and patience to continue, till the leaf was completed and 
ready to anneal. 
Two wicks in two cups of parafine were started in front 
of him, and the flames driven at each other horizontally, 
his face, nose and mouth, protected by a piece of asbestos. 
He took the glass stem in his left hand and inserted 
the leaf between the flames, where they just met. The 
tip first, moving it constantly after it had become red 
hot, till the whole leaf was finished. He keeps his right 
hand free to manipulate the apparatus or the handle, or 
guide the leaf if necessary, as he turns and twists it in 
the flame. Not infrequently, the annealing starts a flaw 
in the glass, and the leaf breaks so that a great many are 
necessary to complete a branch. He says that there is 
far more nervous strain, and it is far slower and more 
difficult to make a leaf than to make flowers. Annealing 
the powdered glass, instead of simply painting it, makes 
the process slower and more dangerous, but the final re- 
sult is much more permanent; in fact, the color cannot 
change, and nothing but violence can destroy the model. 
He can scratch and scrape a leaf with his penknife and 
it leaves not a mark. 
There is additional labor which I did not see. Anneal- 
ing leaves the glass glittering and shining, and that 
appearance he destroys by the application of a certain 
varnish; and he applies this to the flowers also after 
stamens and pistils are set. 
I think he said that he no longer paints at all except 
with the powdered colored glass which he can anneal. 
Another complication is that only a certain kind of glass 
can be used for the foundation glass, as the others spring 
and destroy the coat of anneal. All this is new since I was 
here nearly twenty years ago. He told me then that he 
had not at all come to the end of the possibilities of glass 
work, and these latest models show it to have been true. 
[ 135 ] 
