THE FRENCH ART.

A BEAUTIFUL AND PRACTICAL PROCESS
FOR DECORATING WOOD,
LEATHER, SILK AND OTHER FABRICS.

It is simple to perform, durable, and very effective. The designs are printed in colors, upon paper so prepared that after they are cemented to the surface of the article intended to be decorated, by simply dampening the back of the paper, it may be at once and entirely removed, and the finished work exactly resemble painting; nothing but the colored designs remaining upon the work.

Suppose that a white earthenware or porcelain plate is the object to decorate: Take the design, and after having cut off the larger portion of the margin of the paper, pass over the colored design, fine brush, a slight coat of Fastening Varnish, being careful to cover the whole of the design and not go beyond the outlines. When the varnish has partially dried, or has become “tacky,” which will happen in five or ten minutes, place the varnished surface in the position you wish it to occupy upon the plate, and then press it well down with the roller; then take a damp piece of cloth or sponge and press well the back of the picture, (if you were decorating a curved surface, such as a vase, the ivory knife may be used for the purpose), and allow it to remain for a minute or two, then thoroughly wet the back of the design and raise the paper with the hand evenly and carefully. Now wash the picture, which is transferred as gently as possible with the water brush, to remove any soil; this done, carefully press the work with a piece of fine linen slightly wetted, so as to absorb the water and nearly dry the design, this prevents it from blistering and causes the work to dry flat and evenly. Then after having left it at least one day, apply a coat of retouching varnish, and the work is complete.

To Decorate Silk and other Delicate Fabrics. Apply a coating of fastening varnish, and allow it to dry, then with the water brush, wash the paper surrounding the design carefully; this removes from the paper the preparation which would otherwise soil the silk; now apply a second coat of the same varnish, and when this has slightly dried, place the design upon the silk or other fabric to be decorated, and with the roller press it well down. With the water brush wet the back of the paper covering the design and the paper may be at once lifted off.

Another Method. Cut out the design carefully and cover it with a thin coating of fastening varnish, and allow it to dry, then lay it upon the silk or other fabric, and roll thoroughly; dampen the back of the paper with the water brush, and lift it off as previously directed.

To Decorate Articles of a Dark Color. In decorating Japanned goods, or any dark material, it is necessary to take the prepared pictures covered with white lead or gold back, and follow the directions as before. Should there be any design you wish to remove, or any spots of varnish accidentally dropped upon the article decorated, you can easily remove it by applying the clarified spirits.

A few of the many articles which can be easily and advantageously decorated. Vases, trinket stands, and other ornaments in white china, with or without a border of gold; tea or coffee services in china, earthenware, or Bohemian glass; dessert services, flower pots and boxes, candlesticks, urn and jug stands, carriages, sleighs, wagons, furniture, tinware, and many other china articles which have been made expressly for decoration by this art; white wood articles, straw dinner mats, silk or cloth sofa cushions, scent bags, slippers, hand screens, fans, ribbons, articles in ivory, book covers; indeed it is difficult to say what ornamental article may not be thus decorated, from the panels of a room to the tiny articles of the dressing table.

To the house decorator this art offers a complete substitute for the costly process of hand painting for panels of rooms, and other portions of his work which require artistic embellishment.

As to the choice of subjects, of course that must be left to individual taste. The variety is large, comprising flowers, birds, figures and landscapes, of all dimensions and in every style, the beautiful products of Sevres, the works of modern artists, and inlaid woods.

The brushes may be easily cleaned with a little of the clarified spirits, as well as any accidental spots of the varnishes upon the dress.

As all designs are covered with gold, or plain, the latter will show on a white ground only, and are mostly used for ladies’ work. The covered designs will show on any ground, dark or light, and are principally used for manufacturing purposes, such as tin, woodenware, etc.

WAX ART.
Flowers

and Fruit

WITH INSTRUCTIONS FOR
MAKING THE WAX AND MOLDS, MATERIALS USED, ETC.

Wax Art was supposed to have reached the height of perfection many years ago, but since the invention of the various machines for cutting and molding designs into form from wax, the rapidity with which the work is executed, and the endless variety of artistic productions in wax art, it is evident perfection has not yet been reached, and we are led to believe it susceptible of attaining a still higher degree of excellence. The reason of its being taught so little during the past few years is owing principally to the fact of its simplicity since the use of molds and cutters, so artistically arranged that the form of any desired leaf or flower may be chiseled out at will, from the varieties of colored wax before you.

