Stencilling.—The use of stencils is familiar to most people in one form or other. Ladies frequently use stencil plates in which their names or initials are cut out to mark linen. A commoner use is that of metal plates in which the letters of the alphabet are cut out in thin metal for use in labelling trunks, boxes in commerce, with the name and destination of the owner, merchant, or goods. It is possible that a very delicate form of stencilling is familiar to many of my readers, which is used to multiply copies of letters, circulars or notices to go through the post. The machine consists of a handle to which is attached a small wheel which has projecting from its rim a series of sharp points. The letters are formed by writing with this wheel. As the wheel passes over the paper the points pierce small round holes, sufficiently close to each other to indicate the letters, while the paper between the holes are bridges or ties holding the inside of the loops firmly to the rest of the sheet. This writing becomes the stencil. To obtain copies, the stencil is laid over a sheet of paper, and a brush charged with colour is rubbed across. The colour passes through the holes to the paper beneath, and the copy is secured. In making the metal stencil plates of letters, ties or bridges have to be left to prevent the inner parts of the letters becoming solid like a printer’s. Such letters as I, F, J, T, and some others, can be given in their complete form, though in the case of the F, it would be better, that is, the stencil plate would be firmer, if a tie were left where the top horizontal line joins the perpendicular stem. In cutting stencils this matter of tying or supporting all the interior or enclosed parts of the composition is very important, and should never be lost sight of. It is better to err in an excess of ties, than to risk the falling to pieces of the whole by insufficient support. The reader will perceive that if the white parts of the loops in the letter B are not connected with the outer surrounding whites, they would fall out, and the letter would stencil solid, while if only one tie is given, the loops would get out of position, as the paper swells with the moisture of the paint. Instances of these ties will be found in nearly all the illustrations, particularly in the Mooresque design, Fig. 2. It is the aim of the designer to make these ties a part of the composition, and an assistance in the effect of the whole. But cases will occur where the composition must be ruthlessly cut across as in the Greek design, Fig. 1, where in one repeat the central portions are shown with ties, and in the other in its complete form. The restoration is made with the brush afterwards. The ties should be broad or narrow according to the strength of the material of which the stencil is made, and the number of repeats for which it will be used.
Fig. 1. Frieze or Dado.
Fig. 1a. Altered for Vertical Use.
Stencilling is employed as an easy method of repeating the same ornament, figures, or letters, with exactness and speed. If I desired to use the simple Greek composition Fig. 1, as a frieze in the study in which I am writing, not by any means a large room, being about 14 feet by 11 feet, it would be necessary to repeat it between 90 and 100 times. If I had to draw this in by hand, and laboriously paint it, probably the enthusiasm for art which projected the scheme would be frittered away long before I completed it, and I should throw it up in disgust and call in the paperhanger to put on the usual wall furnishing. But if the design were cut out in stencil, it would take but little if any longer to stencil the frieze than it would for the hanger to paper it, and the scheme being carried out in the other details, I should have the satisfaction and enjoyment of a room specially decorated to suit my own taste, and unique according to the originality of the design.
Fig. 2. Mooresque Design for Dado.