Page:Embroidery and Fancy Work.djvu/40

36 work, and practise will enable you to work with either. Care should be taken to keep the frame in such a position that the worker will not be obliged to stoop.

Very much of the beauty of all varieties of embroidery depends on the harmonious arrangement of the colors, and this cannot be taught in any manual. To some, the color sense seems utterly, or in large part, wanting. Such can only copy. But with many a few hints will start them on the right road. In embroidery, the coloring must always be largely modified by the surroundings of the design, the background, etc. While the design should always be so far conventionalized as to be perfectly flat, the colors must often be still further conventionalized. The following remarks from the Art Interchange Manual on "Filled in Embroidery," will prove suggestive:—

"In coloring in decorative embroidery, unity and harmony are more desirable than contrast. For a beginner especially, unity should be the aim; contrasts are very fine, but they can only be correctly carried out by those who are skilful with the needle, and who have a natural talent for, or have had experience in, the use of colors. It is better to begin with two shades, and to use those correctly, than to attempt the mixture of a variety of shades and hues."

"There can be as well defined unity in coloring as in designing an ornamental pattern. One scheme of color can run through an entire design. As a flower or leaf in the drawing is taken as a centre around which others cluster, so a color can be selected as the central point to which all the shades must relate. To follow out this idea, we will suppose curtains are to be made of a peacock blue fabric. Blue in this case would be the ruling color, and all the greens used in working on it must be bluish in hue; if a flower be added to the pattern, it must represent the primary in its purity, and no colors