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Sbftembbr 15, 1904. 



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The Weekly Florists' Review* 



799 



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BEGINNINGS 



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IN DESIGN... 



DECORATIVE SCHEMES. 



Mirror Decorations. 



Important among floral designs, ac- 

 cording to a definition given in a recent 

 article, are the single features of a room 

 decoration. Each one, or the whole and 

 its parts, should be as truly a design as 

 a pillow or a harp, although there should 

 be some diflference as to the positive 

 nature of the design. 



First, having selected the architectural 

 f jeature which you wish ' to embellish, 

 make up your mind how you want it to 

 look when finished; second, determine 

 how to accomplish it. In other words, 

 get the design first and then consider 

 the mechanical execution. If the design 

 satisfies you, even if the execution seems 

 difficult, invent a way to sustain or hold 

 the design as you see it first in your 

 mind's eye. 



After all that is said these days as 

 to looseness and naturalness of arrange- 

 ment, there must be a certain amount 

 of symmetry and unity in every correct 

 decoration. While the outlines of no 

 two petals on the same flower, or on dif- 

 ferent flowers of the same variety, or 

 the leaflets on the same leaf, or two 

 leaves on the same plant will exactly 

 coincide if one is placed over the other, 

 there is the same general formation ob- 

 served in both, and a uniformity in gen- 

 eral but never in detail. It should be 

 just 80 in regard to the units or orna- 

 ment which we manufacture. Make each 

 one a symmetrical unit, but not slavishly 

 so in every detail. I do not know of a 

 better synonym for symmetry in this 

 connection than the term "balance." 

 Let every product have a certain regular 

 appearance to its outline. It is almost 

 permissible to carry this a little farther 

 into the mathematical realm, and say 

 let the outline of a single decorative 

 scheme take the form of a geometrical 

 figure. 



In a good window or mirror decora- 

 tion the approximately regular appear- 

 . ance can be traced easily. In order to 

 illustrate this plainly, take the ordinary 

 form of decoration for a tall, narrow 

 mirror. It has a large, triangular ar- 

 rangement of plants or cut flowers at 

 the base, and a balancing upper triangle 

 formed of light material, like smUax or 

 Asparagus Sprengeri. These two trian- 

 gles have a position natural to them- 

 selves. If the lower scheme were re- 

 versed and that part of the decoration 

 placed on the same side of the mirror 

 as the ujijjor part, the effect would bo 

 gapinjj and siwkward. 



The san;e principle of design form 

 may be easily traced in the illustration, 

 the same triangle scheme. As can be 

 readily seen, this also is a mirror dec- 

 oration. 



There should always be some sort of 

 connection between the lines of a deco- 

 rative scheme, either accomplished or 

 suggested. In this illustration the sprays 



of smilax from the top appear to be 

 stretching toward the lily stalks. In 

 a few cases they have reached them, 

 but oftener they have failed, and still 

 a larger number have become entangled 

 with each other and their tips have been 

 turned to one side or the other, and on 

 the left side of the mirror frame they 

 are caught in a garland which falls to 

 the base on the left and is thickened 

 by the addition of heavier strings and 

 festooned along the whole front of the 

 mantel shelf and the grate. The dra- 

 pery scheme almost "encircles the lily 

 banking. At the point where the dra- 

 pery seems to weaken, we have made 

 the strongest point and heaviest part of 

 the lily grouping, thus preserving the 

 balance. Avoiding any abrupt corners, 

 extending several feet from the upper 



en strings were tied together at the 

 heavy end. Enough of the tie wire was 

 left to wrap around a double-pointed 

 tack which was thus made to serve the 

 purpose of half a dozen tacks and also 

 to serve a good principle in art, namely, 

 to start as many lines from a common 

 source as possible. 



For the banking of the mantel with 

 lilies, we used a galvanized pan six 

 inches deep and long enough to about 

 cover the average mantel. It is water- 

 tight, painted a dark olive-green on the 

 outside, and filled solidly with sphagnum. 

 The sphagnum was also filled in in places 

 three or four inches above the top of the 

 pan. This filling in irregularly was no 

 accident. It is not desirable to have a 

 bank so that flowers will form a straight 

 line across the mantel. If the flowers 

 happen to be all of about the same 

 length stem, make hills and hollows in 

 your sphagnum filling and thus break the 

 outline of the flower groups. Lay wood 

 ferns over the top of the sphagnum and 

 along the outside edges of the pan, al- 

 lowing them to droop outward suflBciently 

 to hide the pan. It is not often neces- 

 sary to wrap the sphagnum in a mantel 

 pan. If, however, the moss is banked up 

 high enough to need it, wrap over the 

 moss and around the pan with hemp 



A Mirror Decoration of Lilies and Smilax. 



left point of the mirror frame, there was 

 a tapering garland of smilax following 

 the molding and straggling over a pii-- 

 ture frame. 



This illustration was a part of a De- 

 cember wedding decoration, made as fol- 

 lows: The upper part was of separated 

 smilax fastened in clusters on the back 

 part of the top only. From six to a doz- 



twine, much as is done with wire frames. 

 If an extra long mantel is to be deco- 

 rated, and you desire to use your average 

 nze pan, piece out at each end with a 

 fern plant or a flat basket filled with 

 fern leaves stemmed and -set in sphag- 

 num. If the mantel is too deep, pull the 

 pan to the front and spread out foliage 

 from the pan backwards. Fifty lilies 