Nothing in fancy work excels the art of making Wax Flowers for interest, amusement and fascination. Only a few tools are required. A good eye for colors and a little taste in arranging them. There are two distinct methods. First,

By Molding Them. All tubular flowers must be made by molds, viz: Calla lily, lily of the valley, iris, morning glory, scarlet cypress vine, stephanotis, and all other flowers tubular or labiated. A good set of wooden molds, carved carefully, is the best, but any lady can prepare her own molds in the following manner. Get your flower fresh as possible, and stand it in water to give it perfect strength. Fix a little pasteboard box, or any small cup shaped box; prepare these yourself with strips of pasteboard, some larger or smaller, just according to the size of leaf or flower you intend to mold from; mix the finest dentists’ plaster of paris, (practice alone can perfect one in the proper consistency), and pour it into the flower, having enough mixed to fill it and cover every little part of the flower, let it remain until hard, tear off the flower, and you have a perfect mold, every little vein and impression perfectly taken. With a sharp knife trim off all ragged edges and superabundant plaster, leaving your mold small as possible, and lighter to handle. These leaf molds are much better for all uses, even for sheeted wax flowers, than those metal molds that cut the wax, and never give the fibrous look needed for a natural looking leaf. The lily of the valley needs a wooden mold, the flower is so delicate a plaster mold cannot be made.

Preparation of the Wax for Molded Flowers. These recipes are of the times of our great grandmothers, who kept a few bees in their gardens, making honey from the fields of sweet clover, the apple and other fruit blossoms in the spring of the year, and buckwheat patches in the summer. The wax was brown, and they bleached it by melting it, clarifying it by selecting the whitest, running it off in thin sheets, and laying it in the hot sun to bleach. All bleacheries do this on a larger or smaller scale. After bleaching the wax white as muslin, you can make your parlor mantel ornaments of it.

Keep a set of tin cups for your different tints of wax, your white cup being the largest.

To Mold a Calla Lily. Have ready a basin of hot soap suds, strong as possible of soap, and hot, so that your lily will be smooth, not lumpy or bubbly. Melt your wax by setting the tin cup in boiling water, as glue is melted. To every pound of white wax add a tube of Winsor & Newton’s flake white paint, dissolved and thoroughly mixed with one tablespoonful balsam fir, or Venetian turpentine, and half table spoonful of dissolved gum mastic, the whitest possible. This is a good recipe for sheeting wax for your own use, and will be given below in preparations for sheeted wax flowers.

Your liquid being thoroughly mixed in two cups, your white and yellow chrome cup, the yellow prepared exactly like the white, only yellow chrome paint substituted for the white tube paint; your molds all prepared by standing soaked in the hot soap suds, you commence with the yellow cup, dipping your spadix mold, or the center of the lily, in the yellow cup, making as many spadix as you wish to make lilies. After finishing dipping spadix, you take your white cup and large mold, dipping once and letting it cool a moment, and then immersing the second time, to give a double thickness to the heavy portions of the flower.

A hundred lilies can be molded in an hour.

The stems of wire can be prepared next. Fasten the spadix to the stem, and slip the stem through the hole at the bottom of the molded flower, then with a brush dipped in the hot green cup solder the whole together, spadix, stem and flower.

All molded flowers are made exactly alike. All tools dipped first in hot suds for every flower, after in the hot wax. It is well, as a rule, to make all white flowers first—afterward, the colored flowers.

All variegated flowers are painted with a brush, using Winsor & Newton’s moist water colors. All yellow flowers, like Thunbergia, spadix of lilies, etc., by dipping in the yellow cup. A scarlet cup for scarlet flowers, blue for blue flowers, rose colored for roses, Naples yellow for sofrano and tea rose tints.

All roses and double flowers are made of separate petals molded and joined together afterward.

All large leaves should be molded, and all small leaves, all dipped in the green cup.

Your green cup is made of all your refuse colors melted together, and the tube green tint added. Never use any darker tubes than No. 1 chrome green. Your olive and other tints are made by the refuse tints thrown in from the drippings of red, yellow, purple, and odd tints.

