Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-03-12
CAMEO CUTTING.

Cameo cutting is one of the most protita-
bic arts TO engage in. There are but few
cutters, and there IS steady demand for
all they can produce The cutters are very
secretive, and greatly dislike to talk about
their work. Most of the canoes are pro-
duced from sea shells. A visit to a cameo
cutters workshop found him seated at a
table covered with tools, varying from a
strong triangular. pointed steel instrument
to the most delicate pointed bits OF steel
wire fastened in handles. Very tine files
and knitting needles set in wooden grips
and ground 20 infinitesmai points, figured
in the lot On pad OF leather, before the
cameo cutter, was block of wood just big
enough TO be grssped with his hand, and
cemented to the middle of it was an oval
object that looked like piece of alabaster,
just big enough to make seal for the lin
ger Of man who did not object to wearing
large rings. Upon this the artist was just
finishing q copy, with a pencil pointed to
needle iueness, of photograph in profile
of a gentleman, which was leaned against a
little photograph easel before him. Having
finished the outline, he laid his pencil by,
and taking up fine wire tool be scratched
the pencil mark around with it, Then he
took darning needle with sharp point
and scratched the line deeper. He worked
with magnifyiug glass at his eye, and
stopped continually to inspect the progress
of his work with critical minuteness.
Then he went at it again, working slowly,
scratching over the same line again and
again, and always examining alter the
scratch. He changed his tools as he went
Oh, and from the darning needle descended
to trifiing little fragment OF steel wire,
not as thick as an ordinary sewing needle,
set in slender handle. With this be
scratched and rescratched, until the lines
he had drawn with his pencil had quite
vanished, and thin, fine streak of a dark
color had marked the outline OF the head
he had been tracing his way around. Next
he took one of the burin.like tools, and
commenced again. This time he worked
on the outside of the outline, cutting and
scraping at the surface until the whole
turned gray, then brown, and finally van
ished, leaving the face In relief, surrounded
by black graund that is, the portrait
renamed intact in the white substance
which formed the outer layer of the cameo,
while it had been cut away around 1t to
the lower or dark layer. The portrait or
picture is then modulated upon its surface
until it assumes the roundness of nature.
The edges are left square to the dark
ground. This is necessary, as, if they are
gradually rounded down, the outline be-
comes underlined toward its juneture with
the relieving surface, owing to the white of
the raised portion being artially transpar-
emit and permitting the dark to show
through when it is Trimmed down. Care is
taken to finish this dark surface as much
as possible with the cutting tools, and so
separate the white from it as to leave it
smooth and unscatched. A final polish is
given it, however, with putty powder, APP
piled dry with stiff brush, but the utmost
care is necessary in this operation, as the
slightest slip will ruin the work. This
ends the cameo cutters work, the mount
ing being the jewelers. work. The canoes
sell, unmounted, for about S25. Italy is
the home of cameo cutting, and the finest
works of art in that line are still turned
out there. Genoa and Rome are the cen.
tiers of production. There is colony Of
several thousand cameo cutters in Paris
who produce some very good work. The
canoes made abroad are, as 2 rule, fanciful
works, copies of statues, NEUROLOGICAL tig-
ures and the like. The shells used in
cameo cutting are OF several sorts, but all
are ordinary sea shells or conchs. Some
come from the East aud others from the
West indies. Many are imported, as there
is commonly only enough material availa-
bic in each one for a single cameo. These
shells all have white surface, but the in
ner layer is red, black and dark claret in
color, according to the species. The pieces
to be used by the artist are sawed from
the shells and shaped into the square and
oval form required on a grindstone. Then
they are ready for the artist.