If a stain is required, one that is sold in bottles would be suitable, but a little vandyke brown, ground in water, and applied with a sponge, answers the purpose. Sometimes, as in the case of the table top (see [Fig. 42], p. 36), it is a good plan to stain the wood before nailing on the pattern work, or there will be danger, if the sticks are dark in colour, of the lighter wood showing through.
If the rustic work is intended to be placed out of doors, it should be given two or three coats of hard outside varnish.
The rustic flower-holder for table decoration, shown by [Fig. 7], consists simply of a gipsy tripod formed with six rustic sticks, put together in the form shown, and tied with a length of bass. There is no attempt made at finish, but the sticks must be firmly tied together at the joints, and the ends of the bass can be left, either hanging loose or tied in a bow. The holder for the flowers is a cocoanut shell, which has been sawn in two, so as to leave one part a sort of cup or egg shape; three holes are bored with a bradawl at equal distances round the edge, and it is suspended from the tripod with three more pieces of the bass, which completes the arrangement. Of course, any small receptacle can be used in place of the cocoanut shell, but that, perhaps, carries out the rustic appearance the best, and is very easily obtained. [Fig. 8] is an attempt to show the tripod when decorated.
The rustic hall-stand shown by Figs. 9 to 11 was made actually from branches and twigs of an old apple tree. The uprights and principal cross-pieces are 7/8 in. thick, and the criss-cross pieces are ½ in. thick. The bottom is made of four pieces 1½ in. thick. The longer ones measure 1 ft. 8 in., and the shorter ones 1 ft. 2 in.; they are nailed together in such a manner that the ends at the two front corners each cross and project 2½ in. The front uprights are 2 ft. high, the back ones 2 ft. 2 in.; the longer cross-pieces are 1 ft. 8 in., the shorter 11 in. The ends intersect and project 3 in. at each of the front corners; only the longest piece projects 3 in. at the back corners, the shorter pieces being cut off flush with the frame to allow of the stand fitting close to a wall.
Fig. 9.
Fig. 10.
These cross-pieces are nailed to the uprights to allow the top ends of the latter to project 2 in. above them, this bringing the measurement of the oblong inner framework to 1 ft. 10 in. by 1 ft. 2 in. The thin pieces are nailed on as shown in [Fig. 9], being interlaced as much as possible. The back of the stand is treated in a similar manner. The whole of the wood is used as rough as possible, the bark being retained, with the knots, etc.; the ends are, however, pared off smooth with a chisel. Two coats of varnish finish the stand, save for the addition of a receptacle to catch the drainings from umbrellas, and for this the stand illustrated has a painted baking-tin A ([Fig. 11]).