Directions for Sheeting Wax. To every pound of bleached wax, after dissolving thoroughly in an outer crucible of hot water, add 1 oz. balsam of fir, or Venetian turpentine, in which dissolve a little resin, white or mastic. If white wax is desired, one and one-half tube Winsor & Newton’s flake white paint should be added—yellow, orange or rose, and just what other tints are required. All sheeted wax by machine is first molded into square blocks or bricks, and the machine slices off the sheets. But these machines are expensive, and no lady cares to have one who only makes wax flowers for pleasure.

Green wax is made from the drippings of all the other tints, and from the yellow unbleached wax, with green tube paint added.

After preparing your cup of melted wax, have ready a plaster mold made on a tea saucer or tea plate. Dip your mold in hot soap suds, for flower molding, and with a small ladle pour over its wet surface the melted wax, trimming off the sides and making even sheets, remelting the clippings and resheeting it.

A wooden spaddle size of ordinary sheet wax is sometimes made, and used instead of the plaster mold, called paddle wax, and a great many teachers use a bottle, dipping the bottle, and forming wax thin at one end, thicker at the other. Either plaster, wood or glass must be dipped in the hot suds between every dipping in hot melted wax.

Wax Fruit is made in molds, and is always used with the paints in preparing the crude wax, and painted afterwards with dry powder paint.

Almost all molds for Wax Fruit should be made in halves—pears in three pieces—and some fruits require the mold in several pieces. Unless the molds are perfect the fruit will be defective, and nothing can make it beautiful when it is once molded wrong.

Your fruit should be perfect, and in making your molds care should be taken that there are no open places or leaks in the molds. Grease your lemon, apple, orange, or whatever is to be molded, well first in every part. Have ready your pasteboard cup, made a trifle larger than your fruit, nearly filling your cup with the plaster, mixed with cold water to the consistency of pound cake unbaked. Your fruit being oiled, be very careful to sink it down just half in the dissolved plaster. If you do not get in half, or if you sink it in more than half, you will have an imperfect mold, and your fruit will be defective. A little care makes it perfect.

As soon as the plaster is a little hardened, with a pen knife make four holes in the outer plaster rim, not touching the fruit. These holes, half an inch deep, are to hold the top of your mold; lock it into the lower half, blow off all loose pieces of plaster, and when completely hardened, oil the top of the fruit and the new half plaster mold, and the holes for the locks; then prepare the second half. Be sure and have your plaster fresh and strong, when thoroughly mixed to the same consistency as the first, pour over the fruit into the pasteboard cup, and even it all over. Leave it standing a good half hour, then remove the pasteboard cup, and if the mold seems hardened, carefully open it, being careful not to break off the locks, for upon the perfection of these consists the perfection of the fruit.

In a basket of fruit, lady apples are beautiful, crab apples, Seckle pears, Bartlett pears, a lemon, an orange or two, California plums, two peaches, and grapes are desirable. Two pounds of wax will make this elegant variety. None of the fruit should be large—all small, high colors, and perfect in painting.

After preparing your set of molds, prepare your wax, as before directed, and there should be twelve gill, or half-pint cups kept ready for this work, with the different tints. A small sharp pouring spout on each cup is a great help. The half-pint cups being generally used for apples, peaches, pears, oranges and lemons; the plums, cherries, and little fruits are made with the gill cups.

All fruit makers, masters, will tell you to be very careful and not get too deep tints; for a lemon use common lemon chrome paint, dry; orange, orange chrome, dry, and after making those two fruits, you make from the same cups your apples, peaches and pears, because the solid, clear color is needed first, and after, you can paint them to their natural tint. 1st, Lemon. Match the color of the wax to the lemon you imitate. Dry patent powdered yellow, gives a splendid lemon tint.

After melting and tinting your wax, two cakes for one lemon, have ready your mold—remember that every mold must be soaked in hot, strong soap suds—have the upper half ready to put on as soon as your lower half is filled with the hot wax. Pour in the even half of the mold with the melted wax first. Never allow any to slop over the edge. Place on the upper half immediately and lock closely together, holding them clasped and turning them gently over and over, keeping every part in a slow, steady motion until the liquid sound has all ceased. About ten minutes is needed to every piece of fruit the size of a lemon or an orange.

