Petals of flowers may be cut out of colored velvet, and arranged on the cloth or velvet, if the young needlewoman has sufficient taste to form a flower.
The work may be done entirely of cachemire and gold on cloth, if a more expensive material is beyond the worker’s means.
15.—EMBROIDERY IN FEATHERS.
Stretch your material for the ground on a frame. Cover the back or under side of your feathers with thin gum, to keep the tiny plumage together, and let them dry. Take a sharp pair of scissors, and cut the feathers into the shape of the petals you require; lay them separately on your pattern, and tack them firmly on the silk or cloth with sewing silk of the same color. Work stems, tendrils, and centres with silk of the color required. Of course you must arrange your petals or leaves according to your pattern.
Any white feathers dyed are suitable for this work.
16.—CORK WORK.
Very beautiful articles can be made by ingenious boys and girls, from cork bark. Those of our readers who have only seen cork work in the shape of common bottle corks, will not be attracted by the title of this chapter. But all who have seen, either at home or abroad, the exquisite models of castles, old ruins, churches, and many other picturesque objects, made entirely from this material, will welcome a few simple directions for this work.
We will first speak of the cork bark, as it may not be generally known that cork is not indigenous, but is the soft, elastic bark of a species of oak tree, that grows abundantly in the northern part of France, Spain, and Italy. When the tree is fifteen years old the barking is commenced, and is repeated at intervals of eight years, the bark improving with every operation. The cork is stripped from the tree in July and August; it is then piled up in water under heavy stones, to flatten it, after which it is fire dried, and packed in bales for exportation. The cork cutters divide the sheets of cork in narrow strips, and after cutting them the proper length, round them with a thin, sharp-bladed knife into a cylindrical form. The cork tree and uses of its bark were known to the Greeks and Romans.