Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1881-01-19
Cameo Cutting.

Cameo cutting is one of the most profit
able arts to engage in. There are but
few cutters and there is steady demand
for all they can produce. The cutters ar,
very secretive and greatly dislike to tall
about their work. Most of the canoes ar,
produced from sea shells. A visit to
cameo cutters workshop found him seatet
at table covered with tools, varying from
strong triangular pointed steel instru
meut, to the most delicate pointed bits o.
steel wire fastened in handles. Very fin,
files and knitting needles, set In wooder
grips and ground to intinltesimal points
figured in the lot On pad of leather
before the cameo cutter, was block ol
wood just big enough to be grasped witt
his hand, and cemented TO the middle oi
it was an oval object that looked like 9
piece of alabaster, just big enough to make
seal for the finger of man who did no,
object to wearing large rings. Upon tins
the artist was just finishing a copy, with a
pencil pointed to needle fineness, of pho.
tograph in profile OF gentleman, which
was leaned against a little photograph
easel before him.
Having finished the outline, he laid his
pencil by, and taking up fire wire tool
he scratched the pencil mark around with
it. Then he took darning- needle with a
sharp point and scratched the line deeper.
He worked with a magnifying glass at his
eye, and stopped continually to inspect the
progress of his work with critical minute
ness. Then he went at it again, working
nxx-lp ha lin pir,
and again, and always examining after
each scratch. He changed his tools as he
went on, and from the darnine needle de-
scended to trifling little fragment of steel
wire, not as thick as an ordinary sewing
needle, set in slender handle. With this
he scratched and rescratched, until the
lines he had drawn with his pencil had
quite vanished, and thin, fine streak of
dark color had marked the outline of the
head he had been tracing his way around.
Next he took one of his burin-like tools,
commenced again. This time he worked
on the outside of the outline, cutting and
scraping at the surface until the white
turned gray, then brown, and finally van
ished, leaving the face in relief, surrounded
by black ground; that is, the portrait re-
manned intact In the white substance which
formed the outer layer of the cameo, while
it had been cut away around it TO the
lower or dark layer.
The portrait or figure is then modulated
upon its surface until it assumes the round
ness of nature. The edges are left square
to the dark ground. This is necessary, as,
if they are gradually rounded down, the
outline becomes underlined toward Its juno
ture with the relieving surface, owing to
the white OF the raised portion being par
TALLY transparent and permitting the dark
to show through when it Is thinned down.
Care is taken to finish this dark surface as
much as possible with the cutting tools,
and so separate the white from il as to
leave it smooth and unscratched. A final
polish is given it, however, with putty
powder, applied dry with stiff brush, but
the utmost care is necessary in this opera
ton, as the slightest slip will ruin The
work. This ends the cameo-cutter's work,
the mounting being the jewelers. work.
Ftje caIseos sell unmounted for about $50.
fssly is the home of cameo cutting, ami
the finest works of art in that line are still
turned out there. Genoa and Rome are
the centres of production. There is
colony of several thousand cameo-cutters
in Paris who produce some very good
work. The canoes made abroad are, as q
rule, fancIful works, copies of statues,
NEUROLOGICAL figures and the like. The
shells Ised in cameo cutting are of several
sorts, but all are ordinary sea shells or
conchs. Some come from the East and
others from the West Indies. Many are
as there is commonly only
enough material available in each one for
a single cameo. These shells all have a
white surface, but the inner layer is red,
black and dark claret in color, according
to the species. The pieces 10 be used by
the artist are sawed from the shells and
shaped into the square or oval form re-
quired on grindstone. Then they are
ready for the artist.