OCR Text |
Show AMERICAN GIRL IN HIGH APvT. Mrs. Huneker-Backen Proves That Women Can Take a Hand at Making Mak-ing Statues of Bronze. The recent marriage of Mrs. Clio Hinton Huneker, the famous sculptor, to William Bracken, a prominent clubman club-man of New York, was the most noteworthy note-worthy event in the art world of the season. Mrs. Bracken ,has made for herself a great reputation and a fortune for-tune by her exquisite modeling of min-I min-I iature bronzes. She has also nmrtii.od a number of important works on a large scale. Prominent among these are the memorial to General -Fremont and portrait busts of Paderewski, Mrs. James Brown Potter and Mme. Emma Eames. Mrs. Bracken is a beautiful woman of the blonde type, charming in figure and graceful in manner. She is a born sculptor, having had from her earliest childhood a passion for modeling in clay. At the age of -9 attention was called to her remarkable talent by the production -of the head -of a child in common clay. When about 16 the young artist produced an ideal figure which - was exhibited at the Academy of Design and won much admiration. After that she entered on a long course of study under St. Gaudens, who regarded re-garded her as his most brilliant pupil. Most of Mrs. Bracken's work has been done in her studio in the tower of Carnegie Car-negie Hall, New York. j Mrs. Bracken's method of work is unique and interesting. One of its most important features, it was explained ex-plained to a correspondent of this newspaper a few days ago, is the transformation of the figures from the brown clay into pure white plaster of Paris. i An attendant in explaining the art, said: "Few if any people outside of sculptors sculp-tors or their assistants know howl a statue is made and cast into bronze. The process by which it is done 'is long, tedious and expensive, often causing: caus-ing: the whole work to be done over. The castings are also very brittle, and if they are bumped together or dropped they smash like an egg-shell. "The transformation from the clay to that of pure white plaster of Paris model is a very important feature of statue building. "The clay model of the sculptor would be useless without a sectional duplicate of it in plaster of Paris, because be-cause the sections of the latter are the models for the bronze cast. "The clay statue is solid, so it must be divided into perfect solid sections. They must fit together so well that the joints cannot be seen, and be as strong as though it was solid. "The sculptor then must be able to build it up, placing one section into the other on the keystone plan, until the whole is finished up. When it is built upon this plan, if there are any alterations altera-tions or changes or touching up to be done, he does it while it is standing. The standing statue is then taken apart, section by section, packed in straw and shipped to the bronze foundry. foun-dry. "The hnildinfr nf the wViito ctntno a f . ter the completion of the clay model is a curious and remarkable process. Work is begun at the base of the structure. struc-ture. A solution of plaster and India red is sprinkled over the section to be cast. This prevents the cast from sticking to the clay. "When the portion is dry, plaster of Paris is applied on top of it to the thickness of about two inches. Only a very small portion of the statue is cast at a time, as it is necessary to divide the plaster into divisions which can be removed without breaking. "The clay surface governs the size of the divisions. When the plaster is dry it is removed by strips of tin two inches wide, which stick into the uncovered un-covered clay and separates the dry divisions di-visions from the one to adjoin it. "After the division has been removed little holes about the size of a marble are bored into the dry part, and when the other part is put on the plaster runs into these little holes and forms a ball and socket joint. "When the divisions of plaster con tained in each of the sections are fastened fast-ened together a hollow mould of the section is formed. Into this mould plaster is poured. The mould is then shaken and rolled around to prevent the wet plaster from setting solid, the object being to cast the mould hollow. When about two inches of the plaster has dried about the sides of the mould, the mould is torn away and the plaster section remains, an exact reproduction of the clay model. "A Roman joint is then cast on it vere it connects with the adjoining section. One section is cast with the mounting, Avhich is wedge-shaped, and the adjoining section is cast with a cavity, into which the wedge-shaped piece fits, thus forming the Roman joint. "The plaster must be of pure white and free from all imperfections. Its surface must be smooth before it goes to the bronze founders, and the sculp tor spends considerable time in dressing dress-ing each section and applying retouching retouch-ing plaster on the surftce. The edges of the joints must be so smooth that they cannot be seen, except on the closest inspection. If they were apparent appar-ent in the plaster, so they would also appear in the bronze; the bronze would not then present the appearance of having been cast in -one piece the aim desired. "It is in the joints that the founder gets In his finest work. He casts the final bronze in imported French sand direct from the plaster of Paris. This entails a great deal of labor, and in some instances a sculptor has had to do the work all over again because of an accident happening to his plaster cast at the foundry." , Mrs. Huneker-Bracken has a 16-year-old son w ho has also inherited her talent. tal-ent. He recently modeled an elephant so perfect in every detail that it will be perpetuated in brqnze. on those about them until their happy hap-py life closes. And the world is the bettervfor their having, lived in it. It is the heart that has missed the sunshine of love in its earthly pilgrimage pilgrim-age that wears Itself out with unsatisfied unsat-isfied longings, that settles at last into the dull, gray gloom of despair. Love brings with it content, and the contented heart has too much of the oil of happiness lubricating it to ever wear or rust out. The women who "realize that they have no heart mate, whose days are spent in dreary longing and whose nights are spent in sighs and tears, are the women whose hearts are wearing out slowly, imperceptibly, but as surely sure-ly wearing out. There can be no strain upon the human hu-man heart but what will assuredly leave its impress upon it. What rust is to the shuttle, silent grief is to the human heart corroding ruin which in the end will gain the prey which it has marked for its own. The want of the sunshing of love is responsible for all the hearts that wear out, I assert. Let saints and cynics cavil as they will at the honest truth here expressed. Love brings joy, peace and harmony; the unloved heart wears itself out with rancor and discord; an all-consuming fire, which slowly but surely burns it to the core; or like the worm at the. heart of the bud. gnaws at its root, eating out its life ere it can blossom blos-som out into the beautious, gracious flower. Love is the only panacea for keeping hearts from wearing out. |