Читать книгу Toy Craft - Leon H. Baxter - Страница 9

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After all cutting with edged tools has been completed, all pieces should be carefully sanded to insure the removal of all scars, pencil lines and other imperfections.

Sandpaper should be used on a small block. Care should be taken that no paper hangs over the block, thus rounding the edges of the work being finished.

In sanding over a first coat of shellac or paint a block is not used, but the sandpaper is folded two or three times and used under the finger tips. Care must be taken especially not to wear through the finish on the edges.

Paint is difficult and unsatisfactory for younger children to use. Colors handled by beginners will run together and will be "dauby" in appearance and a detriment rather than a finish to a toy. Added to this is the likelihood of a generous application on the painter's hands and clothing.

The writer has had excellent results in using the ordinary colored wax crayons on toys. Crayon is easy to apply, has a pleasing color tone, is clean and very satisfactory for the beginner. After all of a toy has been colored a fairly heavy line may be drawn free-hand, at the point of contact of the colors, with an ordinary drafting pen and India ink. Pains should be taken to see that the ink is dry in one place before applying in another. If the crayon has been put on with pressure and uniformly deposited over the surface the ink will "take" without spreading and the result is a clean-cut finished appearance.

For more advanced workers the toys should be painted with either commercial or enamel paints, which are available on the market in all colors, or with colors mixed by the boy himself. If the boy mixes his own colors much of the mystery of the ready-mixed paints is done away with.

By adding to white enamel a small amount of a selected color, ground in oil, various tones of the color may be obtained.

In painting any object a first or priming coat is applied. Flat white is an excellent all-round primer. After the priming coat has dried thoroughly on a toy, it should be sanded lightly to remove any rough places with No. 0 sandpaper and dusted. Then the final coat should be applied.

Gray is also very good for the first coat except where a white or very light colored paints are to be used for the finished coat.

When painting small toys or parts of larger toys it is economy to have a string or wire stretched between two hooks six or seven feet from the floor, on which to hang the painted article.