Let them stand inside the mold for some time, opening very carefully. If your mold is perfect, very little trimming will be required. With a sharp penknife remove every trace of the rim where the fruit mold joined together, and wash off with benzine, rubbing a little dry powder over the lemon to give it a fresh picked appearance, and painting the stem end with water colors.

Orange is made precisely like the lemon, only orange chrome is used instead of lemon.

Apples are made from the lemon cup or the orange cup, with a little green chrome added to vary the foundation tint, and after molding, trimming and washing off with benzine, paint red with dry carmine, producing a splendid effect.

Peaches molded from the lemon cup, or orange, according to the tint required. The fault with fruit-makers consists in getting too deep a color in the cup, or melted tint, and that always produces the coarse effect of the fruits usually displayed. Peaches should be molded of a very delicate foundation tint, first trimmed while hot from the mold, as little rubbing as possible on them, painted hot, and after the carmine cheeks are rubbed on, (dry powdered carmine being used), white flock should be rubbed all over them, to give them the soft, downy effect.

Plums are painted with ultramarine or indigo blue added to the carmine.

Grapes are made over glass globes, blown for the purpose, first stemmed, then dipped in green or purple wax, and bloomed over with corn meal (sifted on them).

The California grapes are easy to imitate, for the green wax, after dipping, simply needs a little carmine painting outside.

No cross, piece of statuary, or vase, can ever be taken from the molds unless the molds are made in a number of pieces. After running the body of a cross, there must be a standard through the upright before it hardens, to support it. Pour the lower part on afterward.

Molds for Leaves, consisting of a great variety of beautiful formations, from almost every tree or shrub in nature’s garden. Among the number you have to select from are: Oak, maple, myrtle, lily of the valley, ivy, willow, currant, cherry, grape, orange, strawberry, blackberry, chestnut, etc., etc.

Wet the molds before placing them in wax, to prevent them from sticking. It will require but a little time for you to become familiar with the method of cutting and molding the leaves and flowers, and by the aid of your good judgment and exquisite taste you may soon be able to arrange in form almost any leaf or flower you may desire to see produced in wax.

Wires. The wire used for making the stems and branches is covered with silk or cotton, and of different colors, and can be had in coils or by the spool, each spool containing from twenty to twenty-five yards. Paper wire comes in bunches. Silver wire on spools or in skeins.

Steel Molding Pins. The molding pins are used for molding and changing the wax leaves and flowers into form desired, before placing them upon the stem. They are made of steel with glass and porcelain heads. Sizes run from 1 to 8.

Moss can be had by the package, or small sprig, for moss roses.

Miscellaneous Articles. Glass shades, glass balls for imitating currants, grapes, cherries, and other fruit, small sable brushes, and dry or liquid colors for tinting.

The Wax, consisting of a great variety of colors, you can purchase by the sheet. The size of a sheet of wax is 3¼×5¼ inches.

Having given those who desire to do wax work an outline of the art, with the materials used, and the method of applying them, I leave the rest with the learner, who requires taste for the art, and perseverance to acquire excellence.

THE NEW
SPRINKLE WORK

FOR THE BEAUTIFUL DECORATION OF
WOOD AND CHINA ORNAMENTS.

An idea of turning the standard accomplishments of the day into a remunerative, as well as an agreeable occupation for one’s leisure hours, has in the past few years so asserted itself in the refined female world, that the study of wood painting, and etching with the pen, as well as the production of sprinkle work, are now all much sought after.

There is no other handiwork that offers such enjoyment, to those possessed of a sense of the beautiful, as the different methods of wood decoration. While the study and practice requisite in difficult etching, and the decorative embellishment of useful articles with stylish ornamentation, makes one an acknowledged artist, so through the medium of sprinkle work, with the ever new and beautiful effects to be produced by the aid of pressed leaves and flowers, or by the simple method of painting bouquets and landscapes upon wood, there is endless scope for the taste of the amateur.

