CHAPTER 19

Color Cement Projects for the Schoolroom

CEMENT TILES simple in form may be made in any grade where tiles are made in clay or the modeling waxes. Many times clay is used in making tiles and the coloring is done with colored chalks or paints. These can be but temporary in effect and are broken easily, being impractical for use. The child’s interest will be much greater where he knows that with cement the results will be durable as well as to know that he is working with the same materials that the “grown-ups” use.

COMMENCING WITH SMALL TILES IS THE BEST PLAN. Have the class plan from nature a rosette design for a two-inch tile. An excellent way to secure interesting patterns is to fold a two-inch square paper into four folds and cut a design in the four folds. Opening out these folds will often reveal a very interesting design. When the student has completed the design, it can be traced with a pencil onto a flat layer of modeling wax, and a pencil, stick or nail used to cut away portions of the design. The pattern designed may be the part taken out or the background may be the part to be removed. In either case the part removed should be scraped out about a quarter of an inch deep and the sides should not slope in but rather outward. If the design is to be simply produced by incised lines only (and charming results can be thus secured), the stick, nail or instrument used should be sharpened so that it scrapes a groove in the clay that remains widest at the surface. The design being completed in the clay or wax, a few strips of thick cardboard or heavy oiled paper is cut so as to project above the clay or wax tile. This projection must equal the thickness of the mold to be made in plaster-of-Paris. These strips may then be placed up against the tile so as to surround it, and are to be retained in position with nails or pins or heavy objects.

When the pupils have all reached this stage of the tile, the teacher then may mix up the plaster and pour it into the molds, illustrating the correct method for the students to afterwards follow.

AFTER THE PLASTER TILE IS RELEASED, it is brushed well with oil and again surrounded with the strips of paper. Cement with any desired color added to it is then poured in and after two or three days the completed tile can be removed.

To secure color effects it is only necessary for the teacher to mix two colors of cement sufficient for the student’s use. The student then places a thin layer of the color on the plaster mold, keeping it within a certain portion of the design. The second color is placed on the spaces left, and after the color has set for a short time it is backed with ordinary neat cement and the whole tile permitted to dry several days.

TILES WITH THE DESIGN IN A RELIEF LINE can be made as follows: The teacher should have previously made a number of plaster tiles with a smooth surface. These can be easily made by flowing the plaster onto glass or other hard, smooth surface, the plaster being retained between two strips of wood 4 × 4 inches. Cutting these bars of plaster into squares, one is given to each student. A simple design is made on paper first and traced onto the plaster tile. A nail or hard pencil is then used to incise the design in the plaster, after which it is brushed well with oil and surrounded with cardboard strips and cement poured into it. This will result in a tile with the design in relief. Within these relief lines cement with color added to it may be placed and the tiles placed in a tray of water with the water coming half-way up the side of the tile. The tile will be hard enough to remove in five days.

SIMPLE ROUND PAPER WEIGHTS and tiles that are not square can be made by the same method. A little ingenuity in arranging the retaining cardboard strips around the plaster or wax model will solve the producing of irregular forms.

FLOWER AND PLANT HOLDERS, FISH PONDS, AND BOOK SUPPORTS can be made by using the tiles as the principle part. Take four tiles that have not been permitted to dry and place them face against the inside wall of a rough box form without the bottom, the size of the box to conform to the tiles. Pour about an inch of cement into the bottom of the box to form a bottom. When this has partly set, place strips of wood across the inside covers to hold the cement which is then poured in so as to connect the tiles where the corners meet. The cement should be poured also into the outside corner spaces. After the complete form has dried for a day, pour water inside and let it remain for three days or more. Release and trim corners and inside as desired. A thin mixture of colored cement placed inside and then poured out will give an inside lining, producing a finished effect.

SAND BOX ANIMALS AND TOYS can be made in a very durable form by the use of cement. The method to follow in class should be as follows: Have the pupils outline an animal in simple form on paper. No intricate or small details should be attempted in this outline and the feet or lower portions of the animal must be planned so that it will stand up easily.

After the outline is made then secure thin strips of tin or other sheet metal and have the pupils bend it with their fingers and with the use of a ruler to conform to the outline. The metal should be about two inches wide. The outline need not be made entirely of one piece of metal but perhaps of several. When the outline is completed in metal, it should conform fairly closely to the outline on the paper. This metal rim is then pressed slightly into wax or clay, or it may be placed on glass or on an oiled card. If clay is used, the eyes, wings, or other parts may be incised in the clay within the metal rim. A one-inch layer of cement is then poured in the metal rim, and after several days, the metal rim is removed and the cement around it is evened where necessary and colored if desired. By making the feet of birds or animals first, combining wire legs with them, the body can then be cast, combining the body and the legs through the wire connection.

MOSAIC CEMENT TILES can be easily produced as follows: Secure a number of the small mosaic stone squares used by masons and tile setters for inlaying floors. These come in many colors and different geometric forms. Plan a four-inch tea tile arranging a design with the use of two or three different colors of mosaics. When the arrangement or design is decided upon, the mosaics should be glued face downward to a piece of cardboard or glass. If glass is used, it should be brushed with oil after the mosaics have been glued into position and before the cement is poured. Where glass is used the design arrangement on paper can be slipped underneath the glass to show the location and correct position for gluing the mosaics onto the glass surface. The mosaic pattern is then surrounded with retaining bars or slips of wood or surrounded with metal and the cement poured over the mosaics until the right thickness is secured. It is then left for several days to dry, after which it is removed from the glass or the cardboard is peeled away from the cement surface. The tile is then finished after being placed in water for a week to harden. Glue a piece of soft leather or felt on the bottom when the cement has thoroughly dried.

CEMENT BOXES AND BOOK SUPPORTS can be made by the use of mosaics, gluing them onto sections of boards and then assembling the boards and tying them so that they will hold the cement that is poured in to finish the object. Where cement is removed from the mold before it has thoroughly hardened, it can be shaped with a knife, and mosaic book supports or boxes made in general form can be shaped easily this way.

VASES AND BOWLS as a problem for the schoolroom can be simplified if the teacher produces previously several vase molds so that the pupils can make their casts in individually selected colors, after which they can scrape or slip paint the shapes as they are removed from the molds.

THE POSSIBILITIES OF COLOR CEMENT for schoolroom applied arts are many and the interested teacher can arrange working equipment and methods of presentation according to space and class size. One ingenious teacher placed building paper on the floor of a schoolroom corner section, covered several old tables with oil-cloth and secured excellent results with her class room problems by permitting a small group of students to work at a time on account of the limited equipment.

Another teacher had her students design and make tiles for a new school building and today they are used as part of the enrichment of the school. This correlation of the student’s work with every day utility is one of the attractions of color cement for the school student, and innumerable practical applications can be found for color cement. The various problems for which directions have been given in the chapters of this book can be arranged in more or less simple form for the various school classes; and as a vocational subject it combines design with construction in a sensible proportion.