Show FIRD ETCHING i BEAUTIFUL BITS SITS OF ART THAT ARE BURNED INTO W WOOD A new art artar fr louck fosdick Is az IK in of a crimiti is Decor decorta tl e ld luca adaptability to modern and Churches itow it is I 1 done seventy scars years ago an english boy and his sweetheart were making a tour of a country fair while viewing the lights sights they e encountered a mountebank burning pictures a on wood w owl with it liot lot iron many whose name 11 hill lit year an liter later the loy WAS crossed the atlantic and achieved I 1 le great mt distinction in n boston as a sculptor and fire etcher the remembrance of the mountebanks mount ebanks work laving lived long la in bis his memory emory it was reserved however for ft a young american named los I 1 fosdick dick of charlestown Charles town mass jas to disclose dis cloi the greatest possibilities of lire etching and to give it a permanent place botne the beautiful works of its day dign yian en edward D adams began to deco R att bis his house iu in the villard block in J q italton avenue a canue la he conceived the idea of er having a renaissance border burned at the 42 top of the mexican mahogany panels under e the leather frieze of his dining room he found mr fosdick in normandy painting french peasants and laid before him the plans in the summer of 1884 mr fosdick returned to the united states to do mr adams work he fitted up a studio in an old school house on a farm in ough masa mass the panels were sent to him from new yerk the fine tools that tho the beauty and popularity of fire etching have since called into existence were then unknown ra mr Fo bodick dick was obliged to roast he himself over a charcoal furnace Ri his irons sirous ae were of the most primitive kind they were wen pieces of metal fastened into copper tubes with plaster of paris parts as a nonconductor of the heat THE OLD METHOD As long as fire etching had to be done under the disadvantages that mr fosdick encountered there was little danger that the art would fall into the trifling hands bands of amateurs the heat beat of a furnace had haa no attractions tor for them to them the burning of fingers was not a source of co comfort eifort ni fort they w would not find joy in tho the clouds of smoke that imperfect tools made inevitable but since tho the intention invention of better eppli appliances ances since fire etching has been raised to the charm and dignity of an accomplishment they have rushed into this field of art in great numbers and with tare impetuosity it Is a curious thing that the inspru instrument merit that called into existence the enthusiasm of these self denying devotees of varying fashion was not invented for their comfort it was not invented either to render more agreeable and attractive the work of the professional fire etcher TWain ment was first made by a 1 french rench surgeon who used it to cauterize crize wounds the as it is called consists of a nickel or glass receptacle for a sponge saturated with alcohol or naphtha or some other i and inflammable fluid attached to it are sire two long rubber one connecting with iab a small hand bellow bellows s and the other with the instrument proper age latter consists of a band leof material six inches long connected with one end Is the rubber tube and inserted in the other Is a plat platinum inurn point two or three inches long and somewhat flattened A at the extremity inside at of this point is a platinum coll coil fad fed with the gas gashom from the rubber tube when the point is held in the spirit lamp that is commonly used it becomes hot the gas driven into it by the hand band bellows taking alre the temperature of the point can bo regulated to any degree by the bellows it can be made red hot so that it will burn wood jike like a blazing piece of iron from a furnace or can be allowed to cool eo so that tha it will rw barely scorch the surface of the wood HIS MIL SUCCESS mr Fost lIcks completion of the panels justified mr adams faith in the firo lira et chers art when set in place they became objects of general admiration to the eye of the prop prophet liet it was clear that an old art was about to assume new beauty it was clear too wo that in tho the hands of the young american it I 1 had ad attained a character and was capable capable of a scope that ball had never ne er imagined the english sculptor had rals raised edit it to a dignity infinitely above the clever trick of the mountebank although mr air fosdick was convinced after he bad had finished me alm adams work that fire etching was entitled to the highest rank as an art he could not bring himself to believe that it was his duty to devote his time and strength to it exclusively in IM 1888 he legace gave his first exhibition of are fire oma etchings in paris among those present were his teachers boulanger DouLan gerand and meillon Mo illon who were delighted with the work they thought that it was something entirely new successful as mr foadick was as a xa painter they advised him the brush 1 and give himself up to this art of etching alk with tire is somewhat reluctantly but with no fal bering after aati r the step was taken he acted upon their advice the admiration bestowed upon hie his work do nt at exhibitions in this city and elsewhere and the presence of that work in many of g ehg first bouses houses in the country are a pleasing it justification of his faith and devotion r HOW THE IS VOE As the finest brush and canvas cannot make a diaz or a rousseau Il eo so the most improved or the most desirable wood will not insure a beautiful product of the fire et chers art nevertheless there is a choice of medium toft boft and dry woods being preferable to bird hard and appy reasoned seasoned poplar is a the best then cornea comes jt holly holly and bass the i he surface is made perfectly smooth to rma rm lie tre the drawing draw ing then the etcher takes taken hl bla or branding IV irons and bums burns the design into the wood 0 after mr fosdick has been over a panel 1 for the first time tinie say the panel of his t 00 fury tury it look looks like the charred surface of 1 A half burned twill no picture is visible then hen with an emery doth cloth he be goes over it again gain smoothing the surface and removing the unsightly crudities of line that have be of been en produced by the platinum point as it plowed through the open and close pores 00 tr of to of f the wood he ile never removes all of 00 ithem for they are the accidental wel dental qualities wei already mentioned that give picturesque em to the work if greater renter accentuation s required tle the is used again if W esa ess the surface Is smoothed with the mery cloth their uw use alternates until he required effect it i produced 00 when the etching is done several coats ft f varnah are applied and a fine dull fin 02 of gab 5 is final finally obtained with pumice tone stone phen appears in ill all ull its beauty the head of f gal I 1 the e fury u fear ear and ferocity depicted I 1 in n a ou e fra tyl on every e cry side aide by heavy waves es ft rich brown hair that fill the rest of t the he anel thus Is treated created in lines alone atone of lot pore no or lew strength a work that bother jdant nor em smoke 0 ke neither heat beat nor cold wither 1 I t her rate rat nor beilue can tada fade or mar lew tw york times |