SNOW AND FEOST; MODELLING, ETC, 217 



paper strained over a framework and varnislied to get a good 

 and natural effect. Icicles are best modelled in glass. 



Water and Waves. — Water is best represented by "ham- 

 mered glass " coloured, and streaked, and varnished, to the tint 

 required. Birds may be represented swimming by being cut 

 in halves, their upper and under surfaces fixed to the corre- 

 sponding sides of the glass, or the glass may be cut to receive 

 the body,* which is the most satisfactory, although the most 

 difficult to manage without smashing the glass. Holes may be 

 drilled in the glass to allow water plants to come through, or 

 to allow long-legged birds, such as herons, to stand mid-leg in 

 water. 



Waves are moderately well imitated by thin paper creased, var- 

 nished and coloured, on which white wool " foam" is arranged. 



Modelling Fritit, &c;., in Plaster. — You may, perhaps, 

 ^ish to model an apple, peach, or plum, to place in the hands 

 of some mounted object, such as a monkey. To do this, you 

 take a natural fruit, which oil, and push it half way (on its 

 longest axis) into a bed of damped and hard-pressed sand 

 banked up all round. At some little distance from the edges 

 of the frait stick two or three small pegs of wood (points 

 downwards) about half-an-inch long, leaving a quarter-of- 

 an-inch out of the sand. Over all this pour some plaster of 

 Paris mixed with water to the thickness of a paste ; when set, 

 lift it up carefully — the plaster now appears with the fruit 

 half set in it, and the two or three little pegs of wood sticking 

 up, their other haK firmly fixed in the plaster — oil their points, 

 the face of the plaster, and also the fruit, and laying the half- 

 cast fruit uppermost, pour over it some more plaster. When 

 set, trim the edges, the complete mould will then part in halves, 

 and the fruit will shake out. Oil the mould inside, and when 

 dry procure some wax — ^beeswax from the oilman's will do for 

 this purpose — and after heating it carefully, for fear of fire, pour 

 it while hot into the mould through a hole cut for that pur- 

 pose. When about a quarter full, put your thumb or finger 

 over the hole, and rotate the mould rapidly. Allow it to cool, 



* There is a black-necked swan [Cygnus nigricoUis), from Chili, treated in this manner, in 

 •the Leicester Museum. 



p 2 



