Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/574

512 coat, or a flatting coat, are then applied. Sometimes each of the earlier coats is rubbed down. Old ceilings and soffits of stairs are either washed to clean off the dirt and grease, stopped (which is cutting out the cracks and stopping them with new plaster), and whitened by a coat of whitening or Spanish white mixed with size; or after the two first operations they are finished in distemper, which is white lead and size ; it presents a better appearance. Colouring is also done to plastered walls, the white being mixed in half linseed oil and half turpentine, and some earth added to make the tint re quired. Limewhiting is done by the bricklayer s labourer. Stucco or plaster-work, which is intended to be painted, but which is not sufficiently dry to receive the oil, may have a coating of water colours, or distemper colour, as it is called, in order to give a more finished appearance to that part of the building. The colour selected should be ground very fine, and incorporated with the whiting and parchment, or other strong size. Two coats will be required to make it bear out uniformly. When the stucco is sufficiently dry, and it is desired to be painted, the whole of the above colouring has to be washed off, and the painting proceeded with as described for new work. Metal Metal-work, nob being absorbent, only requires when new painting, to have a priming, and one, two, or three coats of oil paints, as may be considered necessary. It should have a coat as soon after it leaves the founder or smith as pos sible, to prevent early stages of oxidation. Old work should be cleaned, scraped, and filed if necessary, to remove rust, broken paint, and dirt. Graining. Graining is understood among painters to be the imi tating of the several different species of ornamental woods, as satin-wood, rose-wood, king-wood, air-wood, mahogany, wainscot or oak, and others. After the necessary coats of paint have been put on to the wood, a ground is then laid of Naples yellow and ceruse, diluted with turpentine if for satin-wood, which is left to dry. The painter then prepares small quantities of the same yellow and ochre with a little brown, and boiled oil and turpentine, and having mixed this, spreads it over some small part of his work. The fiat hog s hair brushes being dipped in the liquid and drawn down the newly laid colour, the shades and grainings are produced. To obtain the mottled appearance, the camel s hair pencils are applied, and when completed the work is left to dry, and afterwards covered by a coat or two of good copal varnish. Imitation wainscot requires the use of combs of various degrees of fineness to obtain the grain (whence the process is called combing by some persons), and the flower is got by wiping off the colour with a piece of rag. When dry it is over-grained to obtain a more com plete representation of the natural wood, and then varnished. If the work be done in water colour and not in oil, beer grounds to act as a drier are mixed with the colour ; this sets it ready for varnishing. A " patent graining-machine," a sort of roller with a pattern upon it, has lately been introduced. The writer of this article suggested some years ago that deal well sized to prevent absorption might be at once grained either wainscot or pollard oak, without the preliminary operation, delay, and smell of painting. When dry it is to be varnished as usual. The effect is somewhat better than that obtained by the usual method of graining. Marbling. Marbling is the imitation of real marbles, granites, &c., some of which are represented by splashing on the carefully prepared ground, which should have been painted and often rubbed and polished to obtain an even surface ; others have to be painted in colours, and then well varnished. The most expert at this sort of imitation do their work so as to prevent its easy detection except by the touch. [HOUSE-PAINTIXG. Ornamental painting embraces the execution of friezes and the decorative parts of architecture on walls and ceil ings in chiaroscuro (or light and shade) or monochrome colouring. The ground is well prepared, and of the tint of the proposed work; the ornament and figures are drawn upon it, and are then painted and shaded to give them their due effect. This kind of work is sometimes painted on cloth and then fastened up. When the ornamental work is of a similar pattern throughout, as mouldings, fretwork, a running ornament, &c., it is effected by stencilling. This method consists in drawing a certain length of the pattern on paper, which is pricked through with a large sized needle, then laid on the wall to be ornamented, and struck with a small linen bag containing powdered chalk; the chalk enters the apertures, and fixes itself against the paint. The painter then draws it, or fills in the pattern with colours. Another method is to cut out the pattern where possible, and the paper, being stiffened with size, is laid on the surface, and a brush filled with the colour passed over it ; the paper is carefully removed and laid on a fresh place, and so on. The pattern may then be touched up when dry with another tint, or with gold, or another pattern with minuter detail laid on it, and the operation repeated. A wall surface may be covered with such an ornamentation, of which paper hangings are a cheap substitute. Many of these methods of decoration having been styled shams, the promoters of real woods advocated the dis use of paints, &c. This has led to the increased use of deals and pines for inside doors, wainscots, linings, shutters, and the like, which, if not left as completed by the trades men, are sized and varnished or polished. But in such a case a good selection of the wood is necessary, and it has to be picked. Another method is to stain the timber, as of roofs, galleries, and the like, or the joiners work, so that it represents various tints of oak, and this is pro tected by a coat or two of varnish. These systems are open to the objection that the varnish, especially in towns, darkens rapidly, and every coat of it adds to the defect, so that in a few years paint is required to give the work the clean and lively appearance the wood originally possessed. Real wainscot, mahogany, and other woods are usually polished; the first is sometimes varnished after being properly prepared to prevent the rise of the grain which occurs when it is touched by a liquid. Varnishing having been frequently referred to, we must notice that there are many varieties useful for various pur poses. Like white lead, oil, and turpentine, they are subject to much adulteration, whereby the work is deprived of its proper consistency, and the painter and his employer dis satisfied with the result. There are drying varnishes made with spirit of wine ; these are applied to some furniture, mouldings, &c. Varnishes made with essential oils, especi ally those made with oil of turpentine or ether and pure copal, are very solid, and better than those made with fat drying oils, which, from their colour being dark, are used only with grounds of a dark colour. Varnish can some times be tinted to correct defects of colour in graining, <fcc. For wood-work copal varnish in oil should alone be used. It is not within our province to enter upon the higher class of painting on walls, which comes under the trade of the decorator, including that of the gilder and the artistic draughtsman and colourist, nor upon the higher class of paper-hangings. Decorations must necessarily depend upon the taste and skill required or employed in producing them. Paper-hangings are paid for by the piece or yard, a piece being made in England twelve yards long and twenty inches wide, and the hanging is charged at so much the piece. A dozen of borders is twelve yards long; they are charged by the yard for the material, and by the dozen for hanging. Sizing and otherwise preparing the Ornamei painting Steucill Unpaii woods. Vamu ing. Decon work. Wall

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