Page:Embroidery and Fancy Work.djvu/71

Rh to be used, but cards, panels, and even a good quality of wrapping paper will do. For real study, however, a block of Whatman's paper, costing according to size from 25 cents to $2.95, is decidedly the most desirable. The blocks are preferable to paper in sheets, as it obviates the need of stretching. This paper is very absorbent, so that you must have your color mixed so that it will flow freely. Have a piece of rag by you to wipe your brushes on after washing them.

The following directions for painting on velvet are compiled from the "Art Interchange":

"Cotton velvet or velveteen of a close pile or make is preferable to silk velvet. The colors used are the ordinary water colors, mixed with veluntine or gum dragon, sal volatile, or spirits of wine, so as to prevent their running into each other. The brushes are those known as scrubs; they are made of bristles and have flat, bushy ends, instead of pointed ones. As the velvet cannot be touched by the hand while working on it without spoiling the pile, a hand-rest, such as is described in the chapter on China Painting, is needed. It must be long enough to extend entirely across the velvet.

"Pounce your design on the velvet according to the directions on page 63. Mix up in various small saucers the tints required, adding to each a little veluntine, or gum dragon, or either of the other mediums named. Make the colors perfectly smooth and as thick as weak cream, and do not attempt more than two shades of a color. Dip the brush into the darkest tint of a color, and well fill it, letting any superfluous color drain off on blotting paper. Hold the brush upright over the velvet and paint by dabbing it on the velvet; never dab the color quite to the edge of a leaf or petal, but take a clean dry brush, and soften it off gradually there. Put in all the darker parts first, and never work over them or near them till they are quite dry; then take another clean