BIRD'S-EYE MAPLE.
To my mind, this is the most beautiful of our native woods, and it is a shame that it is often cut down for firewood; however, it seems to be growing in favor among the furniture-makers, and is far more generally used in the interior of horse-cars and railway-cars than it was ten years ago. The colors used in representing maple are raw sienna, raw umber, a little Vandyke brown or ivory black and a little burnt sienna, to be added to the color when over-graining or putting in the pencil-work and the eyes.
Plate 19.
BIRD'S-EYE MAPLE, OVERGRAINED.
Plate 20.
CHESTNUT.
Plate 21.
BIRD'S-EYE MAPLE, MOTTLED, READY FOR THE EYES.
This wood is almost invariably imitated in water color, as oil is too slow in drying to be used with any success. Stale beer is the best vehicle with which to apply the color. The implements needed are a good sponge, a piece of soft cotton rag or chamois leather, a brush to apply the color, a large and a small mottler or cut tool, a badger blender, an overgrainer and fitch tool, and a camel's-hair pencil. First dampen the ground-work over with the sponge, which has been wrung out of clean water, or of beer and water; then rub in the color, doing a panel or a small piece at a time, and while wet wipe out the high lights and put in the shadows with the sponge or the mottler or the backs of the fingers, or draw the color up into small bunches or clusters with the blender or mottler and blend lightly crosswise. When the lights and the shadows are dry, the eyes are put in. By observing the real wood it will be found that the eyes invariably appear in the darker portions of the grain, and that the shadows seem to slope away from them. Very often the shadows all slant one way and the eyes in the same way; this must be taken into consideration in imitating maple. Do not have all the eyes and all the shadows slanting the same way in different panels, as is often seen in the interior of cars, but reverse the style, bringing the opposite panels to balance with each other.
The best manner of imitating the eyes is a matter of doubt among practical workmen. The amateur grainer will tell you that he can put them in by striking the ends of his fingers against the color while wet; this is the way the wood is most frequently misrepresented, and such work looks feeble compared with that done by either of the following methods: After the lights and shadows are dry take some of the dark color from the bottom of your pot and add to it a little burnt sienna; the color should be put in a shallow vessel, such as a saucer. Thin the color, so that it works freely; then take a medium sized camel's-hair pencil which has been "docked" by cutting off the hair about one-quarter of an inch from the quill with a sharp knife, leaving the ends of the hair perfectly square. Then burn out the centre of the brush with a red-hot wire, leaving the hair round the circumference with which to represent the "eyes." The pencil is then dipped in the darker color, and the eyes are put in where desired.
Another way is to cut a piece from a block of soft rubber, make a hole through it and with a sharp knife trim the edges of the rubber till it can be used to take up the dark color. Make the eyes in the same manner as with the pencil brush. The eyes can be put in with a small pencil by describing circles, but care must be taken to have them of uniform size, or nearly so. Another—and probably the best—way is to take a thin piece of chamois leather or a soft piece of cotton rag and wet it in the graining-color; then take a piece of wood four or five inches long and not over half an inch thick; whittle it round and taper it to a point at one end; then wrap the rag or the leather around the stick, keeping a folded edge at the sharp end of the stick; and when the cloth or leather has made one circuit around the stick at the sharp end, wind it farther up the stick, so that only one circle of the folded rag or leather is at the sharp end of the stick. Some of the thick color may then be placed in about the middle of the rag, and by keeping the rag or the leather well wet above the thick color and squeezing the rag as often as necessary, so that the color descends toward the point of the stick, the eyes may be rapidly and accurately put in by striking the end of the folded rag or leather against the work; and a pair of panels may easily be done by once filling the rag with color. This method has the advantage of making any sized "eye," from the largest to the smallest, by simply altering the thickness of the folds; or the eyes may be made in any shape desired, from a circle to an oval. After the eyes are put in the work is over-grained, the color mostly being burnt sienna. The heart grains are put in with a camel's-hair pencil. Some grainers use a crayon pencil for this purpose, which should be soaked in beer or vinegar and used moist; the various over-grainers are also used in putting in the heart grains. The "eyes" should always be noticed—that is, the over-grainer should describe some part of a circle in passing the "eyes," so as to have them in harmony with the general features of the wood. All water-color work should be lightly gone over when dry with the hand, to remove any roughness in the graining-color. Some grainers prefer to touch up the high lights around the "eyes" with some of the ground color after the graining is dry, but it must be done very carefully or it shows badly.
Plate 22.
BIRD'S-EYE MAPLE WITH THE EYES.
Plate 23.
CHESTNUT.