In cutting the paper the right size, allow of it being turned over the top and bottom edges of the case, and should there be battens on the box (strips of wood to strengthen the case), I should not attempt to paste a long piece of paper the length of the case, but first of all cut strips to cover these battens (be careful to get the paper well pressed into the angles), allowing enough to come a little way on to the case itself. You then cut pieces to fit into the spaces, taking the edges close up to the battens. The end pieces should be put on last, and should be cut just to fit the width but turned inside the top of the box and underneath.
It would be a good plan to line the case with good stout brown paper, previously sizing the wood. The sizing, I may tell you, makes the paper stick well.
If you like to put the mouldings at edge of lid and at bottom, you can do so now, previously staining and varnishing them. Screw them on with long fine screws in preference to nailing.
No end of useful articles can be made by covering them with this Japanese gilt paper. It is to be had in many patterns and with colours introduced in some of them.
A word or two now as to the decorated panels. You will see that they are of an ornamental rather than a natural character, and the designs can be repeated by reversing them, which will save the trouble of drawing fresh ones for each panel. They can be carried out by outlining the design in vandyke brown mixed with a little copal varnish and a little turps to thin the colour, and a background can be floated in transparently, putting more varnish with the colour. The plain wood will then show through the design.
You can of course paint the designs in simple quiet colours, but I think it would look in better taste to treat the panels in one tone of colour. It need not be brown; burnt sienna with a background of raw sienna, Indian red and burnt sienna for background, Prussian blue with a background of that colour and raw sienna to make it green, are some of the combinations that suggest themselves.
Of course you will understand that you must draw out the designs the size you wish to reproduce them and transfer them to the wood before you start the colouring.
The designs would look well carried out in poker work. By that I mean not an ordinary poker heated in a fire, but one of those “pyrographers” sold expressly for the purpose, in which a platinum point is kept red hot by a spray of some inflammable liquid ejected on to it. These instruments cost about 10s. 6d. each, but the most intricate design can be wrought with them, and most excellent decorative effects produced; but I daresay most of the readers of The Girl’s Own Paper interested in art work, are quite familiar with pyrography. It is not to be despised as an art, as those who have seen good work can testify.