WORK COLUMN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue XXV, 18 June 1898, Page 782

WORK COLUMN.

>H A T a wonderful source of amusement is a ball ! It enters into all oui grown-up outdoor sports, ami is always a welcome toy to the little ones in the nursery. The homemade l«all, illustrated, possesses two merits which will, I am sure, immediately recommend it to mothers. In the first place we are almost certain to have many old tennis l>alls which have survived the season’s hard work, but which look scarcely respectable enough to l>e brought out'again next spring when the pastime is on foot. Then, even if we have no Itabies to care for, there are but few women who can boast of entire freedom from work for the many Imzaars which are certain to take place in the early winter months ; these balls have yet another advantage to offer, anil that is that their manufacture may lie undertaken by quite small children. First of all an old sock or stocking must be unravelled, and the ball wrapped round ami round with it, keeping it as smooth and the shape as good as is jHissible. This layer of wool should lie very thick if the work is to be carried out with comfort, but at the same time, it should lie reinemliered that to make too large a ball is not always

advisable. When the wool has been wrapped round a sufficient number of times a long end must lie left, and, threading a darning needle, stitch it here and there in order to make the ball firm ami to prevent the wool slipping about. Take a long thread of scarlet wool, and fastening the end to the ball (call this the top), divide the ball as evenly as possible into two equal halves, going round the ball and fastening at the top. Then take the wool round again, making quarters as will be seen in the sketch, and always fastening the wool at every junction of lines. Push the needle through the middle of the line and go round the ball, fastening as before at the junctions; by this time you will have divided the ball into eight triangular sections. Fasten the wool off as yon did at first, and the ball is ready for working. Fingering is the best wool for the pur]>ose, as Berlin is much more given to stretching. With a dark shade of wool commence at one corner and work inside a triangle round to where you started from. Button-hole stitch is the best for the purpose. Work on the line catching the wool underneath, and when you have worked, say four rows, take another coloured wool that will harmonize well. The stitches must Ire decreased at each corner of the triangle, so that a sharp angle is still preserved. When the space is entirely filled up do not break the thread, but run your needle through to the top of the ball, and proceed after the same fashion ; in this way you have no ugly joins in your ball, and if the wools have lieen well chosen, it will be pretty enough to take the fancy of almost any youngster. Mending broken china and pottery is generally considered a difficult task ; but by following the instructions I am now going to give you, good results may generally lie obtained. To restore a dish broken in several places, but with no pieces missing, the rims of the breakage have first to be cleaned with spirits of wine or turpentine.

and then the pieces joined together by coagulin or china cement, which can lie procured at any oil-shop. When this has been done, the dish is placed upright on a piece of wood against a support, nails in front preventing it from slipping until the cement is perfectly dry. As a further precaution to keep the pieces in their places, a sheet of pa|>er may be pasted on the back of the dish, and afterwards removed by moistening it with water. Small splinters which have been lost are made up with a paste coin|>osed of either Spanish white and gum or of plaster of Paris mixed with dextrine, and personally I prefer the latter. This paste must lie pounded very fine and used a little in excess to allow for shrinking by desiccation. The same paste is used for restoring pieces of enamel on the surface, and can l>e smoothed and polished when thoroughly dry with the finest of sandpaper. In case a piece is wanting it has to be carefully modelled in plaster of Paris and fixed in its place, either when small by pasting a piece of paper on the back, or when large by using a miniature clamp of oxidised iron wire, for which holes have to be drilled. Staple binders, now largely nsed by latokbinders, serve this purpose excellently. The holes must be drilled sufficiently deep in the ware, as well as in the plaster of Paris, to receive the points of the clamps, but not to show’ at the front side. They also must lie cleaned from all drill dust before a clamp is inserted, the latter being fixed by the paste al>ove described. Here 1 may say that it is a great mistake to paint the cracked or restored parts with oil colours to match the original decoration. Discolouring takes place after a short time, and the patches so created look far more unsightly than a slight tinting of the plaster with just an indication of the design in water-colours. That this method is by far the best is proved beyond a doubt by the fact that all the museums have adopted it. Shaped pieces, as in the jar illustrated, are restored in the same way, but great care must Ire taken to manipulate the remodelled pieces gently to prevent their breaking. Ethel.