Albums, Portfolios, Book-covers. These are panels, and afford an infinite range of design and effects in wood-carving. They may be very beautifully and easily ornamented in mere stamping and outlining (vide Lesson [II].), or by putting in diaper grounds, or basket-work, or by very low relief carving, in which case there should be a border in a little higher relief to protect the pattern from being rubbed, Fig. [70].
Canoes. In many countries large or real canoes are made from one piece of wood and elaborately carved. Very pretty miniature canoes may be made from one to three feet in length from any kind of wood, and covered with any kind of ornamentation. It is not necessary to excavate them from a single block or log, as they may be made from two or more pieces. They form useful receptacles for many objects.
Fig. 69.
Panels of Doors. These might be generally ornamented. Every kind of wood-carving is applicable to them, but it should be remembered that for all such decoration a large, free, and bold style is absolutely necessary, and that it is unwise to make mural work, which should be visible at great distances, out of pretty flowers or too delicate work. A room with good bold door-panels, wainscot, or dado and a frieze, seems half furnished, while trifling and feeble ornaments detract from such appearance. The great secret of the attractiveness of mediæval and savage decoration is its energy. Even eccentricity and grotesqueness lose all that is repulsive in them when they are simply and vigorously set forth.
Carved patterns in low relief may be applied to door-panels.
