Window Draperies With Stenciled Border. Designed and Executed by a School Girl
[Plate IV]
The Stencil Bands.—By studying the illustrations accompanying this section and by experimenting with the charcoal or soft pencil, it will be seen that in a stencil design the dark spots which stand for the color in the finished work are completely separated from one another by bands of varying widths.
A stencilled pattern—portion of pillow cover
These bands, or bridges, as they are called, serve to hold the stencil together and are connected throughout the design. Though they may be as wide as one desires, it is seldom wise to make them much narrower than one eighth of an inch, as they are easily broken; and, unless carefully pinned down when stencilling, the paint is liable to run under them and ruin the work. In a block print design no connection of the light or separation of the dark parts has to be considered. In the illustration of the stencil observe that the dark and light are reversed as compared with the stencilled pattern—i. e., the dark represents the stencil paper, the light the openings through which the paint is applied.
The stencil for this pattern
The Complete Unit.—It will be readily understood that a border may be made up by repetition of one unit which is a complete thing in itself. The unit in such a case may be made very long and narrow, so that in repeating it along the vertical edge of a curtain it produces a narrow band, while along the horizontal edge the band is broad. A border worked out in this way, with perfectly straight and practically continuous margins, is very structural in character, emphasizing, as it does, the vertical and horizontal edges of the drapery. The effect is strong and dignified. The corner in this kind of border presents no difficulty.