The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-05-08
The Model of the Seal
on Your Ring WaS First
Made in Plaster Many
Times the Size of the
Seal Itself and Repro
ducedin Little by an Ill
most Human Machine

metal statuary. The jewelry designer
dolefully declares that the only diff
ference is in the salary of the two
kinds of artists. First there is the
idea, then there is the pencil and pa
per, the modelling wax and the fig
ure. Up to this point the designer
and the statuary artist are together,
but here the artist stops and the de-
signing goes on through tangle of
processes involving skilled mechanics
and machines. The designer gets lost
somewhere in the tangle and starts
back to make a new design. They
juggle with his idea down in the cast
ing foundry and finally work it up into
bronze.
Bring this gentleman some jewelry
designs, said a designer the other
day to his office boy
A few seconds later the boy stag
gered out of queer kind of filing
cabinet closet with a plaster Of paris
slab as big as front stone stoop
Rugged to his breast. The man threw
away the butt of his cigarette and
saved the boys life
See here" he said, turning the slab
over and exhibiting the model of a
brooch pin two feet long, this is the
way we design an elaborate piece of
jewelry."
The model was in high relief, and if
the girl who wore the brooch made
from it had wanted to take the orig
lnal design along, she would have had
to hire an extra cab. 1t weighed about
forty pounds and looked not unlike a
large wall PLAGUE made in high re-
lief.
Take look at the Gibson head on
this ring, said the designer, relieving
the boy OF another big slab of plaster
DO you think that design could have
been made on a small scale and the
beauty Of the curves and grace of the
lines still retained?"
Then the designer started to ex-
plain. When he got through the glory
had shifted from his shoulders over
on to the man who had designed a bit
OF machinery called the die sinker.
The die sinker is modern miracle.
It can do almost anything. It's prin-
clpal labor, however, is to eat out
OF solid block of steel design in
miniature fashioned after one of these
big PLAQUES. The eating work is
done by milling drill that revolves
many times a second and rubs against
the steel block in doing so.
Jewelry is not designed BY mere
chance. A man with a new idea fire.
quently finds that his idea occurred to
another man fifty years ago. To get
up something new that is both hand
some and cheap when made into Jew
81 @f IL.
Usually the idea is suggested by the
renee. The design of the scarfpin
showing two horses neck and neck in
race was suggested to the designer
one Saturday afternoon while he was
trying to get away from his work BY
visit to the race track.
Another designer sat in a restaurant
contemplating a pile of oysters that
stood near while he was waiting for
his order. He got to thinking about
the oysters uninteresting style of liv-
ing on the bottom of the sea. He fol-
lowed the oyster from the time of its
first rude awakening to the touch of
the oysterman's tongs on its own mud
beds till it arrived at the supreme
moment on the plate of the hungry
to pry open the shells of the bivalve
AS he did so a small round, lustrous
pearl slipped out of the meat of the
oyster and lodged in the crack be-
tween the edges of the two partially
opened shells. The gem stuck there
and glistened. At that instant the
idea hit the designer. Why not make
a scarfpin or brooch in the design of
\ ~ al
OF the piece could be made of gold
or platinum, while small pearl could
be set between them.
The idea was carried out, with the
result that the jeweler who accepted
the design made great deal of money
out of it. Made up into both scarf
pins and brooches. it was advertised
and went broadcast all over the coun-
try. The design was protected by
patent and practically made the repu-
tation as we'll as the fortune of the
concern that made it.
Many similar instances are told BY
designers. Sometimes a design takes
its character from the prevailing fash
ions in dress. Sometimes it has A
military or naval significance. One of
the most popular subjects around
which the designers fancy loves to
play is the female head or bust. This
has been made up into almost every
conceivable kind of combination. and
different artists types are carefully
studied for new effects.
As soon as designer has a pass
ably good idea he sketches it on pa
per. Then he models it in wax and
has a plaster of paris cast made from
the model. From the plaster bronze
casting is made. This casting must
always be the same size as the wax
model. The casting is put on a ma
chine and from it, by an intricate
system of wheels, bevels and screws
comes the reproduction in miniature
on the steel die
The designer himself does not know
anything more about the workings
of the machine except that it turns
out work that could not be done BY
hand; and because it does this it gives
him more freedom in the selection OF
his subjects and the working out OF
detail
Before the advent of the machine