Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/671

 No. 4. A winter scene. An embroidered picture in which linens of various colours are utilised to produce the desired effects shade beloved of Leonardo da Vinci. One line of gold thread outlines each halo. Such a picture could be worked by a careful needlewoman without special tuition, the design being painted from a photograph of one of the pictures of the old masters. A good effect is obtained by mounting this picture on a slightly raised block of wood, like the wooden button mould, but 4 inches in diameter, the exact size of the picture. Such pictures have frequently been used to hang over the children's cots, or can be set into the woodwork itself if the bed is being made to order. This picture would be eminently suitable for the cover of a favourite Bible or Prayer- book, and the skilful Worker would probably surround it with a frame of gold thread in brick-stitch, and fill the corners for the oblong book with a small diaper pattern, or with emblems, such as lilies or small crosses of the Maltese shape. Such a work Would interest the amateur bookbinder, who, in attempting embroidered examples, so often fails to obtain a good result through the poverty in design of the embroidery. The personal element in needlework pictures is so attractive that many women are now working their oWn or their children's portraits. The first step towards this delightful type of embroidery is to visit the studio of one of those photographers who make a specialty of the quaint eighteenth century background of garden vista or stone-seated terrace, which lends itself so well as a frame for a Gainsborough or Rornney frock of soft satin muslin and flowing chiffon scarf. This picture is either printed on to sensitised silk, dull white or old ivory in colour, or it is copied on to the 645 NIBDLIWOflK silk or satin in water-colour. The lines are then embroidered on to the silk, and the IX)rtrait worked in stitchcry. In such cases the face, neck, hands and arms arc nearly always put in colour-tint with the brush, the dress, foliage, and ground alone being embroidered. Painstaking workers also put in the sky in stitchos, but this is optional. Plcturcii on Linen Atiother method of embroidering pictures utilises different coloured linens in giving the effect. The illustrations Nos. 2 and 4 show examples of this type. In No. 4 the sky is of grey linen, and shows between the darning of orange, golden and red rays of the setting sun, which form so excellent a hack- ground for the bare-branched trees. At the horizon white linen is joined on. Grey silk gives the effect of snow on the distant field. This is lightened in the middle dis- tance, and the white linen is shown beneath the feet of the red-clad figure in the fore- ground. With these simple materials real atmosphere is obtained, and an artistic picture the result. The interior, with the peasant knitting (No. 2), is another example of the joining of coloured linens and the utilising of their colour in the embroidery scheme. Green linen surrounds the window and forms the shutter. The window itself is of white linen, the Wall behind the figure of grey. There is blue hnen beneath the window. The figure being worked " solid," it is immaterial what canvas is beneath the closely set stitches. The broad effect of sunhght streaming in from the curtained window is cleverly carried out, and the peasant cap, toil-roughened hands and clog- shod feet and patient face accord well in simphcity mth the artistic setting of the pathetic figure in its simple environment. A Quickly •wrought Example The last example is a monochrome study on brownish canvas. No stitches indicate the sky, so that vve judge that it is cloudless, and the scarcely perceptible ripple of the water bears out this fact. E.xcellent effect is obtained by the strong, dark, horizontal line of the fishing-boat mast in the fore- ground. The effect of middle distance is obtained by the medium tones of the masts and sails of the large schooner in the background ; the wharf and buildings show almost white. Eight shades of brown, from darkest umber to nearly white, are used ; and the whole picture might be sketched in and >%t)rked from a coloured picture, or from the scene itself, in a day. Many women are having colour sketches of favourite nooks in their gardens worked out in needlecraft. The idea is essentially feminine and dainty, and is hkely to be very largely adopted by those whose refinement and artistic sense lead them to recognise the beauty of essentially feminine achievement.