Page:Embroidery and Fancy Work.djvu/132

128 necessarily expensive. For coarse work you can use scraps of leather which can be obtained at a low price from a book bindery; scrape or rasp these to powder, and mix thoroughly with paper and dextrine paste or patent knotting. Roll perfectly smooth with a wooden ruler. Draw or transfer a design to it, and depress the background as in repoussée work. Or you may have the design either cut in intaglio in wood,or in the shape of a plaster mould well hardened with gum arabic and alum. Press your soft leather into this, hammering it gently into every part of the mould.

The leather is softened by being soaked in a pot or pan of alum water, made in the proportion of a table spoonful of alum to a pint of water. Salt may be substituted for the alum. Soak the leather from ten minutes to ten hours, as you find desirable. Experience will teach you when it is in the right condition. The water may be either hot or cold; in this, also, "judgment" being the only guide."

Another easy way of ornamenting it is to cut a pattern with the fret saw from sheet-iron, brass, or zinc, and press it into the soft leather. It can be dyed a good black, and when thoroughly dry will be extremely hard and almost unbreakable.

For finer work, sheets of basil or skiver are used, either alone or in connection with papier maché or leather scraps.

A plate or a small wooden bowl may be used as a foundation. Lay on it a piece of soft, damp paper to prevent the subsequent work from sticking to the plate. Then cut from fifteen to twenty pieces exactly fitting the plate, from soft newspaper, and with dextrine or even with good flour paste, paste them together, keeping them as smooth as possible.

Have ready some sand tied up in a piece of stout cloth, and use it as a mallet to make the layers lie