Embroidered Mat Designs.[1]
It is better not to decorate a mat at all than to have the design ill fitting. Design is the pleasing arrangement of all spaces unfilled as well as filled. Decoration is for beauty wholly. If all the spaces are not well arranged, the design is not beautiful. If the design is startling or gaudy in color, it is not beautiful. If the arrangement of colors is inharmonious, the design is not beautiful. All mats cannot be in the same proportion and suitable for all designs. [Plate LXV], for instance, shows a long design; it requires a long mat, and would not look well on a square one.
All mats here considered are about ⅛ inch to ¼ inch in width of straw. Some of the designs are used exactly as they are, counting a straw for a square which represents a straw in the design; the others are double in size and contain four times as many squares in the weave as in the design. In such cases twice the count of the design will always give the right number for the weave.
In circular mats the directions are given in inches. The sizes of the mats should be taken into consideration, but a variance of a few inches will not matter if that variance always makes the mat larger rather than smaller. In these mats more is left to the judgment of the weaver than in rectangular mats. Designs should never be crowded on circular mats. Repeated groups should always be made exactly alike.
In the color notes, a series of colors set off by commas indicates that each series may be used alone for the whole design. Often the deep colors, especially No. 1, have been left out, as the effect of a very dark color on a very light mat is often startling. Designs on mats or hangings should not be more conspicuous than the mat itself, but should rather present a complete and harmonious appearance when both mat and design are considered as a whole.
Circular Mats.
Design A.
The straws of a circular mat cannot be counted and then divided equally by numbers, as straws are continually added at irregular intervals as the circumference is being reached. Hence, the only way to place designs on a mat of this kind is by dividing the whole mat with a diameter through its center.