This art is most important to the confectioner. It is not so difficult to accomplish as is generally supposed; it only requires patience and perseverance, with a close attention to the proportions and orders of nature. A few modelling tools, and facility in handling the paste, is all that is requisite to become an expert modeller. The form of the body must first be made with the fingers, the more minute parts with the tools and a pair of scissors; the last is very useful for dividing the fingers on the hands and the toes of a human figure. The proportions necessary to form it are these: - the whole length of a human being is six times the length of his feet, eight times of his head (that is, from the crown to the chin), ten times of his face, or the distance from the crown to the mouth; the thumb is as long as the nose or the biggest joint of the middle finger; the fore finger is shorter than the third, and the little finger is shorter than the third by one joint; the width of the wrist is as long as the thumb, end about a quarter; this varies; the ear is also the length of the nose, its breadth half its length; the arm is three times the length of the head, or four faces; the leg, from the knee-joint to the bottom of the foot, measures two heads and a-half; the foot, which is one-sixth of the human stature, if divided into three parts, will contain first the toes from the top of the large one to the lowest joint of the little one; next the middle of the foot, and lastly the heel and instep. There is also a slight difference between the proportions of a male and female. In infancy and very early youth the form is very much alike in both sexes. The head is oval, very much extended backwards, with the forehead and top of the head comparatively flat; the jaw-bones are short and have little depth; the bones of the nose are short and flat; in the male subject, the elevation of the frontal sinuses at the eyebrows, which characterizes the male head, is wanting; and the neck is very small in proportion to the head. In old age the cheeks and mouth fall in, because of the wasting of the teeth; the nose and chin approach each other; the fat is absorbed, and the muscles shrink, which covers the surface with wrinkles; and in time, the bones too are wasted, and the figure bends beneath its own weight. With these directions proceed to model the human figure, referring to anatomical plates for the position of the muscles, etc. When the figure is complete, proceed to dress it in any style or costume you may fancy, making it from the same paste, and colouring it, giving the figure any attitude you may think proper, but always prefer the graceful, avoiding the stiff and awkward. The modelling of animals and birds is on the same principle, the wings of the latter being pushed or cut in moulds or pasteboards. Flowers are mostly done with cutters in the form of the leaf of the flowers you would wish to represent; form the calyx in a mould, and fasten it on a piece of wire; fix the leaves on the calyx to imitate nature, and colour them accordingly.

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