_Making Pictures with Matches?_--This is a very interesting occupation,
and one which will fully test your ingenuity and your patience. Instead
of using lines drawn with a crayon to suggest a certain object, you
replace these lines with match sticks, bent and straight, and so obtain
nearly the same effect. You can start with the plain outline of some
simple object such as a sailing boat or a truck or a house, and you can
then proceed to more difficult shapes, learning how to suggest masses of
shadow by placing match sticks closely together.
In actual practice, you get a large sheet of brown paper, and move the
matches about until the right position is obtained: then you fix the
matches to the paper one by one by means of a dab of glue. In time you
will astonish everybody (yourself included) by the ease with which you
can build up really intricate pictures. Specimens accurately done and
tastefully mounted make very acceptable little presents (Fig. 19).
[Illustration: FIG. 19.]
Deft fingers and a big fund of patience render it quite possible to
construct
_Models from Match Sticks_, with the aid of just one or two accessories
such as paper and glue. Placed side by side, and glued to each other,
and to a cardboard or paper foundation, matches (particularly the larger
sort) give quite an impression of solidity--which you will notice if you
refer to the picture of the cupboard given in Fig. 20. In this a
cardboard foundation is made according to Fig. 21, and the matches cut
to the correct lengths and glued into position. In making the
foundation, draw out carefully as shown, cut through the plain lines,
and scratch along the dotted lines. Then bend into shape, and secure by
means of strips of gummed tape or paper.
[Illustration: FIG. 20.]
[Illustration: FIG. 21.]
To suggest the panel in the door, glue matches round the outside edges
as shown, and leave the cardboard showing in the centre. If you want the
door to open outwards, you will have to bevel the edges of the two
matches where the cupboard bends, because, by the nature of the model,
the hinge (that is, the cardboard itself) is on the inside.
In similar fashion you can make countless little objects--all varieties
of dolls' furniture and fittings, money boxes, trinket cases, &c. If the
matches are stained with bright colours, and tastefully arranged, and
the whole varnished, some splendid effects can be obtained.
Talking thus of matches leads us to the description of another model in
connection with the same articles. This is a
_Novel Match Striker._--Any article which is useful makes a desirable
present, especially if it has about it a certain amount of novelty. For
instance, a match holder makes a nice little gift, and is generally
appreciated. If, however, it is of a type which the recipient has never
seen, it will be doubly welcome.
One rather novel match holder and striker can be made in the following
way. Obtain a funny picture--for preference, one that has a large figure
in the foreground. Fig. 22 shows the type of picture we mean. Glue this
on to a piece of stout cardboard. Suppose the picture shows a man's
head. Then let his beard act as the striker. To secure this, cut out a
piece of fine sandpaper, exactly the shape of the man's beard (or
whatever it may be), and glue it into position on the picture. Then at
the side glue on a little holder for the matches. This can be made of
cardboard specially, or an ordinary match-box cover can have the bottom
stopped, and be glued on. As far as possible this should be a part of
the picture.
[Illustration: FIG. 22.]
All sorts of pictures can be done in this fashion: dogs, with strikers
on the tail; pigs, with strikers on the back; elephants; grotesque men,
&c.
If you like you can glue the picture on to fretwood, and cut out the
figure or a part of it, and arrange it, so that it will stand upright on
a wooden base. This will tax your own ingenuity.
There is in every house one thing out of which the enterprising boy or
girl can make any number of models and toys: that is the empty match
box. Its shape and formation lend themselves to the construction of all
sorts of things--houses, trams, dolls' furniture, &c. &c.--the only
other requisites being a sharp knife, a ruler, one or two pieces of
cardboard (or better still, thin pine veneer), a number of large matches
(or better still, match stales).[1]
[1] These match "stales," which are very useful in toy-making,
can be purchased from Byrant & May, Fairfield Works, Bow,
London, E., at 1s. per bundle of 1500. The pine veneer costs 1s.
6d. per dozen pieces, each 3 ft. 6 in. long.