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Show Laura B. Starr Writes a Most Delightful Art Letter lor Those Who Are To Do the Work ALWAYS FAINT ON AN EASEL. Two Tasteful Designs Patience and In- dustry Necessary to Success in the Art. 1 -TtTf tar more comfortable to3opofter pictures on an easel steadily fixed and a maul stick than on a table, for the fumes of the burning wood or leather will be found, sometimes, to be very painful to the eyes. After the outlines are sketched and the UU.THER PORTFOLIO WITH BURNED IN DB-SIGN. DB-SIGN. lights and shadows settled, the irons herald be placed in a good cinder fire; when they are red hot tliey are taken out and all the darkest parts burned in, the lighter shading being worked as the Irons cool. The drawing should be tumped in as in a chalk head, and lines avoided as much as possible, or a spotty effect is produced. If a head, size 14 by 12 inches, is being I done it will take about two hours to roughly shade it in; after that the details, de-tails, such as the eyebrows, nostrils and mouth, may be worked in by sharp touches touch-es with the smaller irons. Now the background back-ground must be burned in with the poker and an appropriate tool, working toward the outline until it stands out in full re- lief. This is a tedious process and takes several hours before it looks a dark brown even color, which is only obtained ob-tained by nibbing the poker constantly ever the inequalities. The artist must have patience and not 1w easily discouraged, even though the picture, looks a confused mass for the first few hours, which it is sure to do, until 'the high lights are scratched on with a penknife, when a good effect is at onco produced. The penknife is quite as important a factor as the iron; by it any irregularities irregulari-ties of outlino are corrected and the high lights and gradations of tone ob-. ob-. tained. It will also be fonnd invaluable for working hair and fur. It must bo clearly borne in mind that this work is a rough art, and looks best when so treated; consequently the panels should not be placed too near the eye. A very effective frieze may be made for p. library by using a series of portraits of prominent literary men of the day, burned in on sycamore panels and varnished. var-nished. For a smoking room grotesque figures may be burned in, while chambers cham-bers or dining rooms, in fact, any room may be made individual by appropriately ! lacerating with one's favorite motto, egend or quotation, on panels, spaces above the windows, above a bookcase or door, wherever there is room for the lettering. let-tering. This form of decoration is far simpler than the pictures, and the novice will do well to attempt this first. A variety 'is obtained by the shading and size and kind of lettering. The portfolio for stationery is made of tiff brown leather and tied with thongs cf .lighter leather; the leaves of blotting paper are also tied in with thongs of the LEATHER BLOTTING PAD WITH BURNED IN DESIGN. nine. The design and quotation, "A letter may alter the plans we arranged overnight for the slaughter of time," are burned in aftor the directions given. The blotter which goes with it is done in . the same way. The leather is not susceptible sus-ceptible to the same amount of work as the wood, and it would be well to experiment ex-periment a little before beginning a large piece. In decorating a room which requires a quantity of bordering or a repetition of geometrical or other designs the work may be greatly facilitated by the use of stencil plates cut in zinc; these should ho nailed to the wood and the hot poker run over the openings. Great care must be exercised to keep the poker within the lines, so as not to melt the zinc. - A round piece, piano Btool or top of a table might be pokered with a zigzag border round the edge, burning the ground dark from the outside to the zigzags zig-zags and filling the center with some radiating pattern. t A strip bearing an invocation to sleep might be pokered and hung above one's bed. Indeed the worker who attains any profloiency whatever in the art will find an endless variety of uses to which it may be dedicated. 4 Laura B. Starr, |
