Page:The Art of Modeling Flowers in Wax.djvu/15

 flowers round in red, white, or blue. To all artists this is repulsive, and whence could have originated such a barbarous custom (I will not call it taste) is a matter of wonder. Certainly not from Paris, where flowers are one of the necessaries of life; nor London, where they are used more in garden or hothouse decorations than agrémens for the drawing-room. The true artist will not degrade art by following "the fashion." This may suit the modes of millinery, but Art should not wear the paint or mince the gait of Fashion.

A pair of scissors, light and thin, such as used by surgeons, are the best adapted for the purpose; they should be thin in the blades and rather loose in the rivets, so as to cut easily round the paper pattern; a cup to hold water; a pallet; three or four steel pins, with bead heads of different sizes; six or eight bristle brushes; two or three small sable pencils; three rings of green wire of different thicknesses; two wooden molds for forming bell-shaped flowers, such as the Lily of the Valley or Stephanotas; a small quantity of gum arabic dissolved in pure water; some white wax in sheets of a thin texture, also some of the extra thick or double wax; a few