipment.

 

Another teacher had her students design and make tiles for a new school

building and today they are used as part of the enrichment of the

school. This correlation of the student’s work with every day utility is

one of the attractions of color cement for the school student, and

innumerable practical applications can be found for color cement. The

various problems for which directions have been given in the chapters of

this book can be arranged in more or less simple form for the various

school classes; and as a vocational subject it combines design with

construction in a sensible proportion.

 

[Illustration: Schoolroom Projects in Cement]

 

[Illustration: A Tile in Cement Made in the Grammar Grades]

 

[Illustration: A Tile Made in the Intermediate Grades]

 

[Illustration: Color Cement Tiles and Pottery Made by the Students of a

High School.]

 

[Illustration: Problems in Cement by Students of an Art School. 1 to 3

are Elementary Problems. 4 to 13 are Secondary Problems. 14 is a Palette

Knife Painting in Colored Cement. 15 is a Fish Bowl and Sun-Dial Made in

Cement by the Use of a Glue Mold.]

 

 

 

 

[Illustration]

 

CHAPTER 20

 

Designing for Tiles

and Pottery

 

[Illustration]

 

 

PRINCIPLES OF PATTERN DESIGN are important for the craftsman to be

familiar with, for the reason that it gives points with which to “check

up” drawings before they are applied, as well as to permit greater

facility in designing.

 

MANY DESIGN WELL without having learned the theories of design, having a

natural sense of good arrangement of details and spaces. However,

natural designers, as well as those who do not find it easy, will profit

by becoming well grounded in the design principles.

 

NATURAL FORMS afford excellent examples of principles, giving beauty in

line, form and color; and the more the designer refers to nature for

these ever occurring lines of grace and beauty, the greater will be his development as a designer.