Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/211

  rough wood, the sideboards quite plain, very often not even varnished. Now these can be made really most artistic in appearance by ornamenting them with ferns in splash work. To make sure of doing them well the boards should be done before being put up, but when that is impossible care must be taken not to blotch the ferns. One of the handsomest bush fireplaces I ever saw, the sides were ornamented with a very small-leafed creeper and flower running right up to the mantelshelf. The flowers were coloured with Judson's dye in different shades of blue; at the bottom there was a group of ferns from which the creeper rose. The whole was varnished a very light colour, and the effect at a short distance was beautiful. There are other ways of ornamenting the sides of a fireplace, for instance, they can be draped with bright chintz and tied back like window curtains; this looks very well when the fire place is overlarge. The drape for the shelf can be made in a variety of ways, from plain chintz with a fringe to Indian needlework or point-lace; the latter I think somewhat out of place in any but a drawing-room used only as such. A pretty drape can be made of ticking worked in wool or filoselle in three or four different stitches, or all in feather-stitch, according to inclination. The handsomest I had was of velvet half-an-inch wide sewn on to the ticking, and small flowers worked upon it. The slips of velvet were of three colours—purple, yellow, and black; on the latter pansies were worked, on the yellow violets, and daisies on the purple. Between each stripe of velvet there was one of gold braid; and the whole was lined with blue silk and edged with deep gold fringe; it improves the drape to be scalloped. Drapery for brackets can be made in any of the above ways, but by far the prettiest brackets are worked in crewels on cloth, merino, silk, &c.; almost any piece of self-coloured material will do.

A Screen.—If you can get a man to make the framework of this all the better; if not, you need to make it very carefully yourself. The most difficult part are the feet, or supports for it to stand on; they must be made like a clothes-horse—indeed, an old clothes-horse makes a very good screen altogether, it only needs being made higher. Black linen is a very good foundation to stretch across your frame. It must be tacked tightly all round, then have Christmas cards or bright pictures of any kind carefully cut out and pasted on with starch. They should be arranged to fit to each other and be grouped with taste—pictures out of old illustrated papers can be used. When all are dry and the screen covered, the whole can be varnished; a shilling's worth of varnish will more than do it. Photographic views look very well on a screen, better, I think, than the cards. A screen is very useful to hide an unsightly door, or to stand in a draught.

Fire Screens are very easily made with the wings of birds spread out and securely fastened in that position, and the tail feathers arranged so as to hide the join, the head of the bird being fixed in the centre. I made a pair of parrots' wings in this way, and had good cane handles put into them; they were looked upon as curiosities. Common fans and screens are easily and quickly made by cutting out the shape in cardboard, covering each piece with chintz, and sewing them securely together. They look well and are just as useful as a palm fan. The handle can be made firm by passing it through one of the boards as one would stick a needle into a needlebook. If the screens are made of dull-coloured wings they can be brightened by being dipped in some Judson's dye; this makes them all one colour, and really very well they look.

Skeleton Leaves.—Most people have seen groups of skeleton leaves, but few know how beautiful they can be made by the help of the diamond paints. There are, I believe, several ways of making skeleton leaves, but, in case some of my readers are ignorant