e
after as may be--take any convenient tool, a penknife or a strip of
glass, and, dipping it rapidly into the melted wax, convey it in little
drops to the points where the various bits of glass meet each other,
dropping a single drop of wax at each joint. It is no advantage to have
any extra drops along the _sides_ of the bits; if each _corner_ is
properly secured, that is all that is needed (fig. 40).

Some people use a little resin or tar with the wax to make it more
brittle, so that when the painting is finished and the work is to be
taken down again off the plate, the spots of wax will chip off more
easily. I do not advise it. Boys in the shop who are just entering their
apprenticeship get very skilful, and quite properly so, in doing this
work; waxing up yard after yard of glass, and never dropping a spot of
wax on the surface.

It is much to be commended: all things done in the arts should be done
as well as they can be done, if only for the sake of character and
training; but in this case it is a positive advantage that the work
should be done thus cleanly, because if a spot of wax is dropped on the
surface of the glass that is to be painted on, the spot must be
carefully scraped off and every vestige of it removed with a wet duster
dipped in a little grit of some kind--pigment does well--otherwise the
glass is greasy and the painting will not adhere.

[Illustration: FIG. 40.]

For the same reason the wax-saucepan should be kept very clean, and the
wax frequently poured off, and all sediment thrown away. A bit of
cotton-fluff off the duster is enough to drag a "lump" out on the end of
the waxing-tool, which, before you have time to notice it, will be
dribbling over the glass and perhaps spoiling it; for you must note that
sometimes it is necessary to re-wax down _unfired_ work, which a drop of
wax the size of a pinhole, flirted off from the end of the tool, will
utterly ruin. How important, then, to be cleanly.

And in this matter of removing such spots from _fired_ work, do please
note that you should _use the knife and the duster alternately_ for
_each spot_. Do not scrape a batch of the spots off first and then go
over the ground again with the duster--this can only save a second or
two of time, and the merest fraction of trouble; and these are ill saved
indeed at the cost of doing the work ill. And you are sure to do it so,
for when the spot is scraped off it is very difficult to see where it
was; you a