Sprinkle work upon wood, the subject of this article, is easily acquired. In the manipulation of the materials required, good taste is all that is necessary, although a knowledge of drawing is of great advantage. Besides the possession of the necessary utensils for the production of sprinkle work, one should not fail to secure a rich assortment of leaves, grasses and flowers, adapted to the purpose. A walk in the country in the early spring or autumn will provide one with a goodly quantity of lovely material; or suitable specimens can be procured from some neighboring florist. There are so many fancy articles prepared for this work, upwards of a thousand, that it is well to have a great variety of leaves, grasses and other designs, such as figures, initials, monograms, mottoes, arabesques, butterflies, etc., cut from paper, so that one can produce from the simplest to the most elaborate arrangement. The pressing and drying of leaves is so well known that we need not refer to it here, but it is well to select leaves of perfect form, as the correcting of deficiencies sometimes destroys the entire work. The leaves best adapted for this work are: Ivy, oak, clover, geranium, rose, myrtle, gentian, maple, edelweiss and ferns, avoiding the thick, fleshy foliage plants.

It is advisable for beginners to arrange their designs upon a piece of wood or paper beforehand, to judge of the effect. Bouquets are appropriate for the smaller articles to be decorated, wreaths for larger or round pieces. For those more advanced, Konewka’s silhouettes are recommended. With these and the addition of a little painting, highly artistic effects can be produced.

Utensils. The necessary utensils can be procured in complete outfits, neatly arranged in cases of different sizes. The contents are as follows: One wire sieve, with handle, one coarse painting brush, one fine painting brush, three hundred pins, one small pair of pincers, several china saucers, one tube prepared Vandyke brown, one drawing pen, one Herbarium with artificial leaves and space for the preservation of natural leaves and flowers, one envelope containing initials, six models of leaves.

In working with the sieve and brush, an irregular distribution of color is made almost impossible. The principal colors used in sprinkle work are the following: Prepared sepia, Vandyke brown, black, and dark green. A mixture of black and brown will produce quite a number of shades. The colors used are water colors, specially prepared, and come either in tubes in a moist state, or in cakes which require moistening. Great care should be taken not to get the color too thick.

Process of Sprinkling on Wood. After the materials, leaves, etc., requisite for the work have been selected, take the article to be decorated and score it gently with a small quantity of powdered pumice stone, applied with a flannel pad, this frees it from any roughness or dust that may have come upon it through handling or transportation. Next take a clean cloth, and wipe all the powder off. Now prepare the color to be used in a small porcelain saucer, above all, being careful it is sufficiently diluted to flow freely, not muddy; about the size of a pea taken from the tube is sufficient quantity of color to a teaspoonful of water. The dried leaves or designs are then fastened to the wooden article, by means of pins; this proceeding must be carefully carried out, the points, sides and stems must be well secured, and lie perfectly flat upon the object. In wreaths, the stems should be so arranged that they come together in the center, in order to accomplish a pretty ensemble. Now take the sieve in one hand and the brush in the other, dip the brush lightly into the diluted color, that it may not be too heavily charged with the color, press it gently upon a piece of paper, and let it glide back and forth over the sieve, holding the latter in a horizontal position above the object. In this manner a fine shower is produced, which is kept up until the proper shade is acquired. Blots, and where the color has run together, should be removed immediately with blotting paper.

The final arrangement of the wreath should be such that the leaves and grasses which extend out furthest, and are to have the darkest shade, should be fastened last, over the others, so that they can be first and more easily removed with the pincers. After the top layer of leaves, etc., has been removed, where spaces are now perfectly white, the design should be examined, whether any of the others have been displaced, proceed with the sprinkle work as before, and remove from time to time, the leaves in such a manner that those which are to be left entirely white, are left to be removed last of all; the others are removed first, according to the shade required. The spaces of those removed last are also spattered, but very lightly, so that they may not be too glaring.

The beginner will no doubt content herself to produce only such work in one shade; with more experience a variety of shades may be attempted. Those having more practice will not be satisfied with these alone, but after the bouquet or garland is finished in different shades, will by means of carefully spattering the separate leaves, seek to bring out a fine shading and thereby produce a more perfect work; in this case, the entire design, with the exception of the part of the leaf to be shaded, must be covered with paper, after it is perfectly dry, so that the color is not distributed further than the part desired. Through this later and more difficult work the whole is brought out with a plastic effect from the surface, while on the other hand the separate layers of the leaves removed would appear flat and monotonous in their extensions.

