Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1874 — Making Wax Flowers. [ARTICLE]

Making Wax Flowers.

Our lady readers will find the imitating of natural flowers in wax a very agreeable amusement for long winter afternoons and evenings. The work is not difficult, and with a little practice ornaments of great taste and beauty can be made. The materials can be obtained for a small sum from any dealer in artist’s materials. Some knowledge of the general form of flowers is of course necessary to begin with, nor should a little artistic skill be entirely lacking. Forms of various leaves, of tin, to be used as patterns, may easily be obtained, but the best imitations of nature we have ever seen were made directly from the natural flower. A handful of blossoms may be purchased from any florist, ami carefully-dissected; then by tracing the shape of leaves, etc., on paper, quite a collection of patterns may be gained. The British Trade Journal says that the best white wax is required for the art—pure, and free from granulation. The consistency may need to be modified, ac cording to the state of the weather, and the part of the flower to be imitated; it may be made firmer and more translucent by the addition of a little spermaceti, while Venice turpentine will give it ductility. In preparing the wax for use, it is melted with Canada balsam, or some kind of fine turpentine, and poured into flat tin molds; these give it the form of quadrangular blocks or slabs about an inch thick. These blocks arc cut into thin sheets or films, in one or other of several different ways—by fixing them flat, with screw and a stop, and slicing off layers with a kind of spoke, shave; or holding a block in the hand, and passing it along a carpenter’s plane, having the face uppermost; or causing the block to rise gradually over the edjre of the mold, smooth edged knife. The coloring of the wax is an important matter, seeing that in some instances the tint must penetrate the whole substance; whereas in others it is better when laid on the surface, as a kind of paint. The choice of colors is nearly the same as for other kinds of artificial flowers, but not in all instances. The white colors are produced by white lead, silver white, and one or two other kinds; for red, vermilion, minium, lake and carmine; for rose color, carmine, following an applicatioirof dead white (to avert yellowish' tints); for blue, ultramarine, cobalt, indigo and Prussian blue; for yellow, chrome yellow, massicot, Naples yellow, orpiment, yellow ocher and gamboge; for green, verdigris, Schweinfurth green, arsenic green (the less of this the better), and various mixtures of blue and yellow. For violet, salmon, flesh, copper, lilac, and numerous intermediate tints, various mixtures of some or other of th 6 colors already named. Most of these coloring BU l )B t ances fire employed in the form oi powder, worked upon a muller and stone with essential oil of citron or lavender aud mixed with wax In a melted state; the mixture is strained through muslin, and then cast in the flat motds already mentioned; or else a muslin bag filled with color is steeped for a time in the melted wax. The material dealers sell these slabs of wax ready dyed, to save the flower-maker from a kind of work which is chemical rather than manipulative. Some flowers require that the wax shall be used in a purely white bleached state, color being afterwards applied to the surface of selected spots. The wax. is, of course, the chief material employed in wax-flower making; but it is by no means the only one. Wire bound round with green silk,tinting brushes and pencils, shapes or stencil patterns, molds and stampers, flock or ground up woolen rag, and many Other implements and materials, are needed.

The. patterns of leaves and petals are made from paper or thin sheet tin, copied frdm the natural objects; and the wax sheets are cut out in conformity with them. Only’ the smaller and lighter leaves are, however, made in this way; those of firmer texture and fixity of shape are made in plaster molds. The patterns are laid on a flat, smooth service of damp sand; a ring is built up round them, and liquid plaster is poured into the cell thus formed. Generally two such (molds are necessary, one for the upper and One for the lower surface of the leaf. Sometimes wooden molds are employed, into which (when moistened to prevent adhesion) the wax is poured in a melted but not very hot state. Occasionally the entire mold is dipped into molten wax, to produce petals and leaves of peculiar size and shape. The stems are made by working wax around wires, with or without an intervening layer of silken thread. By the use of flock, down, yarnishes, etc., the leaves are made to present! glossy surface on one side and a velvety surface omhe other. A singular mode of preparing films of usual thinness is by the aid of a sift al 1 wooden cylinder, like a cotton reel, or rather a ribbon reel; this is dipped and rotated in melted wax until it takes up a thin layer, which layer, when cold, is cut and uncoiled; the difference of smoothness which the two surfaces’ presents fit them to represent the upper and lower suffaces of a leaf or petal. The combination of all these materials into a built up flower is a kind of work not differing much from that exercised in regard to textile flowers.—Scientific American. How To Make Grafting Wax,— Thomas Matteson, McKean C.oiinty, Pennsylvania, writes: “Take two parts mutton tallow, three parts beeswax ;’ melt the tallow first, and put the beeswax and resin into it. When it is all melted, stir it all up and pour it into cold water and work it over. If there are lumps in it, mash them with your thumb and finger. The /longer you work it the more sticky it grows. When it begins to stick to vour hands put some tallow on them. Work it till it is all sticlq? as you want it. Put in a tin pan with a cover to it, and it will keep for a number of years. I think it is as good ag,sticking salve to put on any sores. Some people put in more tallow than they put in resin or beeswax, to make it softer to work in cold weather; but if there is too much tallow in it, it will meit and run out in warm weather. I have had about forty years’ experience in grafting, and used a number of sorts of grafting wax. Some people put in hot Water, and make more trouble than there is need of I wet my finger with my tongue, and don’t find any ..difficulty in putting the wax on.. I put a little wax on the end of the graft.”. - A remedy for catarrh, effective in some cases, consists of equal parte of finely-pul-verized borax and white sugar used as snUff. Another simple remedy is snuffing up warm salt water—a teaspoonful of WCto a plot of water. i y