Lastly, the pen is taken, and what the foregoing process does not supply, is put in by hand, to complete the work. Take the same color, only thicker, and draw in the veins, and if necessary the entire outlines, to bring out the work more boldly. This being finished, the cleaning of the utensils should not be overlooked. The dried leaves place carefully in the herbarium, the brush and sieve wash thoroughly in water, the finished article allow to dry in a room (not too warm), and after a day or two the varnishing and polishing may take place, in order to give it, aside from durability and practical purpose, a more brilliant finish and higher value to that which has been accomplished with such care.

Varnishing and Polishing. Procure a bottle of “wood varnish,” prepared expressly for the purpose. This should be applied to smaller articles, as its peculiar properties make the polishing unnecessary. This varnish is applied by means of a soft flat brush, in a room entirely free from dust, and of warm temperature; the brush strokes should be made from the center of the article towards its edges, and according to its shape. Repeat from six to eight times. Flat articles more readily take the polish than round ones. Before putting on the separate coats, the previous one should be thoroughly dry. After the last coat is dry, apply a little powdered pumice stone, by means of a moist pad, and make the uneven places in the varnish smooth by rubbing. When a perfectly smooth surface is obtained, (this manipulation is omitted in varnishing articles that are turned, because unnecessary), then apply the varnish once more in the same manner, for the last time, and the article will thereby obtain a glossy wood polish. This is left in a temperate room, free from dust, for two days, when it will be thoroughly dry and hardened, and ready to be turned over for the object it is intended. As before mentioned, we advise this method only for articles of small compass. Tables, etc., we advise to have finished by a regular furniture polisher, for the smooth finish cannot be accomplished by an amateur. It is easily conceived that by this process really wonderful effects may be produced, when the artist has taste, and devotes care and time to the work.

Sprinkle Work on China. It may not be generally known that the same effects as produced on wood can also be produced on china ware, the manipulation being slightly different. Instead of water-colors, the ceramic or enamel colors are used, (Dresden or LaCroix). They come in tubes, in a moist state, and are diluted with spirits of turpentine, with a few drops of oil of anise or cloves. Those doing both wood and china sprinkle work will do well to secure an extra brush and sieve, which are to be had separate from the outfit boxes, and use these for the mineral colors only. The leaves and grasses are fastened by means of dissolved gum arabic, being careful to scrape off any particles of the gum that may adhere to the china after the leaves have been removed, before sprinkling over the blank spaces. When the leaves are placed upon the article singly, and the desired shade is produced, lay it in a warm place, over a register if possible, and the leaves will come off as the gum separates from the ware, when the sprinkling may be resumed, and the proper shading given to heighten the effect.

Veins are drawn in with a crowquill pen, but the color must be properly mixed to prevent it spreading. Really beautiful decorations can be made by using ferns and maiden hair to ornament tiles, flower pots, etc. If the leaves, such as the maple, and others that grow bright with the first frosts of autumn, are to have their natural tints, the piece is taken to be “fired,” which fastens the background, so that their colors can be washed in without fear of injury to the groundwork. The most useful colors for monochrome work in the Lacroix colors, are the following: Brown, No. 4 or 17, sepia, brown-green No. 6, dark green No. 7, Victoria blue, and violet of iron. If the Dresden colors (Muller & Hennig’s) are used, which are preferable on account of their rich and soft appearance, the following are recommended: Dark brown No. 30, chocolate-brown No. 36, sepia No. 28, olive green No. 11, shading green No. 10, and dark blue No. 13. When the work is finished, take it to the china decorator and have it “fired.”

It is not necessary to use the best French china for sprinkle work, as it is almost entirely covered with color.

Ladies who do not paint on china, but desire something different from the ordinary stamped work, that is all that can be had in decorated ware for common use, will find this an easy and delightful way of ornamenting the white ware with some favorite flower or fern, and so have something original, and that can be readily duplicated, should any piece be broken, one of the objections to the stamped sets being the difficulty and expense in replacing odd pieces.

To those affected by the odor of turpentine, we would recommend the use of Hancock & Son’s Worcester moist and water-colors for china.

Faience. Ivory white and other soft wares will answer, and the result will always be a pleasing one if a little care is taken in the execution of this branch of decoration.